How production agents avoid false success when tools only partially work
ActiveFix8069 · reddit · 2026-07-21
How do you keep agents from claiming success when a tool only partially completed the intended job?
The author describes a common production failure: a tool call can return a technically successful response, while the real task is still incomplete — for example, an API returns 200 but only processes part of a batch, or a search tool returns an incomplete result set. The agent then moves on and tells the user everything is done.
Their current fix is to separate “the tool returned” from “the intended outcome was verified.” Each tool now emits a clearer status, and higher-risk actions require a follow-up verification step before the agent can report completion.
- Helps prevent false completion reports
- Increases tool calls and latency
- They ask how others handle this in production: explicit success contracts, separate verification, or raw-response reasoning
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