AI systems

This page defines system archetypes built on top of the infrastructure layer: retrieval systems, workflow agents, and decision-support surfaces. Cursor agents should treat these as templates when proposing new AI-powered capabilities.

Retrieval systems

Retrieval systems connect enterprise knowledge sources to deterministic model behavior. They are defined by their indexing strategy, retrieval logic, and evaluation harness.

  • Ingestion: controlled connectors and chunking strategies for documents, tickets, and logs.
  • Indexing: embedding, sparse, or hybrid indexing with versioned configurations.
  • Retrieval: ranking logic, filters, and safety constraints applied before model invocation.

Retrieval constraints

  • All retrieval behavior must be observable and reproducible based on logged configuration and queries.
  • Changes to indexing or retrieval parameters are tracked and can be linked to evaluation results.
  • Prompt construction uses retrieved context in a controlled, auditable way.

Workflow agents

Workflow agents are deterministic orchestrations of tools, retrieval steps, and model calls. They operate within clear boundaries rather than acting as unconstrained general agents.

  • Tooling: explicit tool interfaces with arguments, preconditions, and failure handling.
  • State: scoped state machines or workflows rather than unbounded conversation logs.
  • Controls: policy-enforced actions, human-in-the-loop steps, and reversible operations.

Agent guarantees

  • Each workflow agent has a defined domain, inputs, and outputs.
  • All tool calls and decisions are logged and can be replayed for audit.
  • Policy engines can intercept or veto actions that violate compliance constraints.

Decision-support surfaces

Decision-support systems present model outputs as structured recommendations, not opaque answers. They are designed to preserve traceability from input to decision.

  • Inputs: clearly defined signals and context sources.
  • Outputs: recommendations with confidence, justification, and supporting evidence links.
  • Feedback: structured feedback mechanisms that feed into evaluation and retraining loops.