Set the Stop Condition Before Your NoInfra Agent Runs

A first hosted agent usually fails in one of two ways. It either does too little and becomes a demo that never reaches real work, or it keeps going after the useful part is over and creates a review problem for the team. Both failures come from the same missing decision: nobody wrote the stop condition before the agent ran.

A stop condition is the rule that tells the agent when the current run is complete, blocked, unsafe, too expensive, too ambiguous, or ready for human review. It is not just an error handler. It is part of the workflow design.

For a NoInfra builder, this matters because the hosted runtime removes a lot of local setup friction. You do not have to keep a laptop awake, wire provider keys into a fragile script, or treat token plumbing as the main project. That makes it easier to start. It also makes it more important to define the end of the run, because the agent can now operate in a real hosted environment rather than inside a one-off local test.

Start with the work, not the tool

The stop condition should be tied to the job the agent is doing. If the agent reviews a support queue, the run might stop after it classifies the first twenty open items, finds a missing field, or reaches any case that requires account-level judgment. If it checks a spreadsheet, it might stop after producing a review table, after detecting inconsistent source rows, or after finishing one named tab. If it watches an inbox label, it might stop after drafting replies for a narrow category and leaving everything else untouched.

That sounds obvious, but many first agent specs define only the happy path. They say what the agent should attempt, not what evidence should end the attempt. The result is a vague launch where a teammate has to infer whether the agent is done, stuck, confused, or still working.

A practical first-run spec needs a sentence like this: Stop after the agent has produced a reviewable summary for the selected queue, or sooner if it cannot access the source, sees more than three ambiguous records, needs write access, or would exceed the agreed token budget for the run.

That sentence gives the agent a boundary. It also gives the team something concrete to inspect after the run.

Use five stop categories

Most first NoInfra agents need only five stop categories.

• Done: the agent completed the narrow output contract.
• Blocked: the agent could not reach the source, lacked permission, or needed a missing input.
• Unsafe: the next step would mutate data, send a message, spend money, or expose private context outside the agreed boundary.
• Ambiguous: the agent found a case where the rule does not decide the answer.
• Budgeted: the agent reached a run limit, time limit, item limit, or token limit.

These categories keep the first run operational. They prevent the team from treating every non-happy path as a failure. A blocked stop means the launch surfaced an access issue. An ambiguous stop means the agent respected the boundary. A budgeted stop means the team can resize the run with evidence instead of guessing.

The goal is not to make the first agent autonomous across every edge case. The goal is to prove that the hosted loop can find useful work, produce the expected artifact, and stop in a way that a human can understand.

Make the stop output reviewable

The stop condition should produce an output, not just silence. A teammate should be able to open the NoInfra workspace and see why the run ended.

A useful stop output is short and structured. It can include status, source checked, item count, completed output, stop reason, uncertain items, suggested next action, and whether any permission or budget change is requested. For example, a queue-review agent might finish with: ten items classified, two suggested owner changes, one ambiguous account, no write action taken, stop reason ambiguous, next action review the listed account rule.

That format matters because it lets the team decide the next promotion step. If the stop reason is done, run the same loop again or widen the queue. If the stop reason is blocked, fix access before changing the prompt. If the stop reason is unsafe, add a human approval step before granting write access. If the stop reason is budgeted, decide whether the run should inspect fewer items, summarize more tightly, or move to a plan that matches the workload.

Create a NoInfra agent with a clear first-run stop condition, then use the first stop report to decide whether to repeat, narrow, or promote the workflow.

Keep authority and spend bounded

A stop condition is also a cost and authority control. The first hosted run should not discover its limits by running through every available record, retrying indefinitely, or reaching for write access because the task description was too broad.

Use concrete limits that match the experiment. A first run might inspect twenty records, process one saved view, draft five replies, summarize one incident, or review one day of new items. The agent should stop before it needs a broader connector, before it tries to change production data, and before it turns a narrow proof into an open-ended job.

This is especially important for teams moving from a local demo to hosted runtime. Local demos often hide cost and authority because the builder is sitting beside the script. Hosted agents need a clearer contract. NoInfra can manage the server-side runtime path and token flow, but the workflow still needs an operating boundary that says what the agent is allowed to finish today.

Avoid vague stop rules

Weak stop rules sound reasonable but do not help operators. "Stop when complete" is not enough if the output contract is not defined. "Ask for help when confused" is not enough if confusion is not recognizable. "Run until there is no more work" is usually too broad for a first agent.

Replace those phrases with observable tests. Stop when the selected saved view has been reviewed. Stop when the output table contains the required columns. Stop when an item needs a decision not covered by the rule. Stop when write access would be required. Stop when the run reaches the agreed item or token limit. Stop when the source returns an unexpected shape.

Good stop rules also protect the review queue. They do not ask a teammate to read a long transcript to understand what happened. They give the teammate the smallest useful summary and the next decision.

What changes after the first proof

After a few clean runs, the stop condition can evolve. The team might increase the item limit, add one write action behind approval, allow the agent to handle a second category, or move from a one-time run to a recurring schedule. Each change should be tied to evidence from the prior stop reports.

Do not promote the agent just because the setup is complete. Promote it because the stop reports show that the agent sees the right work, respects uncertainty, stays inside the budget, and gives humans a clear handoff when it reaches its limit.

That is the practical path from first hosted run to useful operations. The stop condition keeps the launch small enough to trust and structured enough to improve.

The launch rule

Before your first NoInfra agent runs, write the sentence that ends the run. Name what counts as done, what counts as blocked, what counts as unsafe, what counts as ambiguous, and what budget limit should pause the work.

Then launch the smallest version of the agent that can produce that stop report against real work. If the report is clear, you have evidence to widen the workflow. If it is not clear, you have found the next spec change before the agent has authority to make a mess.

Start a NoInfra agent with one explicit stop condition and use the hosted run to prove the next boundary.