← Field Guide · Tier 2 · Hyperscaler & Vendor References (Cross-Validation)
IBM & Others
IBM watsonx · various vendors
In Plain English
This page shows every pattern that IBM & Others has published or written about: 2 in total. Each one includes a simple picture of how it works, a short explanation, an example of when to use it, and its trade-offs (the good parts and the not-so-good parts).
Reading patterns from one source at a time matters because it lets you see how a single company or team thinks about building AI agents, and compare their ideas side by side. If a pattern here also appears in the bigger Deep Catalogue, you will see a link so you can read the full, detailed version.
2E.01IBM LATS Agent
IBM reference implementation of Language Agent Tree Search for planning.
Use caseComplex planning tasks where branching exploration pays off.
Trade-offsHigher quality on hard problems · Expensive.
See 1D.08
2E.02IBM Plan-and-Execute Agent
IBM reference for ReWOO-style planning agent with LangGraph.
Use caseProduction Plan-and-Execute deployments.
Trade-offsStable pattern · Requires good planner prompting.
See 1C.03, 1D.06
Also in Tier 2
