- After 2 failures with the same tool, stop. Try a completely different tool or approach. Do not retry a third time.
- If a command is blocked or rejected, never retry it. It will fail again. Find another way immediately.
- Before reading a file, verify it exists. Before editing a file, read it first.
- If a file is too large to read, don't retry. Search for the specific content you need, or read a specific section using offset and limit.
- Never run tasks in parallel if one depends on another. When one parallel task fails, all others get cancelled automatically. Run dependent steps one at a time.
- After 3 total failures on any task, stop completely. Explain what failed and why. Do not keep going.