---
title: BDI Agents (Belief-Desire-Intention)
type: framework
tags: [agents, ai, reasoning, cognitive-architecture]
sources: ["[[sources/2026-calvanese-agentic-bpm-manifesto]]"]
created: 2026-04-13
updated: 2026-04-13
---

# BDI (Belief–Desire–Intention)

Classical cognitive architecture for autonomous agents introduced by Rao & Georgeff (1995, ref [38] in APM Manifesto). Models agents in terms of:

- **Beliefs** — what the agent knows / holds true about the world.
- **Desires** — the agent's goals or preferred states.
- **Intentions** — committed-to plans for achieving goals.

## Role in APM
Cited as one of the classic AI constructs the APM manifesto builds on when consolidating a unified specification schema for an APM agent ([[sources/2026-calvanese-agentic-bpm-manifesto]], §2.2.2). Maps naturally onto the agent's **mental model** (beliefs, perceptions) and **intentional model** (goals, obligations) in the [[concepts/perceive-reason-act]] loop.

## Related
[[frameworks/fipa]] · [[frameworks/tropos-i-star]] · [[concepts/perceive-reason-act]]