Comparison
ReAct vs Reflexion
ReAct and Reflexion are both common AI/LLM terms but cover different ideas. Here is a quick side-by-side.
When you would reach for ReAct
ReAct comes up when the question is fundamentally about agents & tools.
A search-augmented assistant: Thought, Search, Observation, Thought, Answer.
When you would reach for Reflexion
Multi-attempt agents on verifiable tasks (code, math, structured outputs). Less useful for one-shot tasks.
A coding agent that gets a test failure, generates a reflection ("the function signature expects a list, I passed a string"), and retries with the corrected understanding.
Frequently asked
What is the difference between ReAct and Reflexion?
ReAct: ReAct is a prompting pattern that interleaves reasoning ("Thought:") with actions ("Action:") and observations ("Observation:"). It is the foundation of most tool-using agents. Reflexion: Reflexion is a pattern where an agent runs, observes failures, generates a short natural-language "reflection" on what went wrong, and retries with that reflection appended to its prompt — improving via self-critique without weight updates.
When should I use ReAct vs Reflexion?
ReAct is the right concept when you are focused on agents & tools. Multi-attempt agents on verifiable tasks (code, math, structured outputs). Less useful for one-shot tasks.
Are ReAct and Reflexion the same thing?
No. ReAct is agents & tools; Reflexion is agents & tools. They are related but address different parts of the AI stack.