Agent Experience as design discipline
Netlify's Billman introduces Agent Experience (AX) as a four-pillar framework for platforms built around AI agents Devworld ConferenceTL;DW
- Agent experience (AX) is the holistic experience AI agents have using a product, analogous to how UX and DX shaped platforms—critical for any company whose product agents will use.
- Four pillars of AX: access (frictionless agent onboarding), context (markdown docs, MCP servers as UI for agents), tools (intentional agent-friendly APIs, not just raw endpoints), and orchestration (agents using your product and your product triggering agents).
- Think of context as the UI for agents—design documentation, skills, and MCP servers to surface only the relevant information agents need, not every API endpoint.
- Remove interactive prompts from CLIs and docs; give agents explicit non-interactive commands they can call directly without workarounds or trial-and-error.
- Open agent ecosystems beat closed ones—orchestrate third-party agents (Claude Code, Codex CLI) inside your product rather than forcing users to use proprietary agents.
- Netlify's internal teams (HR, support) built production software with minimal developers using agent assistance, shifting the build-vs-buy equation fundamentally.
- Agents will use your product whether you optimize for them or not—via computer use, browser automation, or other workarounds—so intentional AX beats accidental friction.
- Content negotiation pattern: serve markdown directly to agents (via Accept headers) while humans get formatted websites, reducing context pollution and improving agent comprehension.
- MCP and skills are UIs for agents, not API wrappers—expose five curated, composable tools instead of wrapping all 100+ API endpoints to keep agent context clean.
- Every person building software with agents is now a developer; teams shift from stakeholders-only to domain experts collaborating with technical builders, reshaping how software gets built.
TL;DW
- Agent experience (AX) is the holistic experience AI agents have using a product, analogous to how UX and DX shaped platforms—critical for any company whose product agents will use.
- Four pillars of AX: access (frictionless agent onboarding), context (markdown docs, MCP servers as UI for agents), tools (intentional agent-friendly APIs, not just raw endpoints), and orchestration (agents using your product and your product triggering agents).
- Think of context as the UI for agents—design documentation, skills, and MCP servers to surface only the relevant information agents need, not every API endpoint.
- Remove interactive prompts from CLIs and docs; give agents explicit non-interactive commands they can call directly without workarounds or trial-and-error.
- Open agent ecosystems beat closed ones—orchestrate third-party agents (Claude Code, Codex CLI) inside your product rather than forcing users to use proprietary agents.
- Netlify's internal teams (HR, support) built production software with minimal developers using agent assistance, shifting the build-vs-buy equation fundamentally.
- Agents will use your product whether you optimize for them or not—via computer use, browser automation, or other workarounds—so intentional AX beats accidental friction.
- Content negotiation pattern: serve markdown directly to agents (via Accept headers) while humans get formatted websites, reducing context pollution and improving agent comprehension.
- MCP and skills are UIs for agents, not API wrappers—expose five curated, composable tools instead of wrapping all 100+ API endpoints to keep agent context clean.
- Every person building software with agents is now a developer; teams shift from stakeholders-only to domain experts collaborating with technical builders, reshaping how software gets built.
Billman's framework covers access (removing agent-hostile friction like interactive CLI prompts), context (docs and protocols as agent UI), tools (intentional abstractions over raw APIs), and orchestration (letting Claude, Codex, and Gemini operate inside Netlify without forcing Netlify-specific agents on users).