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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