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# Ship Smarter Agents, Not Bigger Prompts


- **Date:** Thursday, Jul 9, 2026
- **Time:** 10:10–10:40 (30 min)
- **Room:** Stage 6 - powered by Microsoft
- **Event:** World Congress 2026 Europe

## Recording

[Watch recording](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100010-ship-smarter-agents-not-bigger-prompts)

## Description

As agents move into production developer workflows, quality is no longer just about better model output. It is about context selection, tool orchestration, task boundaries, token usage, latency, and cost.

This session looks at how to build higher-quality agents without simply throwing bigger prompts at the problem. We'll cover practical patterns for improving agent behavior: scoping tasks, managing context, reducing unnecessary model calls, designing better tool use, and measuring quality against cost.

You'll leave with a technical framework for building agents that are more reliable, more efficient, and less expensive to run. Smarter agents. Smaller prompts. Fewer burned credits.

## Speaker

### [April Yoho](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@april-yoho)

Senior Developer Advocate at GitHub


## Related talks at this congress

- [Fast Agents Produce Bad Results Faster](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1020-fast-agents-produce) — Mardu Swanepoel
- [The AI Velocity Trap: Shipping Faster Without Breaking More](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1015-the-ai-velocity-trap) — Ohans Emmanuel
- [Beyond the Thor’s Hammer: Pragmatic Agentic AI with Caching, Reuse, and Cost Guardrails](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/951-beyond-the-thor-s) — Satej Sahu
- [5 things I wish I hadn’t done building my AI agent](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe/sessions/1152-5-things-i-wish-i) — Shachar Azriel