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Common Failure Modes
Infinite loop, wrong tool, hallucination cascade, context bloat — 7 classic agent failures.
2 hours1 resources
- Infinite loop — agent calls the same tool over and over. Fix:
max_iterations+ repetition detector. - Wrong tool selection — wrong tool, wrong params. Fix: tool description quality + few-shot.
- Hallucination cascade — one step hallucinates, later steps amplify. Fix: intermediate verification + RAG grounding.
- Context bloat — tool results clog the context. Fix: result summarization, sliding window.
- Lost in middle (long trajectories) — model forgets the original goal. Fix: restate goal each turn.
- Capability misuse — agent invokes a destructive tool without authorization. Fix: capability gates + HITL.
- Cost runaway — agent burns $1000 overnight. Fix: budget tracking + hard limit.
All observed in real production agents.