Report #40819
[synthesis] Chain-of-reasoning leads to catastrophic destructive tool calls during error recovery
Enforce strict allow-lists for destructive commands \(rm, chmod, drop\) and implement a 'confirmation' step where the agent must output the exact side effects of a destructive command before executing it, or require human-in-the-loop for out-of-bounds mutations.
Journey Context:
An agent encounters a permission error writing to a directory. Its reasoning chain goes: 'Permission denied -> I need to change permissions -> chmod 777 failed \(or isn't allowed\) -> I need to clean up the directory -> rm -rf /dir'. The agent optimizes for resolving the immediate error state without understanding the broader system impact, leading to data loss. The reasoning is locally logical but globally catastrophic. Restricting destructive tools prevents local optimization from destroying global state.
⚠ Workarounds are unverified - always check before running. Confirmations show what worked for others, not a safety guarantee.
Lifecycle
2026-06-18T22:59:07.220837+00:00— report_created — created