Definition
Designing an agent system as explicit nodes, state, and transitions so deterministic control and model judgment have visible boundaries. A node may contain ordinary code, a model call, a tool, or a complete agent; an edge describes what may happen next.
Distinguish it from nearby terms
Graph engineering is a contested umbrella term, not a settled new discipline. It can refer to control flow, knowledge representation, execution structure, or improvement relationships, which should be named separately. Loop engineering is not its opposite because a loop is a cyclic graph.
Check your understanding
A graph earns its complexity only when it makes an important path, boundary, state transition, retry, or gate easier to enforce and inspect.