A design that wraps an AI model with steps, tools, and rules.
Model scaffolding is the clipboard for a school field trip. The AI still walks, but the teacher whistle keeps it on track.
It breaks a big task into steady steps. You meet it in Agents. You also meet it in coding helpers and support bots.
Agent harness
An Agent harness schedules the scaffold’s steps.
Agent
An Agent uses scaffolding to split tasks and act step by step.
Function-calling
Function-calling lets scaffolded steps do real work.
Structured output
Structured output makes each step easier to check and pass on.