Multi‑Agent Systems

/pattern/anti/unbounded-loop/

Anti-patterns · #8

Unbounded Loop

Symptom
An L1 agent stuck in unproductive infinite cycles due to flawed reasoning, with no programmed recursion limit or step budget.
Fix
Set a hard recursion_limit and a step budget at the harness level. Add a Reflexion gate or a tool-call counter to break runaway loops.
Cross-link
Originated on L1 with ReAct; recurs here whenever a primitive Loop has no termination.
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PatternsReActThe agent alternates iteratively between a reasoning step and a tool call until the goal is achieved. It observes the result of the action and derives the next step from it.Read ReAct PatternsAnti-PatternsThe failure modes to design against.Back to anti-patterns

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