Agent Behavior Development (ABD) is a software development paradigm that treats agent behavior as the primary engineering artifact.

In ABD:

• Code is not the first-class citizen.
• Prompts, guardrails, output formats, review rules, and recycle loops are.

This repository does not provide tools. It defines a development paradigm, not an SDK.

Agent Behavior Development (ABD) is a paradigm where humans design and evolve the behavior of agents, and code is a byproduct validated by evidence.

graph TB subgraph Planning A[Product Intent or Sprint Goal] B[Notlanot Sprint Plan with Personas] C[Task Packets] D[Conflict Inputs] E[Conflict Scoring and Replan] end subgraph PromptOps F[Prompt Library] G[Prompt Compiler] H[Guardrails] I[Output Format Contract] end subgraph Execution J[Agent Run] K[Structured Output] L[Evidence Production] end subgraph ReviewRecycle M[Scorecard] N[Tags and Anti Patterns] O[Prompt Patch Rules] P[Promote to Library] Q[Recycle Outputs] R[Changelog and Governance] end A --> B B --> C C --> D D --> E E --> G F --> G G --> H H --> I I --> J J --> K K --> L K --> M L --> M M --> N N --> O O --> J O --> P P --> F M --> Q Q --> R R --> B style F fill:#9C27B0,color:#fff style M fill:#FF9800,color:#fff style O fill:#F44336,color:#fff style L fill:#4CAF50,color:#fff style I fill:#1565C0,color:#fff 

Traditional development paradigms assume:

• Humans write specifications.
• Humans write tests.
• Humans write most of the code.
• Tools assist.

That assumption no longer holds.

Modern agents:

• Propose behaviors
• Generate test strategies
• Produce implementation drafts

Yet teams still:

• Debug code instead of behavior
• Retry prompts instead of fixing agent constraints
• Treat prompt failures as one-off accidents

ABD exists to systematize agent behavior improvement.

The defining shift of ABD is simple:

The primary refactoring target is agent behavior, not code.

In ABD, when output quality is poor:

1. Fix the prompt
2. Tighten guardrails
3. Lock output formats
4. Improve review rules
5. Strengthen recycle logic
   Only then adjust code.

ABD is:

• Agent-first, not agent-autonomous
• Behavior-driven, not prompt-driven
• Evidence-oriented, not test-obsessed
• Governance-heavy, not “just try again”

ABD introduces:

• Prompt-as-artifact discipline
• Behavior scorecards
• Mandatory recycle outputs
• Conflict-aware task planning
• Agent behavior retrospectives

ABD is NOT:

• AI-assisted TDD
• BDD automation
• “Let the agent do everything”
• Prompt engineering tips
• A replacement for Scrum

ABD complements Scrum by adding an agent behavior governance layer.

TDD and BDD are techniques in ABD, not paradigms.

1. Agent output must follow a fixed format.
2. Evidence must be proposed before implementation.
3. Assumptions must be explicit.
4. Agents may ask up to 3 questions and must stop.
5. Every task must produce recycle outputs.
6. Behavior changes must be versioned.

• MANIFESTO.md → Hard rules of the paradigm
• 0_introduction/ → What ABD is and is not
• 1_core/ → Principles and artifacts
• 2_process/ → Lifecycle, sprint and task models
• 3_promptops/ → Prompt operations and metrics
• 4_templates/ → Ready-to-use templates
• 5_examples/ → End-to-end worked examples

Day 1:

• Read MANIFESTO
• Use the core prompt template for one task
• Score the output

Day 2–3:

• Run 3 more tasks
• Tag recurring failures

Day 4:

• Patch the prompt
• Document behavior improvement

Day 5:

• Sprint review focused on agent behavior, not features