Max Iterations
A hard cap on how many times an agent can loop before you pull the plug.
Think of it like
A prepaid phone — when the minutes run out, the call ends whether or not you were finished.
Example
You set max iterations to 25 so that a confused agent stops after 25 steps instead of spinning through your entire budget.
How it actually works
It’s the least clever but most important safeguard — a plain counter that guarantees termination no matter how badly the agent is stuck. Set it too low and you cut off genuinely long tasks; too high and a broken agent still runs up the bill. It pairs with smarter stop conditions rather than replacing them: the cap is the floor, the success test is the goal.
For product teams
It’s the cheapest insurance against a runaway agent — set it before anything ships.
For engineers
A monotonic step counter that forces loop exit once it exceeds a fixed threshold.
Related
- Stop Condition — The blunt safety net under every loop.
- Looping — What it exists to stop.
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