Hardening an AI coding agent: the failures, and the code that fixed them
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A coding agent for a proprietary engine, unable to rely on memorization, required hardening against failures: literal search (fixed with filename matching and variable footprint), infinite loops (five-layer detection), single-phrasing points (query inflation), invented APIs (self-auditing lookups and checker stack), and ignored findings (finish gates). Additional fixes included a deterministic phrasebook for goal-word mismatch, an envelope and silence trailer for load-bearing correction wording, and extracting generation from files to prevent bloat. The two-layer tool architecture—generic base tools shadowed by customer-specific domain tools—enabled these measures.