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Failure & recovery
Also called: when a tool call fails, loops and dead ends, getting stuck
How an agent handles things going wrong mid-task — a tool erroring, a step failing, a dead end — by retrying, trying another path, or stopping and asking for help instead of barrelling on.
Real tasks hit snags, and an agent with no recovery behaviour can loop, repeat a harmful action, or confidently produce nonsense after a failed step. Designing for failure is what separates a demo from something dependable.
The agent noticing it's stuck on its own. Without explicit handling it often won't; it can keep going as if the failed step succeeded, which is why limits and stop conditions matter.