technical-term · Harness & runtime · foundational · Reviewed

Goal and exit condition

A testable target paired with the finite states that determine when an agent completes, blocks, escalates, or stops.

Definition

A goal specifies the bounded outcome an agent should pursue; exit conditions specify when the runtime must stop pursuing it. Together they define success, failure, maximum effort, blocked states, required evidence, human handoff, and safe termination.

Termination is a basic software principle, but agents make underspecified goals and endless retries unusually consequential.

Why it matters

A goal without evidence criteria encourages plausible-looking completion.

An exit condition is a runtime control, not merely a sentence asking the model to stop.

System anatomy

Outcome
The intended result in observable terms.
Acceptance evidence
The checks and artifacts required to claim completion.
Budgets
Limits on steps, time, spend, tools, and retries.
Terminal states
Complete, blocked, held, escalated, cancelled, or failed.

Important distinctions

Prompt request
A request expresses intent; a goal and exit contract defines measurable completion and safe non-completion.

Implementation signals

  • Write acceptance evidence before execution
  • Define blocked and escalation states alongside success
  • Enforce budgets outside the model

Failure modes

  • The agent declares done based on its own prose
  • Timeout is the only stop mechanism

Sources and further study

  1. OpenAI — A practical guide to building agents

    Defines a practical agent around a model, tools, instructions, and a run loop that continues until an exit condition is reached.

    Use in this library: Primary definition. The guide is first-party product guidance and a simplified starting architecture, not a complete regulated-enterprise control model.

    guidance · guidance · Published 2025
  2. Anthropic — Effective harnesses for long-running agents

    Patterns for incremental progress and durable handoffs across context windows and extended execution.

    Use in this library: First-party case study. This first-party account documents one organization, product, or implementation context and should not be generalized without local evidence.

    engineering · engineering · Published 2025-11-26