Rubric Labs outlines architecture for always-on AI agents

The author argues that shifting AI agents from short-lived, reactive chatbots to proactive, single-threaded, and situationally aware "always-on" systems requires a re-architecture of agent systems. To achieve this, developers must implement token-management tools like context folding, sub-agent task dispatch, time-based heartbeats for autonomy, and notification inboxes filtered by smaller models to handle noise. Open article →