How to fix: agent stuck in a loop / repeating the same tool call
Last verified: June 2026· AI agents
Where this shows up
AI agents
The fix
- 1Return informative tool errors (not just failures) so the agent can adjust rather than retry blindly.
- 2Add a max-iteration or token budget so a stuck agent stops instead of burning cost.
- 3Check that tool results actually feed back into the loop and that state isn’t being lost between turns.
- 4Give the agent a way to escalate to a human when it can’t make progress.
- 5Inspect a trace of the loop to see what it’s reacting to — this is where agent observability pays off.
Prevent it
Build observability and budgets into your agent harness so loops are visible, bounded, and debuggable.
Common variations and related errors
You'll usually hit this same root cause under a few different names. Same fix.
- "agent looped"
- "infinite tool calls"
- "repeating same tool call"
- "agent didn
Frequently asked questions
What causes “agent stuck in a loop / repeating the same tool call”?
The agent isn’t making progress — often a tool keeps failing the same way, or it lacks the context/feedback to change approach.
How do I prevent “agent stuck in a loop / repeating the same tool call” from recurring?
Build observability and budgets into your agent harness so loops are visible, bounded, and debuggable.