A tool returns 214KB of logs. The window overflows, the answers get worse, and nothing throws an error. Another agent retries the same call fourteen times. A third freezes seventeen seconds on a slow tool and times out. None of them crash; they quietly cost you money and accuracy. The fix for all three: pull large output back by reference, give the agent a clear done signal, and hand a slow tool a tracking id. You leave with working code and a rule for which fix each failure needs.

What you'll learn:
• Recognize the three failures that never raise an error: output that overflows the window, a loop that repeats a call, and a slow tool that blocks the agent
• Keep large tool output out of the context window and pull it back by reference when a step actually needs it
• Give a tool a clear done signal so the agent stops retrying, with the before and after call counts
• Return a tracking id for slow work so the agent polls instead of blocking on the call
• Decide which of the three fixes a given failure needs, using the symptoms you can see in a trace

Outline:
• Three failures that never throw
• Fix 1: keep the payload out of the window
• Fix 2: give the agent a clear done signal
• Fix 3: return a job id instead of blocking
• Which fix for which failure, and resources