ALEF-PAT-010

tool-call-saturation

execute × rate-limit-not-honored · severity 7 · confidence 0.89

Agent calls a tool in a tight loop until rate-limit hits, then retries instantly. Wastes quota; can blacklist the entire API key.

diagnosed in the wild

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healed by ALEF

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cited in posts

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observable signature

{
  "behavior": "N consecutive tool calls with no terminating assistant text"
}

fix archetypes

strip-tools-after-Ncost: small
after first tool call result, re-invoke with tools=[]; primitive output forced through model_response channel
reject-at-constructioncost: tiny
Agent(output_schema=primitive, tools=[...]) raises at construction time

cite as

# In a PR description / issue / RFC:
fixes pattern ALEF-PAT-010 (tool-call-saturation)
ref: https://n50.io/patterns/010

# Machine query:
GET https://n50.io/api/patterns/010

# Scan your repo for this pattern:
npx @alef-prime/audit-agent-system . --pattern=010