When Should an Agent Stop Trying? A Developer's Case for Explicit Stop Criteria
artemgetman · reddit · 2026-10-24
Reddit user artemgetman highlights a core agent-design pain point: agents keep doing plausible-looking work long after it stops moving the task forward—another review, another small fix, another follow-up email.
Examples: after several refund emails, the useful next step is suggesting a phone call; before writing custom code, check whether an existing SDK already does the job; sometimes the task is verified done and needs no more polishing.
His current practices: making desired outcomes, constraints, and stopping criteria explicit, plus persisting recurring lessons into instructions. But iteration limits only prevent endless loops—they don't help the agent decide whether to continue, change approach, or stop. The question he wants agents to ask: is the next action worth the time, cost, and risk given what we already know?
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