Stop Conditions
Explicit rules for when an agent or human loop must halt, ask, or hand off.
Definition
Section titled “Definition”Max steps, max retries, “ask when unsure,” success criteria, deny-lists for tools/paths. Without them, cheap tokens become expensive fire.
Why it matters
Section titled “Why it matters”Most “stupid agent behavior” is missing stop conditions, not missing intelligence.
For engineers and agents
Section titled “For engineers and agents”- Write done-when before tools
- Cap tool calls; ban overlapping writes
- On loop detection →
agents slap, don’t spawn more
Where it shows up
Section titled “Where it shows up”agents design / optimize / slap; Agent Hygiene