Overview

By the end of this act you can: make parts of the agent’s behaviour non-negotiable, and scope what it’s allowed to touch. So a powerful, probabilistic tool stays one you can trust.

Act 1 gave the agent the right knowledge. This act answers the other half. What is the agent allowed to do? You wrap deterministic guardrails around its probabilistic output.

• Hooks fire automatically at points in the agent’s lifecycle. They’re the one place the agent doesn’t get an opinion. (hands-on)
• Custom agents and MCP scope which tools and files an agent can reach (least privilege), and wire in fresh external knowledge. (demo, via the “adding CDK the right way” vignette)

Control is what makes the partnership safe

The theme

The fear with agents is “it’ll go off and do the wrong thing.” Guardrails are the answer: when you can set hard boundaries it can’t cross, the agent becomes a partner you trust rather than one you babysit. That’s control, not fear.

Convention used throughout

Instructor demo blocks are things you watch the facilitator drive. Your turn blocks are hands-on. A Checkpoint at the end of each lesson is where the whole room re-syncs.