---
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title: 'What the Best Agents Share — Mardu Swanepoel, Flinn AI'
description: >-
  Harvey, Cursor, Manus, and Claude operate in completely different domains but
  share four patterns: focus modes that constrain the action space to improve
  output quality, transparent execution that surfaces tool calls and reasoning
  to build user trust, personalization that optimizes for speed to understanding
  rather than just speed to output, and reversibility that bounds the downside
  of mistakes so users take on higher value tasks. Mardu Swanepoel from Flinn AI
  breaks down how each company puts these into practice. Cursor lets you roll
  back changes at the line, file, or conversation level and run multiple model
  outputs in parallel from the same input. Harvey builds playbooks from a firm's
  legal methods so the agent works the way the firm would. Claude surfaces a
  live task list alongside every tool call's inputs and outputs so users can
  intervene before the agent goes further in the wrong direction. Speaker info:
  - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mardu-swanepoel-000/ --- Watch along with the
  corrected transcript, summary, timestamps and resources on this talk's
  official AIE page:
  https://ai.engineer/talks/7CrPrHgoEYk-what-the-best-agents-share Join our
  upcoming AI Engineer conferences (see https://ai.engineer landing page): -
  AIEi Shanghai, November 5–6 — the first for meeting top Chinese labs and
  engineers - AIE CODE in SF, November 10–12 — the top AI Coding conference
  returns - AIEi Sydney, December 7–8 — the first AIEi run alongside NeurIPS
  2026 in Sydney ---
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markdown: >-
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parent: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/aidotengineer.md'
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updated: '2026-10-24T13:09:19.429Z'
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# What the Best Agents Share — Mardu Swanepoel, Flinn AI

Harvey, Cursor, Manus, and Claude operate in completely different domains but share four patterns: focus modes that constrain the action space to improve output quality, transparent execution that surfaces tool calls and reasoning to build user trust, personalization that optimizes for speed to understanding rather than just speed to output, and reversibility that bounds the downside of mistakes so users take on higher value tasks. Mardu Swanepoel from Flinn AI breaks down how each company puts these into practice. Cursor lets you roll back changes at the line, file, or conversation level and run multiple model outputs in parallel from the same input. Harvey builds playbooks from a firm's legal methods so the agent works the way the firm would. Claude surfaces a live task list alongside every tool call's inputs and outputs so users can intervene before the agent goes further in the wrong direction. Speaker info: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mardu-swanepoel-000/ --- Watch along with the corrected transcript, summary, timestamps and resources on this talk's official AIE page: https://ai.engineer/talks/7CrPrHgoEYk-what-the-best-agents-share Join our upcoming AI Engineer conferences (see https://ai.engineer landing page): - AIEi Shanghai, November 5–6 — the first for meeting top Chinese labs and engineers - AIE CODE in SF, November 10–12 — the top AI Coding conference returns - AIEi Sydney, December 7–8 — the first AIEi run alongside NeurIPS 2026 in Sydney ---

Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/channel/aidotengineer/explore/video/what-the-best-agents-share-mardu-swanepoel-flinn-ai-484a7dd98c3a · Channel: [AI Engineer](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/aidotengineer.md)

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