# A field guide to _working with agents._ Pick the right tool. Give it a clear job. Know when the work is done. Ten illustrated guides for the wonderfully practical business of getting useful work out of AI. Read a little. Try something. Take it into your next task. [Start with your first agent](https://www.agentlist.io/learn/guides/choose-your-first-agent) [Explore the fieldbook](#chapters) A little orientation goes a long way. Read. Experiment. Put it to work. Every chapter includes a worked example, an interactive exercise, and a checklist. Start at the beginning or jump to the problem in front of you. ## Take the fieldbook into your next task. Ten practical chapters, fillable worksheets, and offline exercises. Choose an agent, give it a clear job, and evaluate the result. [Get the free ebook](https://www.agentlist.io/ebook?from=guides) ## Find your next chapter Begin anywhere. Make it your own. Search guides 10 guides found [01 Start here12 min read ### Choose your first AI agent Start with a job you can judge. Find the right kind of agent, run a small trial, and choose with evidence you can actually use. Find the agent for your next task](https://www.agentlist.io/learn/guides/choose-your-first-agent) [02 Start here13 min read ### Write a brief an agent can finish Give an agent a destination, useful context, and a visible finish line. Build a brief that survives the first unexpected detail. Build your next task brief](https://www.agentlist.io/learn/guides/write-a-task-brief) [03 Start here14 min read ### Give an agent the right permissions Translate a task into specific access. Let useful work proceed while keeping consequential actions visible and reviewable. Design a permission boundary](https://www.agentlist.io/learn/guides/set-agent-permissions) [04 Do the work15 min read ### Ship a small change with a coding agent Take one real issue from reproduction to a reviewed change. Preserve the project, test the behavior, and distinguish a passing build from a shipped result. Would you ship this change?](https://www.agentlist.io/learn/guides/ship-with-a-coding-agent) [05 Do the work14 min read ### Research with an agent and keep the receipts Turn a broad question into a source-backed decision. Trace claims, resolve disagreements, and make uncertainty useful. Practice source triage](https://www.agentlist.io/learn/guides/research-with-an-agent) [06 Do the work14 min read ### Put a browser agent to work, one checkpoint at a time Turn a fragile sequence of clicks into a task you can supervise, recover, and verify. Start with a comparison job, then learn where to place checkpoints before actions change the outside world. Where would you put the checkpoint?](https://www.agentlist.io/learn/guides/browser-agent-workflows) [07 Do the work14 min read ### Connect the right tools without creating a mystery machine Give an agent a small, inspectable path from source to result. Understand what a connection exposes, test each handoff, and make failures recoverable before you depend on the full workflow. Inspect the tool pipeline](https://www.agentlist.io/learn/guides/connect-agent-tools) [08 Build a habit13 min read ### Give your agent a useful memory, not a junk drawer Keep the context that improves the next task. Separate durable preferences from current state, save decisions with evidence, and make old notes easy to correct or retire. Sort the memory drawer](https://www.agentlist.io/learn/guides/give-agents-useful-memory) [09 Build a habit15 min read ### Find out whether an agent actually helps Build a small, honest evaluation from your own work. Score observable outcomes, include your review time, and diagnose failures before changing the prompt or buying a different tool. Calculate the value of a completed task](https://www.agentlist.io/learn/guides/evaluate-an-agent) [10 Build a habit15 min read ### Turn one good result into a workflow you can trust Capture the parts that worked, define the handoffs, and test recovery before adding a schedule. Build a small operating system for one recurring job, with an owner and a clear finish. Build your repeatable workflow](https://www.agentlist.io/learn/guides/build-a-repeatable-workflow) ## Need a smaller starting point? Explore the autonomy dial, follow an MCP call, or see how different agents approach the same task. [Visit the interactive explainers](https://www.agentlist.io/learn) --- Source: [Practical AI agent guides: the illustrated fieldbook | agentlist.io](https://www.agentlist.io/learn/guides). This is the public page rendered as Markdown; interactive controls require the website.