--- title: Agentic Tip #7: Know your levels | daily.dev description: A short opinion piece on the 5 levels of agentic engineering, arguing engineers should treat the levels as a toolkit rather than a ladder to climb. The author... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/agentic-tip-7-know-your-levels-na30zbasi twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Agentic Tip #7: Know your levels | daily.dev og:description: A short opinion piece on the 5 levels of agentic engineering, arguing engineers should treat the levels as a toolkit rather than a ladder to climb. The author... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/agentic-tip-7-know-your-levels-na30zbasi og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/na30ZBaSi.png og:image:alt: Agentic Tip #7: Know your levels og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Agentic Tip #7: Know your levels **[Agentic Engineering](https://daily.dev/sources/agentic)** · [@idoshamun](https://daily.dev/idoshamun) · 1 min read · 8 upvotes · 1 comments ## Summary A short opinion piece on the 5 levels of agentic engineering, arguing engineers should treat the levels as a toolkit rather than a ladder to climb. The author favors level 4 (manual QA, shipping without reading the code) but mostly works at level 3 (pair programming with a coding agent), emphasizing that knowing each level is possible is what unlocks agentic engineering. ## Content When the agentic engineering hype was just getting started, Dan Shapiro shared his take on the [5 levels](https://daily.dev/posts/lfikvnuvl) of agentic engineering. I loved it because it helps you imagine what's possible, even before the models were actually ready for it. I think some engineers looked at it the wrong way. They saw it as a ladder. I see the levels as tools instead. Engineers need different tools on their belt. Sometimes you go level 3, pair programming with your coding agent. Sometimes you go level 4, where you run manual QA and ship without ever reading the code. It all depends on the context. Just knowing it's possible is what unlocks agentic engineering for any engineer. Take a few minutes to read the post. My favorite level is 4, but I mostly work at 3. What's yours? --- In case you missed it, [tip #6 is here](https://daily.dev/posts/MvT00KJCL). ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@pdfopsdev** · 0 upvotes > The toolkit framing is right, but which level is safe to operate at isn't a preference — it's a function of your verification harness. Shipping without reading the code only works when something else reads it: a real end-to-end test that fails loudly on the paths that matter. Without that, level 4 isn't a level, it's just hope with extra steps. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The 8 Levels of Agentic Engineering — Bassim Eledath](https://daily.dev/posts/the-8-levels-of-agentic-engineering-bassim-eledath-vw2yrlim4) · Hacker News · 4 upvotes · 0 comments - [Agentic Autonomy Levels](https://daily.dev/posts/agentic-autonomy-levels-ytlglk7k5) · Elevate · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Agentic Engineering: A Practitioner's Playbook](https://daily.dev/posts/agentic-engineering-a-practitioner-s-playbook-9nmcufzid) · Domino Data Lab · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Agentic Engineering Is Just Good Engineering \(With a Better Driver\)](https://daily.dev/posts/agentic-engineering-is-just-good-engineering-with-a-better-driver--0tsahmoqq) · The Miners · 10 upvotes · 1 comments - [The New Software Lifecycle](https://daily.dev/posts/the-new-software-lifecycle-hwvvtnaz2) · Addy Osmani · 12 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#vibe-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/vibe-coding) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/agentic-tip-7-know-your-levels-na30zbasi) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/agentic-tip-7-know-your-levels-na30zbasi","headline":"Agentic Tip #7: Know your levels","text":"A short opinion piece on the 5 levels of agentic engineering, arguing engineers should treat the levels as a toolkit rather than a ladder to climb. 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