It forgets
Working memory is finite. When a conversation gets long, the system quietly condenses it, and details disappear. The agent doesn’t tell you it forgot: it just carries on with whatever is left. What it looks like: the agent mixes up names and numbers, asks again about things you agreed on an hour ago, and stops following its own rules.It lies
An agent can cheerfully report that a task is done when part of the work isn’t. This isn’t deception, it’s a quirk: the agent reconstructs a picture of what happened and sometimes gets it wrong in its own favor. What it looks like: “logged all seven workouts,” but the database has three. “Sent the emails,” but only one went out.It goes silent
The most expensive failure, because you can’t see it. Background tasks can stop running, for example after a migration or an outage, and the agent won’t say a word. Data simply isn’t collected during that time.It breaks things
When an agent acts on its own, it can break something that worked and not realize it: upload data to the wrong place, mess up a page, overwrite a file. And then honestly report that everything is done.Access
The two most expensive stories aren’t about the agent’s mistakes but about what it was given: access to email with delete rights, and a skill from an unknown author that contained an instruction to send keys outside. Both are covered in Security.How to live with it
Write tasks as a checklist
Write tasks as a checklist
An agent is an intern, not a genius. A vague task produces confident nonsense. “Collect July expenses from the receipts in the folder, group them by category, send a table, and name the three biggest expenses” works; “sort out the money” doesn’t.
Make a habit of checking once a week
Make a habit of checking once a week
Five minutes: did the scheduled summaries arrive, what’s in the Stuck column on the board, has anything odd appeared in the files. That’s cheaper than discovering a month of lost data.
A second agent as a reviewer
A second agent as a reviewer
A proven approach: one agent does the work, the second checks the result against the source data. It costs more, but it pays off for critical things.
Don't expect it to report on its own initiative
Don't expect it to report on its own initiative
The agent won’t come to you and say “I couldn’t do it.” It will answer your question if you ask. Anything that should arrive on its own, set up as a scheduled task with an explicit requirement to report.
What’s next
Security and Access
Rules for granting permissions and third-party skills
Maintenance
Log, diagnostics, backup
Personality and Memory
Files that aren’t lost during compression
Schedule
How to make the agent show signs of life