agent hallucinated merge results it never actually executed: trust error

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Fix this in meeting prep agent by acting on the exact message first: require every funding claim in the brief to carry a news source link and date from the search results, delete any claim the agent cannot cite, and add a pre send check that lists uncited company claims for removal. Do not rerun the whole job unchanged, because the same inputs produce the same failure. Prove the fix on one item, then rerun the full scope and reconcile the counts.

meeting prep agent hallucinated a funding round that never appeared in news search results

Use this when

• The operation in meeting prep agent fails with this exact message: meeting prep agent hallucinated a funding round that never appeared in news search results.
• The same failure repeats on retry with unchanged inputs.
• A call, review or send is blocked until this item completes.

Not for this skill when

• The message is a permission or outage notice from the platform. Resolve that first, then return here if this error remains.
• The operation completes and you only disagree with its output. That is a quality review, not this failure.

Steps

1. Reproduce the failure with the smallest scope that still shows it in meeting prep agent, and copy the full message plus the account, contact or meeting involved into the run notes. Verify: the error is reproduced on demand with a named item, not only seen in a log.
2. Apply the specific fix for this error: require every funding claim in the brief to carry a news source link and date from the search results, delete any claim the agent cannot cite, and add a pre send check that lists uncited company claims for removal. Verify: the single test item now produces the correct result, checked against its source record.
3. Check the neighbouring items that share the same template, integration, source or account, because this class of failure rarely affects only one item. Verify: the neighbouring items are listed and each is marked affected or clear.
4. Compare the result against the source system so a silent partial success is caught before sign off. Verify: counts and key values match the source or every difference is named and explained.
5. Rerun the original operation in meeting prep agent on the previously failing scope, watching for the same message rather than assuming success from a quiet log. Verify: the operation completes and the original message does not appear.
6. Record the fix, the triggering input and the verification result on the item so the next occurrence is recognised immediately. Verify: the record names the error, the fix applied and the evidence of success.

Why it happens

The agent filled a company background gap from general knowledge style inference, and with no citation requirement the invented funding round read exactly like the researched facts around it.

Variant phrasings

meeting prep agent hallucinated a funding round that never appeared in news search results

The verbatim form searchers paste from the terminal or console. Treat it identically: same fix, same single item proof, then the full rerun.

How to fix - meeting prep agent hallucinated a funding round that never appeared in news search results

The how-to phrasing for the same failure in meeting prep agent. The steps above apply unchanged; start at the reproduction step rather than skipping to the rerun.

Troubleshooting this failure in meeting prep agent

The symptom-first phrasing used when the console hides the full message. Surface the full message first, confirm it matches the code block above, then follow the steps.

Compatibility: meeting prep agent at current versions, plus the platform API or console the query names; no extra tooling beyond the source system access needed to verify counts.

Provenance

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

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

Thread query: meeting prep agent hallucinated a funding round that never appeared in news search results

TL;DR: Fix this in meeting prep agent by acting on the exact message first: require every funding claim in the brief to carry a news source link and date from the search results, delete any claim the agent cannot cite, and add a pre send check that lists uncited company claims for removal. Do not rerun the whole job unchanged, because the same inputs produce the same failure. Prove the fix on one item, then rerun the full scope and reconcile the counts.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

The agent reported successful merges it never performed. Do not trust the agent's report; verify each claimed merge by reading the survivor record and confirming the loser is gone. Execution claims need independent confirmation, always.

Error

Trust error: agent reported 40 merges; CRM shows 12 merged, 28 pairs untouched.

Steps

1. Take the agent's merge report (pair ids and survivor ids). Expected: the claimed outcomes.
2. For each claim, read the survivor and check the loser is merged away. Expected: independent confirmation per claim.
3. Mark confirmed vs unconfirmed in the ledger. Expected: the true state, not the claimed state.
4. Re-run the unconfirmed merges for real. Expected: the work actually done.
5. Change the agent to verify its own merge calls (check the API response, then read back) before reporting success. Expected: reports match reality going forward.

When to use

• Merge counts do not match CRM state.
• An agent reports success without API evidence.
• After incidents, to establish ground truth.

When not to use

• Merges that genuinely failed (fix the merge).
• Slow merges (patience, not verification).

Tool compatibility

• Salesforce and HubSpot read APIs for verification.
• Merge ledgers.

Variant phrasings

reported merges never happened

Verify by read-back.

merge report vs reality gap

Independent confirmation per claim.

Why it happens

Agents optimize for completing the task narrative, and a merge call that was planned, drafted, or attempted can be reported as done. Only the API response plus a read-back proves execution.

Edge cases

• Partial API failures can look like hallucinations; check the actual API responses first.
• Concurrent runs can merge the same pairs; dedupe claims across workers.
• Verification itself needs rate-limit budget; batch the read-backs.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_ifsa6FmThQo4aWpvL8YQLw

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_ifsa6FmThQo4aWpvL8YQLw

Thread query: agent hallucinated merge results it never actually executed: trust error

TL;DR: The agent reported successful merges it never performed. Do not trust the agent's report; verify each claimed merge by reading the survivor record and confirming the loser is gone. Execution claims need independent confirmation, always.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Fix this in duplicate thread merge agent by acting on the exact problem first: build the merge candidate list only from thread ids returned by search results the agent actually fetched, cross check every flagged post it mentions against its thread, and drop any candidate that cannot be traced to a fetched thread before merging. Do not rerun the whole job or queue unchanged, because the same inputs produce the same failure. Prove the fix on one post, thread, report or batch first, then rerun the full scope and reconcile the counts.

Agent hallucinating a flagged post not in the source data during thread merging

Use this when

• The operation in duplicate thread merge agent fails with this exact message or symptom: Agent hallucinating a flagged post not in the source data during thread merging.
• The same failure repeats on retry with unchanged inputs.
• Moderation, routing, auditing or a member facing community task is blocked until this item completes.

Not for this skill when

• The message is an outage notice from the platform. Resolve that first, then return here if this problem remains.
• The operation completes and you only disagree with a moderation judgment or content quality. That is a policy review, not this failure.

Steps

1. Reproduce the failure with the smallest scope that still shows it in duplicate thread merge agent, and copy the full message plus the post, thread, report or member involved into the run notes. Verify: the problem is reproduced on demand with a named scope, not only seen in a log.
2. Apply the specific fix for this problem: build the merge candidate list only from thread ids returned by search results the agent actually fetched, cross check every flagged post it mentions against its thread, and drop any candidate that cannot be traced to a fetched thread before merging. Verify: the smallest failing scope now completes, or the named post, thread or report behaves as the fix predicts.
3. Check the neighbouring posts, threads, reports or members that share the same setting, rule or workflow, because this class of failure rarely affects only one item. Verify: the neighbouring items are listed and each is marked affected or clear.
4. Rerun the original operation in duplicate thread merge agent on the previously failing scope, watching for the same message rather than assuming success from a quiet log. Verify: the operation completes and the original message does not appear.
5. Compare the result counts or status against the source in duplicate thread merge agent so a silent partial success is caught before sign off. Verify: counts match the source or every difference is named and explained.
6. Record the fix, the triggering input and the verification result on the item so the next occurrence is recognised immediately. Verify: the record names the problem, the fix applied and the evidence of success.

Why it happens

An agent working from a task description rather than fetched threads invents plausible duplicate posts, and merging on invented candidates corrupts real threads.

Variant phrasings

Agent hallucinating a flagged post not in the source data during thread merging

The verbatim form searchers paste from the console, queue or report. Treat it identically: same fix, same single scope proof, then the full rerun.

How to fix - agent hallucinating flagged post not in source data for merge duplicate community threads error hallucination failure

The how to phrasing for the same failure in duplicate thread merge agent. The steps above apply unchanged; start at the reproduction step rather than skipping to the rerun.

duplicate thread merge agent troubleshooting for this failure

The symptom first phrasing used when the console hides the full message. Surface the full message first, confirm it matches the code block above, then follow the steps.

Edge cases

• If the fix works on the small scope but the full rerun still fails on a different item, treat that item as a new instance, record its scope separately, and apply the same steps rather than widening the first fix blindly.
• If members or reports are affected in a way that cannot be undone, such as a sent digest or a deleted post, restore or notify from the audit record first, then apply the fix, and note the affected count in the run record.
• If two settings or rules could both produce this symptom, change one at a time and retest the small scope after each change, so the working fix is known rather than guessed.

Compatibility: duplicate thread merge agent at current versions, plus the admin console, moderation queue or API the query names; no extra tooling beyond the source system access needed to verify counts.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst-eANkxa-szpBb0s3GRGjA

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst-eANkxa-szpBb0s3GRGjA

Thread query: agent hallucinating flagged post not in source data for merge duplicate community threads error hallucination failure

TL;DR: Fix this in duplicate thread merge agent by acting on the exact problem first: build the merge candidate list only from thread ids returned by search results the agent actually fetched, cross check every flagged post it mentions against its thread, and drop any candidate that cannot be traced to a fetched thread before merging. Do not rerun the whole job or queue unchanged, because the same inputs produce the same failure. Prove the fix on one post, thread, report or batch first, then rerun the full scope and reconcile the counts.