been playing around with a way to construct agents based on learning and dialog instead of iterating on system prompts

basically, in the core instructions you tell the agent what kind of format (json, yaml, whatever) its tool calls needs to be in, with some examples. but don't give any actual tools in the prompt, except one that allows it to create and update notes for itself

then in dialog tell the agent about each of the tools you want it to learn to use and have it try them out--same way as you'd mentor someone. remind it that it can keep notes for itself, and if the agent's model has a spark in it, it'll write its own documentation on how best to use the tools

probably not very efficient but, i don't know, i'm finding "prompt engineering" increasingly distasteful these days, though i haven't processed enough to pinpoint why yet. preliminarily it's something along the lines of: every new agent is essentially a fresh mind, and injecting information into it before it's had a chance to seek out/create it on its own feels overbearing