{"path":"/topics/software-and-agents","content":{"title":"Software & Agents","summary":"How AI agents change software interfaces, composition, discovery and the way software is built.","body":"[All topics](/guide)\n\nAgents are beginning to operate software on behalf of people, changing both the experience of using products and the kinds of products worth building. This topic collects essays on those changes, and the focused concepts behind them.\n\n## Collections\n\n### [Agents & Applications](/beyond-the-application)\n\nA collection exploring agents as the user's representatives, and how software could move from fixed applications towards capabilities discovered, assembled and sometimes created on demand.\n\n- [Nobody wants your in-app crapbot](/beyond-the-application/your-app-knows-itself-my-agent-knows-me) — Why software vendors should make capabilities available to the user's own agent.\n- [Three Modes of Application Interaction](/beyond-the-application/three-models-of-software) — Human-direct, agent-mediated and hybrid ways of using applications.\n- [The Disappearing Interface](/beyond-the-application/the-disappearing-interface) — Simplifying human interaction by moving the long tail to agents.\n- [Applying Intelligence Late](/beyond-the-application/applying-intelligence-late) — Delaying selection and integration decisions until the user's needs are known.\n- [The Disaggregation of Software](/beyond-the-application/the-disaggregation-of-software) — Why products may become smaller, more fluid combinations of capabilities.\n\nThe collection's essays lead to more focused articles, including [dynamically generated interfaces](/beyond-the-application/the-disappearing-interface/dynamically-generated-interfaces), [software slivers](/beyond-the-application/the-disaggregation-of-software/software-slivers) and [de novo capability construction](/beyond-the-application/the-disaggregation-of-software/de-novo-capability-construction).\n\n### [sUTL](/sutl)\n\nA pure programming language for structured values. Programs can travel as ordinary data between hosts, while the host controls effects and execution budgets.\n\n- [Why sUTL?](/sutl/why-sutl) — the motivation and architecture.\n- [Guide](/sutl/guide) and [worked examples](/sutl/examples) — learn the language.\n- [Reference](/sutl/reference) and [core library](/sutl/core-library) — use the current contract.\n- [History and future directions](/sutl/history) — bOTL, Lisp, active data and proposed compilation work.\n- [sUTL in Everything](/sutl/everything) — bounded programmable templates in practice.\n\nAs this subject grows, collections and subtopics can be placed here without changing the organisation of existing articles. Articles can also link across branches of the hierarchy.\n\n[Latest articles](/latest) · [Back to all topics](/guide)"}}