Skip to main content

COMPEL Glossary / plan-and-execute

Plan-and-Execute

A loop pattern where a planner step produces a multi-step plan, then an executor step carries each step out — with optional replanning after observations.

What this means in practice

Distinct from ReAct because planning is separated from action; useful for long-horizon tasks where global coherence matters more than per-step responsiveness.

Synonyms

planner-executor pattern , hierarchical agent pattern

See also

  • ReAct — An agentic prompt pattern interleaving reasoning steps (Thought) and action steps (Act — typically a tool call) over multiple turns, with observations from each action feeding the next reasoning step.
  • Agent loop — The iterative pattern in which a model plans, calls tools, observes the results, and replans — continuing until a goal is met, an iteration budget is exhausted, or a human intervenes.
  • State graph — An agent execution modeled as a directed graph of states and transitions — each node is a reasoning or tool-call step, each edge is a conditional transition.

Related articles in the Body of Knowledge