LOCKEDIN / FORWARD-DEPLOYED ENGINEERING 101
Understand it.
Then build it.
You can be an experienced engineer and still be new to agents. Start with what each thing is and how it helps a person do useful work. Explore 48 original introductions across software, agents, cloud, security and delivery. Start here without a model key; each topic connects to deeper instruction and practice.
- 101UnderstandPlain language, visual walkthrough, vocabulary
- 102Build with guidanceOriginal lessons, examples and knowledge checks
- 103Practise and explainRunnable labs, failure cases and handover
- 01Fix the boundaries
- 02Allow a bounded choice
- 03Rejoin the process
Control flow with model decisions
What is an agentic workflow?
A workflow is a defined arrangement of steps and decisions. An agentic workflow includes a model choosing some actions or paths, within application limits. A fixed workflow may use a model for one step without letting the model control the whole sequence.
An FDE must explain where the system can vary its behavior and where it must follow a rule.
CONNECT IT TO WHAT YOU KNOW
Start with something familiar.
A build pipeline follows an authored sequence. An incident investigator chooses the next diagnostic step from observations. Your system can combine those patterns without making every step autonomous.
Choose dynamic model decisions only where they add value. Known sequences can remain ordinary code; LangGraph is one way to make stateful coordination explicit.
Words worth knowing
- Control flow
- The rules governing which step happens next.
- Branch
- A choice between possible next steps.
- Stop condition
- A rule that ends work even when the goal is unfinished.
ONE EXAMPLE / FICTIONAL CASE
Watch the work take shape.
Always look up the machine and require human approval, but allow the assistant to choose which approved diagnostic document to inspect next.
- 01Fix the boundaries
- 02Allow a bounded choice
- 03Rejoin the process
Fix the boundaries
Name mandatory steps, forbidden operations and the stopping condition.
An authored workflow envelopeFROM RECOGNITION TO REASONING
Redraw one familiar pipeline with just one model decision.
- 01
Mark fixed steps in one style and model choices in another.
- 02
Set a maximum number of diagnostic calls.
- 03
Include an insufficient-evidence route that does not dispatch anything.
A flowchart with one explicit source of dynamic behavior.
Compare your reasoning when you are ready
A bounded model choice can improve investigation while validation, permission and human approval stay deterministic. More agents are not automatically a better workflow.
Keep notes in your own working copy. Moving through these cards does not record completion.
TURN THE IDEA INTO USEFUL WORK
You can now go deeper.
Choose dynamic model decisions only where they add value. Known sequences can remain ordinary code; LangGraph is one way to make stateful coordination explicit.
Academy lessons use your existing training access. Free guides stay open.