Look past the label
A scheduled workflow, an assistant that chooses tools and a long-running specialist may all be called agents. Ask what the system actually decides and what is fixed by its workflow.
A useful comparison begins with one job and the evidence required to call it complete.
Memory, tools and authority
Can the agent use earlier decisions after a session ends? Can it find the source? Which tools can it call, using whose credentials? Which actions need a person?
These are separate capabilities. Persistent memory does not imply tool access. Tool access does not imply approval to take every action the tool exposes.
The interrupted task test
Give the agent a task with missing information or an unavailable service. See whether it stops clearly, retries within a budget or returns an incomplete result as if it had succeeded.
If it delegates, check the handoff and returned artifact. A successful protocol response is not necessarily a successful business task.
Apply the same standard to thinqOS
thinqOS combines persistent Minds, agents and connected tools. Its private-preview status means the exact workflow and controls still need evaluation. Do not infer a universal approval gate or complete autonomous recovery from the word cognition.
Compare quality, total cost, operating effort, boundaries and portability on the same workload. Named vendor capabilities change; this page offers evaluation criteria rather than an unverified ranking.