Developing a "blocking agent"—more commonly known as a or middleware agent —is the process of building a specialized AI component designed to monitor, filter, and intervene in the interactions of a primary AI agent. Its core purpose is to prevent "hallucinations," enforce safety policies, and block unauthorized actions (like leaking credentials) before they reach the user or the external environment. Core Architecture for a Blocking Agent
: The blocking agent needs access to the current "state" (conversation history) to identify context-specific risks that might not be apparent in a single message. blocking agent
: Use a "before_agent" method to intercept user requests or an "after_agent" method to scan model responses before they are delivered. Developing a "blocking agent"—more commonly known as a
: A blocking agent must return deterministic results (e.g., "Pass" or "Fail"). For example, a "ContentFilterMiddleware" might check for banned keywords and return a jump_to: "end" signal to skip further processing if a violation occurs. : Use a "before_agent" method to intercept user
: Explicitly list what the agent is not allowed to do. This might include blocking the output of API keys, preventing the execution of destructive commands (like rm -rf ), or filtering toxic language.
To develop a detailed piece, you must integrate several foundational building blocks: