Running agents in production: failures were mechanical, not the model
Wonderful-Match-6256 · reddit · 2026-08-30
After running autonomous agents on a schedule in production for a month, the author found that all costly failures were mechanical, not due to model intelligence:
- Context window dictates behavior: Instructions referenced data pushed out of the window. Fix: pin critical context.
- Silent compliance is dangerous: Agents followed instructions plausibly even when the intended target was missing, causing hard-to-detect errors.
- Tool descriptions are contracts: Inaccurate descriptions (e.g., sort order) misled agents, while tests passed because they ignored the description text.
- Expensive failure is obedience: The biggest budget threat was a well-behaved agent doing unnecessary work on a schedule. Hard caps and kill switches are essential.
Lesson: Check the plumbing and mechanics before blaming the prompt.
Related event: A Month of Agents in Production: Failures Are Mechanical, Not the Model(2 posts)→
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