Index
A tool may complete an action and lose its response to a timeout. Automatically retrying can duplicate the operation even when the first call appears to have failed.
The design to commission
Require separation between confirmed failure and unknown outcome. Design a status query using a stable reference before another attempt. Where destinations support idempotency, document how retries reuse that reference; where they do not, explain alternatives and limits. Do not let the model infer success or failure solely from exception wording. Deterministic recovery code can handle confirmation while AI remains limited to interpreting or preparing requests. Compare that approach with full agent autonomy. Specify what happens when status queries also fail: suspension and accountable review are often preferable to repeated attempts. Keep requests, attempts and confirmations inspectable without exposing secrets or copying unnecessary data into logs. The supplier should demonstrate both a genuinely failed request and a successful request whose acknowledgement was lost, because they require different recovery behavior.
Supplier criteria
- Separate unknown outcomes from confirmed destination failures.
- Keep stable references across attempts, queries and retries.
- Suspend execution when reliable state confirmation is unavailable.
Acceptance with an exception
For hypothetical acceptance, the destination executes a request and the connection drops before acknowledgement. The agent should discover the existing result and avoid automatically creating the same record twice.
Reference for assessing scope
Prepare your project with Quantum9
Bring Quantum9 a consequential action and its available status queries. Discovery defines verifiable recovery and situations that should remain subject to human decisions.