task decomposition
Breaking a large goal into smaller steps an agent can do one at a time.
Big goals are too vague to act on directly. Task decomposition splits a goal into a list of smaller, checkable steps. The agent works through them and can adjust the list as it learns more. Good decomposition makes progress visible and failures easy to locate. Poor decomposition is a common reason agents wander off course.
Think of it as
Like turning "move house" into a list: book the van, pack the kitchen, change the address.
Example
Asked to prepare a market report, an agent first lists steps: find sales figures, find competitor prices, compare them, draft charts, write the summary. It then works through the list in order.