Runaway incident: Daniela (reservation scenario) entered a tool-calling
loop, invoking faq_lookup with the same query dozens of times per
second, stuck at 'Performing' in Sidekiq for minutes with 1-of-12 busy.
Root cause was two interacting factors:
1. The previous commit removed scenario_agent.register_handoffs(
assistant_agent) to prevent ping-pong. In practice, the scenario LLM
uses handoff_to_orchestrator as a safety valve when it cannot
advance. Without it, the LLM kept calling other available tools
(faq_lookup) indefinitely.
2. max_turns was 100. A runaway loop could burn 100 LLM + tool cycles
before Sidekiq's timeout fired, which meant real token spend in a
single bad turn could blow a day's budget.
Both restored/fixed:
- max_turns: 100 -> 15. Plenty for normal flows; hard ceiling on any
runaway. The LLM simply ran out of turns and had to emit a final
response instead of looping further.
- scenario -> orchestrator handoff: re-registered. Ping-pong risk is
contained by max_turns AND by explicit prompt rules in the scenario
instruction forbidding gratuitous handoffs (added to Daniela prompt
in earlier commit).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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