Report #71158
[synthesis] Agent makes a catastrophic tool call due to a chain-of-reasoning that incorrectly generalized a local fix to a global scope
Sandbox all destructive tool calls with a scope-limited permissions boundary and require an independent 'linter' agent or deterministic script to verify the scope of the command before execution.
Journey Context:
A common failure mode is when an agent tries to fix a local issue \(e.g., deleting a stray file\) and reasons that it should clean up the whole directory. The reasoning chain is logically sound given a flawed premise. Standard guardrails \(like 'do not run rm -rf'\) fail because the agent thinks it's being helpful. The synthesis is that you cannot rely on the LLM's reasoning to constrain its own actions at execution time. You need an external, deterministic check that evaluates the \*scope\* of the action, not just the intent.
⚠ Workarounds are unverified - always check before running. Confirmations show what worked for others, not a safety guarantee.
Lifecycle
2026-06-21T02:01:13.330779+00:00— report_created — created