Act, Then Loop Back Around
A free lesson from Swipe AI · AI Agents & Automation, level 2 · updated October 2026
By the Swipe team, founded by Colin · how we make lessons
"Act" is the last of the three steps: actually carrying out the action that was just chosen, often through a tool call, rather than just describing what it would do. Deciding to check a calendar and actually checking it are two different things — act is where the second one happens.
After acting, the agent doesn't stop. It goes back to perceive — but now the state has changed, because the action it just took produced a new result. That new result is the next thing to perceive, which is exactly what closes the loop: perceive, decide, act, then perceive again.
1. Perceive: check the current state or last result 2. Decide: choose the next action based on the goal and that state 3. Act: actually carry out the chosen action 4. Back to step 1, with a new state to perceive
What happens immediately after the "act" step in the agent loop?
After acting, an agent loops back to perceive, decide, act, then ____ again.
The "act" step means actually carrying out the chosen action, not just describing what the agent would do.
The Three-Step Cycle
10 questions · pass with 60% — just like in the app.
What are the three steps of the agent loop, in order?
Perceiving only happens once, at the very start of an agent's run.
An agent perceives the current state every time it comes back around the ____.
What does the "decide" step depend on?
A fixed automation script runs the same steps regardless of what happens along the way.
An agent's decisions ____ based on what it perceives, unlike a fixed script.
What does the "act" step actually involve?
After acting, an agent loops back to perceive a new state produced by the action it just took.
The loop closes when, after acting, the agent goes back to ____ again.
Why does perceiving happen on every cycle instead of just once?
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