AI engineering glossary · Agents tools MCP
What is shared state?
Shared state (also called Agent state): A common data object that all steps or agents in a workflow read and update, holding items such as messages, intermediate results and flags. It makes progress explicit and lets a run be saved and resumed.
Shared state: an example
A graph's state has fields query, documents and draft; each node updates the fields it is responsible for.
Related terms
- State graph
- Checkpointing
- Agent communication
- Agent memory
More Agents tools MCP terms
- Short-term memory
- Side effect
- Skill library
- State graph
- stdio transport
- Stop condition
- Streamable HTTP
- Subagent
Where you learn it
Shared state is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.