Agent failover patterns route
Quick answer
This page is the containment-and-recovery route for workflow failures. Use it when retries are uncontrolled, one dependency failure cascades, or incident packets lack clear failure class. Expected result: one failover matrix with bounded retries, fallback rules, and escalation packet standards.
Do this first
Lock one critical lane and tag top failure classes before editing retry behavior.
Readiness gate
- [ ] Critical-path steps are identified.
- [ ] Failure classes are tagged (timeout, validation, dependency, policy).
- [ ] Fallback target exists for each critical class.
- [ ] Escalation SLA is documented.
5-step failover execution
- Detect: classify failure using reason code.
- Contain: isolate affected branch; avoid full-lane collapse.
- Fallback: route to approved alternate path by policy.
- Verify: confirm fallback output quality before resume.
- Escalate: attach context packet for deterministic failures.
Expected result
A failover matrix that reduces silent quality drift and shortens recovery time for known failure classes.
What happens after success
- Return to workflow orchestration and verify deterministic reruns with failover active.
- Promote retry/fallback limits into the standard operator runbook.
Where to go if blocked
- If authority boundaries are missing, run agent architecture before adding more fallback branches.
- If recurring contract breaks come from upstream/downstream systems, continue to data pipelines for interface hardening.
Monetization-fit handoff
After failover stabilization, choose support depth by risk profile:
- low risk: batch checklist
- medium risk: deploy verify
- high risk: deploy troubleshooting