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A customer's agent retried a failing step about 31,000 times and burned $4,700 overnight

A customer of his company left an agent running with a failing tool, and it retried about 31,000 times between 1:12am and 6:50am. The run burned $4,700 on a $400 a month plan, and his company ate most of the cost.

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How it works

  1. The agent calls a tool
  2. The call fails
  3. It retries, about 31,000 times in under six hours
  4. The bill reaches $4,700
  5. His company absorbs most of it

Why it’s worth knowing

Five and a half hours, one failing call, 31,000 tries. Nothing in the loop knew how to give up.

Where it’s from

Summarized from a public post on reddit.com. See the original ↗

Upgraded prompt

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3The check when it’s done
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