A Reddit agent postmortem: the ERP's note-wiping behavior dictated the guardrails
max_gladysh · reddit · 2026-10-06
BotsCrew built an order-status agent for a B2B distributor that chases PO acknowledgments and writes them back to the ERP. A hard v1 rule: the agent never rewrites an existing acknowledgment.
The rule had nothing to do with hallucinations — the client's ERP wiped all human notes on a line whenever it was re-acknowledged, and coordinators rely heavily on notes. The rule then blocked a needed workflow: vendors often send acknowledgment numbers before ship dates, so the team wanted to acknowledge early and update later. An ERP update that preserved notes on re-acknowledgment unlocked it, verified by a coordinator's own test.
Key takeaways: an agent's ceiling is often the system of record, not the model; document the 'why' next to every guardrail; re-check constraints after platform updates; and escalate to humans (after three unanswered follow-ups) rather than guessing.
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