Rescue Mission
The intervention workflow where an Agent Operator diagnoses a stuck agent, provides corrective context, and resumes execution.
Definition
A Rescue Mission is the workflow where an Agent Operator intervenes when an agent gets stuck, diagnoses the failure, and provides corrective context to resume execution. It is the primary human response to a Blocker Flag.
When an agent is looping on a failing test, misinterpreting a spec, or producing output that violates architectural constraints, the Rescue Mission follows three steps:
- Diagnose — the operator examines the agent's execution trace and short-term memory to identify why it is stuck. Common causes include missing context, spec ambiguity, or constraint conflicts.
- Inject — the operator provides the missing information, clarifies the ambiguous requirement, or adjusts the constraints so the agent can proceed.
- Resume — the agent continues execution with the injected context, picking up where it left off rather than starting from scratch.
Rescue Missions are the highest-priority daily activity in agentic operations. Every minute an agent spends stuck is wasted compute and blocked pipeline throughput. They are triaged during the Daily Flow Sync and tracked as a key operational skill for Agent Operators.