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Agentic Workflows — Optional Exercises

Exercise 1: Add a review branch

Ask Bob to inspect the existing mappings and extend the loan workflow so applications in a defined risk band return manual_review rather than approval or denial.

Requirements:

  • document the exact condition
  • map every required input explicitly
  • preserve the existing approval and denial paths
  • return a reason with every result

Review Bob's proposed mapping, then let it update, validate, re-import, and suggest tests for all three outcomes.

Exercise 2: Handle one tool failure

Ask Bob to choose one MCP call and propose bounded error handling:

  • detect the failure
  • retry at most once when appropriate
  • return a clear failure result if the retry fails
  • do not silently approve or deny an incomplete application

After reviewing the proposal, let Bob implement it, run local checks, re-import affected artifacts, and test both the success and failure paths.

Exercise 3: Decide whether a workflow is appropriate

Ask Bob to recommend an agent, workflow, or agent calling a workflow for each use case:

  1. fixed expense-policy checks
  2. open-ended travel planning
  3. account onboarding with mandatory ordered steps
  4. technical support diagnosis

Justify each decision using routing flexibility, auditability, failure handling, and required model reasoning.

Return to the Agentic Workflows module.