# The 2026 AI Agent Stack, Drawn from Scratch

DevFeed: [The 2026 AI Agent Stack, Drawn from Scratch](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-2026-ai-agent-stack-drawn-from-scratch-28990.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://codingwithroby.substack.com/p/the-2026-ai-agent-stack-drawn-from>)

Author: Eric Roby

Published: 2026-06-30T12:03:15Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Eric Roby](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/eric-roby.md>)

Topics: [AI Agent](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-agent.md>), [Back end](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/backend.md>), [Orchestration](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/orchestration.md>), [context](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/context.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>)

Tags: [agents](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agents.md>), [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [ai-agent](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai-agent.md>), [backend](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/backend.md>), [code](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/code.md>), [context](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/context.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data.md>), [orchestration](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/orchestration.md>)

## AI overview

This article examines how AI agent architectures grow from simple model-and-tool systems into complex stacks with orchestration, state, retries, memory, vector databases, and observability. It argues that teams should add layers only when a specific problem requires them.

## Source excerpt

Six layers, two rails, and one rule: add a layer only when something specific breaks.