1 min lesson
Partial failure and resumption
Name the key items in "Partial failure and resumption", then explain why each one matters.
Step 1 of 2
Partial failure and resumptionthe senior-signal point
A transient model timeout on step 6 of a 10-step run must not restart from step 1. Checkpoint after each step, make each step idempotent so a retry can't double-apply an edit and key external side effects so re-running is safe.
- Checkpoint progress after every step so recovery resumes mid-run, not from zero.
- Make steps idempotent - a retried tool call or file write must converge to the same result, never duplicate it.
- Distinguish retryable (timeout, 429) from terminal (bad request, auth failure) errors and route them differently.
- Cap total cost and step count per run so a confused agent loops into a guardrail, not a budget.