The Future Is Domain-Specific Agents - Justin Schroeder, StandardAgents

TL;DR

• 1

  Agents are deterministic software harnessing non-deterministic models: Schroeder defines agents as the machine layer that uses intelligence, not the intelligence itself, and notes the industry still hasn't agreed on a basic definition.

• 2

  Inheritance (adding context) is hitting a wall: Current approaches like MCP and skills work by inflating context, but this breaks down at scale, with diminishing returns as you add more tools and documentation.

• 3

  Domain-specific agents can be 137x cheaper: By using small, specialized agents with minimal context, you can use models like DeepSeek V4 Flash instead of Fable 5, achieving dramatic cost reductions without sacrificing task performance.

• 4

  Token costs are rising in 2026, not falling: Schroeder reports tokens are up 76% this year raw, and 29% even when adjusted for IQ, reversing the trend of cheaper intelligence.

• 5

  Composition over inheritance is the architectural shift: Instead of one giant agent with everything, the future is coordinator agents orchestrating specialized sub-agents, each with its own context, tools, and rules.