Comparison
Declarative configurationvsOrchestration
Declarative configuration
you write down what should exist, submit it, and something else works out the steps — including that most of them are already done.
Describing the end state you want rather than the actions to reach it, and letting a controller compute the difference. Its defining property is that applying the same description twice is a no-op, which is what makes automation safe to re-run and re-run by default. The cost is a loss of directness: you cannot straightforwardly express 'do this once', and you have to learn to debug a system that is arguing with you rather than one that failed a step.
Full entry →Orchestration
the sequencing, tool execution, retries, budgets and human checkpoints around the model calls are a few hundred lines of ordinary code you own.
The application code coordinating everything around model calls: sequencing, tool execution, state, retries, budgets and human checkpoints. Frameworks sell orchestration; a few hundred lines of your own code usually does it more transparently.
Full entry →