Explain the ReAct agent pattern and how it compares to Plan-and-Execute and Reflexion.
ReAct interleaves reasoning traces with actions step by step, deciding the next tool call based on the latest observation. Plan-and-Execute first drafts a full multi-step plan and then executes it, which is more efficient and predictable for complex tasks but less adaptive, while Reflexion adds a self-reflection step where the agent critiques past failures and retries with that feedback.
How to think about it
ReAct interleaves reasoning traces with actions step by step, deciding the next tool call based on the latest observation. Plan-and-Execute first drafts a full multi-step plan and then executes it, which is more efficient and predictable for complex tasks but less adaptive, while Reflexion adds a self-reflection step where the agent critiques past failures and retries with that feedback.