[NEW CONTENT] Document what an agent is

[zastrowm]

Proposed Content

Describe the parts of an agent and what an agent is conceptually in strands.

Location

User Guide

Rationale

We've seen some confusion about:

• What an agent actually represents
• What are the parts of an agent

Specifically folks have been confused about creating an agent per-user or sharing an agent between users or even sharing agents between conversations (which is an anti-pattern)

Content Outline (Optional)

We should also talk about the 4 parts of an agent as we see it (Model, System Prompt, Tools, Context)

References

No response

[vinod151019]

Hi @zastrowm . I've submitted PR #716 to address this issue.

The PR adds a new "What is an Agent?" page (src/content/docs/user-guide/concepts/agents/what-is-an-agent.mdx) as the first page under Concepts → Agents. It covers:

• What an agent represents in Strands
• The four parts (Model, System Prompt, Tools, Context) with a diagram and Python/TypeScript examples
• Agent lifecycle and scope — one agent per conversation
• Common anti-patterns (shared singletons, reusing agents across users/conversations)
• Links to existing deep-dive pages (Agent Loop, Prompts, Tools, State, Session Management)

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