Autocorrección y prompting reflexivo
Implemente un paso de reflexión en el que el agente revise su propia salida comparándola con el objetivo original, identifique carencias o errores y genere un plan corregido antes de volver a intentarlo.
Autocorrección y prompting reflexivo es una lección gratuita de AI Engineering Academy en CoddyKit. Esta es la lección 2 de 4. Puedes leer la lección completa abajo gratuitamente — luego la practicas en el navegador con un editor de código integrado y un tutor de IA 24/7. Forma parte de la ruta de aprendizaje de AI Engineering Academy, y tu progreso se sincroniza en la web y la app de CoddyKit. El curso de AI Engineering Academy incluye 4 lecciones en total.
Partes de esta lección aún no han sido traducidas y se muestran en inglés.
What Is Reflective Prompting?
Reflective prompting is a technique where the agent is asked to evaluate its own output before finalizing it. Instead of producing an answer and stopping, the agent reviews its response against the original goal, identifies gaps or errors, and generates a corrected version. This mimics how humans proofread their own work and significantly improves output quality on complex tasks without requiring a separate critic model.
The Reflect-and-Revise Loop
The basic reflective loop has three steps: Generate an initial response, Critique that response against clear criteria, and Revise based on the critique. This loop can run one or more times. Each iteration improves the response until either the critique declares it satisfactory or a maximum revision count is reached. The critique step is itself an LLM call with a specialized reflection prompt.
async def reflect_and_revise(task: str, max_rounds: int = 2) -> str:
response = await generate_initial(task)
for round_num in range(max_rounds):
critique = await critique_response(task, response)
if critique.is_satisfactory:
break
response = await revise_response(task, response, critique.feedback)
return responseWriting an Effective Critique Prompt
The critique prompt must specify concrete evaluation criteria rather than asking the model to simply 'improve' the response. List the specific things to check: Is every claim accurate? Did it answer all parts of the question? Is any step missing? Is there unnecessary padding? A critique prompt with explicit checklist items produces actionable feedback that the revision step can use directly.
CRITIQUE_PROMPT = '''
You are reviewing an AI-generated response to this task: {task}
Response to evaluate:
{response}
Check each criterion and provide specific feedback:
1. COMPLETENESS: Does it address all parts of the task?
2. ACCURACY: Are all factual claims correct?
3. CONCISENESS: Is there unnecessary padding or repetition?
4. FORMAT: Does it match the requested output format?
5. ACTIONABILITY: Can the user act on this response?
For each issue found, state exactly what to fix.
If the response is satisfactory on all criteria, say APPROVE.
'''Parsing the Critique Response
Structure the critique output as a Pydantic model so you can programmatically decide whether to revise. The is_satisfactory field determines loop exit. The issues list tells the revision step exactly what to fix. The severity field lets you skip revision for minor stylistic issues while always revising for factual errors.
from pydantic import BaseModel
from typing import List, Literal
class Issue(BaseModel):
criterion: str
description: str
severity: Literal['critical', 'moderate', 'minor']
class Critique(BaseModel):
is_satisfactory: bool
issues: List[Issue]
overall_verdict: str
# is_satisfactory=True means no revision needed
# is_satisfactory=False means issues must be addressedThe Revision Prompt
The revision prompt receives the original task, the initial response, and the critique feedback. Ask the model to produce an improved version that specifically addresses each issue identified by the critique, while preserving the correct parts of the original response. Always include the word 'only' to prevent the model from making unnecessary changes to things the critique already approved.
def build_revision_prompt(task: str, response: str, critique: Critique) -> str:
issues_text = '\n'.join(
f'- [{i.severity.upper()}] {i.criterion}: {i.description}'
for i in critique.issues
)
return f'''
Original task: {task}
Your previous response:
{response}
Issues to fix:
{issues_text}
Write an improved response that fixes ONLY the issues listed above.
Do not change parts that were not flagged as problems.
'''Self-Correction for Code Generation
Self-correction is especially powerful for code generation. After generating code, run a linter or type checker on it, feed the error output back to the model, and ask it to fix the errors. This execution-grounded reflection is more reliable than language-only critique because the feedback comes from an objective tool rather than another LLM judgment.
import subprocess
import sys
async def self_correct_code(task: str, max_rounds: int = 3) -> str:
code = await generate_code(task)
for _ in range(max_rounds):
# Write code to temp file and run mypy
with open('/tmp/agent_code.py', 'w') as f:
f.write(code)
result = subprocess.run(
[sys.executable, '-m', 'mypy', '/tmp/agent_code.py', '--ignore-missing-imports'],
capture_output=True, text=True
)
if result.returncode == 0:
break # No type errors
code = await fix_code(code, result.stdout + result.stderr)
return codeAvoiding Overcorrection
A common failure in reflective systems is overcorrection: the model makes the original problem worse while trying to fix something else. Mitigate this by limiting the revision scope: the revision prompt should explicitly say 'do not change anything that was not flagged.' Also compare the revised response to the original using a diff-check — if the revised version is radically different, something went wrong and you should keep the original.
from difflib import SequenceMatcher
def safe_revision(original: str, revised: str, max_change_ratio: float = 0.7) -> str:
similarity = SequenceMatcher(None, original, revised).ratio()
if similarity < (1 - max_change_ratio):
print(f'Revision changed too much (similarity: {similarity:.2f}). Keeping original.')
return original
return revisedReflection in Multi-Step Agent Tasks
In a multi-step agent, add a reflection checkpoint after completing a set of steps — for example, after gathering all research but before writing the final report. The agent reviews what it has collected, identifies gaps, and decides whether to gather more information or proceed. This mid-task reflection prevents agents from proceeding to the synthesis step with incomplete or contradictory evidence.
async def research_with_reflection(question: str) -> str:
# Phase 1: gather evidence
evidence = await gather_evidence(question)
# Reflection checkpoint
assessment = await assess_evidence_completeness(question, evidence)
if not assessment.is_complete:
for gap in assessment.gaps:
more_evidence = await targeted_search(gap.search_query)
evidence.extend(more_evidence)
# Phase 2: synthesize
return await synthesize_answer(question, evidence)Logging Reflection Outcomes
Log every reflection round: the critique scores, which issues were identified, and whether the revision actually resolved them. This data reveals whether your reflection prompts are effective. If the revised response consistently re-introduces the same issues the critique flagged, your revision prompt is not specific enough. If most critiques say 'APPROVE' on the first round, the initial generation quality is already high and reflection overhead may not be worth the cost.
import structlog
log = structlog.get_logger()
def log_reflection_round(task_id: str, round_num: int, critique: Critique, action: str):
log.info(
'reflection_round',
task_id=task_id,
round=round_num,
is_satisfactory=critique.is_satisfactory,
issue_count=len(critique.issues),
critical_issues=sum(1 for i in critique.issues if i.severity == 'critical'),
action=action # 'approved', 'revised', 'max_rounds_reached'
)When to Use Reflection
Reflection adds latency and cost — a two-round reflect-and-revise at least triples the number of LLM calls for that task. Use reflection selectively: always for high-stakes outputs (code that will run, answers to consequential business questions), optionally for user-facing responses, and never for internal intermediate steps that will be immediately verified by a tool. The cost is worth it when quality matters more than speed.
# Reflection decision matrix:
# Task type: Use reflection?
# SQL query generation YES (run+verify)
# Final report writing YES (review before delivery)
# Tool argument prep NO (tool result verifies it)
# Short factual answer MAYBE (if accuracy is critical)
# Internal agent thought NO (intermediate, not final)
# Code generation YES (run linter/tests)
USE_REFLECTION = {'report', 'code', 'email', 'analysis'}Measuring Reflection Effectiveness
Track whether reflection actually improves your outputs by running A/B tests: process a random 50% of tasks with reflection and 50% without, then judge both sets with your LLM judge. If the reflective group scores significantly higher (and the improvement exceeds the additional latency and cost), reflection is paying off. If scores are similar, your initial generation quality is already high enough and reflection is adding overhead without benefit.
async def reflection_ab_test(tasks: list) -> dict:
import random
results = {'with_reflection': [], 'without_reflection': []}
for task in tasks:
if random.random() < 0.5:
response = await reflect_and_revise(task, max_rounds=2)
group = 'with_reflection'
else:
response = await generate_initial(task)
group = 'without_reflection'
score = await judge(task, response)
results[group].append(score.overall)
return {
'mean_with': sum(results['with_reflection']) / len(results['with_reflection']),
'mean_without': sum(results['without_reflection']) / len(results['without_reflection'])
}Quick Check
Test your understanding of self-correction and reflective prompting in agents.
Lesson Recap
In this lesson you learned: reflect-and-revise loops improve output quality by having the agent critique and fix its own responses, concrete critique rubrics produce actionable feedback rather than vague improvement suggestions, and execution-grounded reflection with objective tools like linters is especially powerful for code generation. Next up we implement agent checkpointing and task resumption.
Preguntas frecuentes
¿La lección «Autocorrección y prompting reflexivo» es gratis?
Sí — el texto completo de «Autocorrección y prompting reflexivo» es gratis para leer aquí en la web. Para practicarla de forma interactiva (editor de código integrado y tutor de IA 24/7) y desbloquear el resto del curso de AI Engineering Academy, actualiza a CoddyKit PRO. El curso de AI Engineering Academy incluye 4 lecciones en total.
¿Qué aprenderé en «Autocorrección y prompting reflexivo»?
Implemente un paso de reflexión en el que el agente revise su propia salida comparándola con el objetivo original, identifique carencias o errores y genere un plan corregido antes de volver a intenta… Practicas AI Engineering Academy con código real que ejecutas directamente en el navegador, y un tutor de IA 24/7 responde tus preguntas mientras trabajas en la lección.
¿Necesito experiencia previa para empezar AI Engineering Academy?
No se requiere experiencia previa. AI Engineering Academy en CoddyKit está estructurado para principiantes hasta estudiantes avanzados, así que puedes empezar aquí o desde el inicio y avanzar a tu ritmo. Esta es la lección 2 de 4.
¿Cuánto tiempo toma la lección «Autocorrección y prompting reflexivo»?
La mayoría de las lecciones de CoddyKit toman alrededor de 5–10 minutos. Cada una es compacta e interactiva, así que avanzas constantemente y retomas exactamente por donde dejaste en la web y la app.
¿Puedo escribir y ejecutar código en esta lección de AI Engineering Academy?
Sí. Cada lección de AI Engineering Academy incluye un editor de código integrado, así que escribes y ejecutas código real directamente en tu navegador y obtienes retroalimentación instantánea de IA — sin configuración local necesaria.
Todas las lecciones de este curso
- Clasificación de los modos de fallo de los agentes
- Autocorrección y prompting reflexivo
- Puntos de control y reanudación de tareas
- Escalado con intervención humana