GlossaryWhat keeps it honest

Stop condition

A written rule that ends an agent's run and hands the case to a person, with what was found so far.

Category

What keeps it honest

A stop condition is a written rule that ends an agent's run and hands the case, with what was found so far, to a named person.

What stop conditions say

A required document is still missing at the deadline. A checker cannot tie a figure to its source after a set number of revise rounds. A data feed is missing. A cap is reached. The policy owner pulls the kill switch. Each is checked by the harness, outside the model, so the agent cannot argue its way past one.

Why they matter

A loop without a stop rule keeps calling tools and spending budget while the failure persists. A stop condition hands the case over instead: the person receives the file marked incomplete, not a silent retry. The SME credit referrals use case lists its stop conditions next to what the agent may not do.

Want these terms worked through on one of your own decisions? Start with a Decision Blueprint

https://eqlx.ai/glossary/stop-condition · Printed copy; the website is the current version.