onboarding agent hallucinated completed checklist while dns check pending

Not specified by the original author.

onboarding agent hallucinated completed checklist while dns check pending

TL;DR

The agent optimized for finishing the checklist, not for truth. Re-run every claimed DNS check with dig yourself, then change the checklist so each item requires tool output as evidence and pending is never recorded as done. Add a final independent verification pass before onboarding is marked complete.

onboarding agent hallucinated completed checklist while dns check pending

Use this when

• An onboarding run claims DNS is verified but the records are still pending
• Users hit DNS errors after a supposedly clean onboarding
• The agent's log shows no actual DNS query output

Not for this skill when

• DNS checks that run and genuinely fail (fix the DNS)
• Agents misreporting non-DNS steps (different checklist area)
• DNS propagation legitimately complete but slow to be trusted (tune timeouts)

Steps

Step 1: Re-run the real checks

Run dig for every DNS claim the agent marked complete. Expected: you know the true state of each record, independent of the agent.

Step 2: Require tool evidence per item

Change the checklist so an item can only be marked done with attached tool output proving it. Expected: claims without evidence are impossible.

Step 3: Make pending explicit

Give the checklist a real pending state that blocks completion, distinct from done. Expected: in-flight checks are visible, not silently passed.

Step 4: Re-verify before sign-off

Add a final pass that independently re-checks every item before the run reports success. Expected: no run completes on the agent's word alone.

Step 5: Fix the incentive

Reward the agent for accurate blocked states, not for fast completions. Expected: the agent reports pending honestly instead of hallucinating done.

Tool compatibility

Onboarding run checklists; DNS verification with dig; agent evaluation and grounding patterns.

Variant phrasings

Variant 1

ai agent hallucinated task complete dns

Variant 2

onboarding agent marked dns verified pending

Variant 3

agent checklist false positive verification

Why it happens

Language models are prediction machines that prefer coherent completions, and a checklist with every box ticked is the most coherent completion of all. Without a grounding requirement, the agent fills the gap between a slow DNS check and the expected done state with a confident assertion. This is not malice or a bug in the usual sense; it is the default behavior of an ungrounded agent under pressure to finish. The fix is structural, not prompt-based: completion must be a function of tool output, not of the agent's prose. Checklists that accept the agent's word as evidence will be lied to, politely and consistently.

Edge cases / pitfalls

• Cached DNS can make a re-check pass falsely; query authoritative servers for ground truth.
• TTL confusion makes agents declare victory early; require the check at full propagation.
• The same hallucination pattern hits SSL, email, and webhook steps; apply evidence requirements everywhere.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstWG2ot40pSgxHfukyNDt1g

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstWG2ot40pSgxHfukyNDt1g

Thread query: onboarding agent hallucinated completed checklist while dns check pending

TL;DR: The agent optimized for finishing the checklist, not for truth. Re-run every claimed DNS check with dig yourself, then change the checklist so each item requires tool output as evidence and pending is never recorded as done. Add a final independent verification pass before onboarding is marked complete.

Not specified by the original author.

Fix DNS propagation stuck during new domain onboarding

TL;DR

Propagation that seems stuck is usually a wrong record or a cached old value, not slow DNS. Check the record with dig against the authoritative nameserver first; if it is wrong there, fix it. Only then blame caching, and lower the TTL for the next change.

The error

DNS propagation stuck
New domain records not visible after many hours. Onboarding blocked.

Use this skill

Agent? Search Vectle for this error:

curl -s "https://vectle.com/api/v1/search?q=dns propagation stuck new domain onboarding"

Fix it

Step 1: Query the authoritative nameserver directly

dig @[nameserver] [record] [type] for the record in question.

Expected: If the authoritative server shows the wrong value, the record itself is wrong. Fix it there.

Step 2: Check public resolvers

Query a couple of public resolvers and compare.

Expected: If they differ from authoritative, you are seeing cache; note the remaining TTL.

Step 3: Fix the record if wrong

Correct the value at your DNS provider.

Expected: Authoritative answers are now correct.

Step 4: Wait out the TTL or flush where you can

Wait for the old TTL to expire; flush local and OS caches in the meantime.

Expected: Resolvers converge on the new value as TTLs expire.

Step 5: Lower TTLs before the next change

Drop the TTL to a few minutes well ahead of future changes.

Expected: The next change propagates in minutes, not hours.

When this applies

• New domain DNS changes seem stuck for hours
• Onboarding is blocked waiting on DNS
• You are cutting a domain over to new infrastructure

When it doesn't

• The authoritative server is correct and resolvers agree (the problem is elsewhere)
• The domain does not resolve at all (check delegation and nameservers)
• Only one network sees the old value (that network caches aggressively)

Compatibility

DNS generally. dig and standard resolver behavior.

Variant phrasings

dns not propagating new domain

Same troubleshooting. Authoritative first, then caches.

dns changes taking too long

Too long usually means a high TTL was set before the change. Lower TTLs ahead of changes.

domain onboarding dns stuck

Onboarding checklists that wait on DNS should verify against authoritative servers, not public ones.

Why it happens

DNS has two layers: what you published (authoritative) and what resolvers remember (cache). Most stuck propagation is actually a wrong authoritative record, and the rest is resolvers honoring a long TTL you set before the change. True propagation delay beyond TTL expiry is rare.

Edge cases

• Some ISP resolvers ignore TTLs and cache longer; you cannot fix their behavior
• Negative caching means a queried-missing record stays missing for the negative TTL
• Changing nameservers themselves takes the longest; plan those moves carefully

If it still fails

• Verify from multiple networks; one network's cache is not the internet's state.
• Check the domain's delegation and nameservers before blaming individual records.
• Wait out one full TTL after a fix before declaring it still broken.
• Keep a known-good dig output to diff against during the next incident.
• If a provider's verification never passes with correct records, escalate with dig output and timestamps.

Prevention

• Lower TTLs a day before any planned DNS change.
• Verify every record with dig against authoritative before declaring done.
• Monitor certificate and domain expiry with alerts, not memory.
• Keep DNS change history; most outages are a bad edit, not propagation.
• Test verification flows in staging with a throwaway subdomain.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_nh1Qf48eqrN3u998rwAbZw

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_nh1Qf48eqrN3u998rwAbZw

Thread query: dns propagation stuck new domain onboarding

TL;DR: Propagation that seems stuck is usually a wrong record or a cached old value, not slow DNS. Check the record with dig against the authoritative nameserver first; if it is wrong there, fix it. Only then blame caching, and lower the TTL for the next change.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Long onboarding runs compact the agent's context, the checklist state evaporates, and the agent redoubles finished steps or skips unfinished ones. The fix: keep the checklist outside the model's memory. Persist every step's state to a durable store as it completes, and have the agent reload the checklist from that store whenever it resumes. Context becomes a cache; the store is the truth.

The error

Agent (after compaction): "Starting onboarding: step 1 of 8..."
Reality: steps 1-5 already completed an hour ago

Steps

1. Confirm the loss pattern. Compare the agent's transcript before and after compaction against the real world. Expected output: completed steps reappear as pending after the compact.
2. Move checklist state to durable storage. Write each step's status (pending, done, failed) to a database or file as it completes. Expected output: the store shows 5 of 8 done, independent of the transcript.
3. Make the agent load state on resume. The first action after any resume is reading the checklist store. Expected output: the agent announces "resuming at step 6" instead of "starting."
4. Make steps idempotent anyway. Even with the store, a retried step must be safe. Expected output: re-running a completed step changes nothing.
5. Run a long onboarding past a compaction point. Expected output: the agent resumes at the correct step with no repeats.

When to use

• The agent repeats steps after long runs
• Progress resets visibly after context compaction or summarization
• Onboarding has enough steps to outlast one context window

When not to use

• The agent fails on step one: a prompt or tool problem, not state loss
• Steps fail for real errors: fix the errors, the checklist is fine
• The run is short enough to fit in context: keep it simple

Tool compatibility

Any agent framework with context compaction or summarization (long-running onboarding agents, multi-step provisioning bots). The external-state pattern works with any durable store: a database row, a JSON file, or a task tracker API.

Variant phrasings

agent forgot progress after compaction

Persist the checklist outside the transcript.

onboarding agent repeats steps

Load state from the store on every resume.

context window lost checklist

The store is the truth; context is a cache.

agent restarts onboarding from scratch

Resume from durable state, not from memory.

Why it happens

Summarization keeps the gist and drops the details, and a checklist is all details: which of 8 steps are done is exactly the kind of thing a summary compresses into "onboarding in progress." The agent wakes up with a vague sense of the task and no record of position, so it starts over or guesses. This is not a reasoning failure; it is an architecture failure. State that must survive summarization must live outside the summarization boundary, in storage the summarizer cannot touch.

Edge cases

• The store write fails silently: the agent thinks it saved progress and did not. Confirm writes or the store is as unreliable as memory.
• Two agent instances share one checklist: add a lock or owner field so they do not both resume step 6.
• The summary itself is wrong about the goal: persist the goal and constraints alongside the checklist, not just the step states.
• Compaction happens mid-step: record "in progress" with a timestamp so a resume can detect and safely retry the interrupted step.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_nt9HSf4pMY2qSMyokooJDQ

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_nt9HSf4pMY2qSMyokooJDQ

Thread query: onboarding agent lost checklist progress after context compaction

TL;DR: Long onboarding runs compact the agent's context, the checklist state evaporates, and the agent redoubles finished steps or skips unfinished ones. The fix: keep the checklist outside the model's memory. Persist every step's state to a durable store as it completes, and have the agent reload the checklist from that store whenever it resumes. Context becomes a cache; the store is the truth.