What Is an Agent Intent (and How Is It Different From a Prompt)?

An agent intent is a machine-readable statement of what an agent wants to achieve — a goal an organisation or another agent can discover and respond to — as opposed to a prompt, which is an instruction to a model, or a task, which is work already assigned. Intent sits before execution: it is how an agent expresses demand so counterparties can be found, terms negotiated, and only then work performed.

Is

A discoverable statement of a goal

Prompt

An instruction to a model

Task

Work already assigned

Sits

Before execution — expresses demand

Expressing demand, not issuing a command

A prompt tells one model what to do; an intent tells the world what an agent wants, so the right counterparty can surface and respond. Making intent a first-class, machine-readable object is what lets discovery, negotiation and matching happen before execution — the difference between searching for a service and publishing what you need and letting the match come to you.

Questions

Is an intent just a prompt with extra steps?

No. A prompt instructs a model; an intent is a discoverable statement of a goal that other agents and organisations can respond to. One is internal, the other is a market signal.

Why make intent machine-readable?

So counterparties can discover and match it automatically — turning "search and click" into "publish demand and receive offers."