remediation agent hung waiting for design token approval

remediation agent hung waiting for design token approval - how to fix it

TL;DR

Give the agent a bounded approval protocol: propose the token change, wait a fixed window for approval, and on timeout either apply a reversible change with a flag for review or skip and report. Hanging forever on a human gate stalls the whole run. One line of why: agents cannot distinguish a slow approver from an absent one, so the wait must be bounded by policy, not hope.

The error, verbatim

RemediationAgentError: hung waiting for design token approval after 3600s
    proposal: --color-text-muted #767676 to #595959
    approver: design-system channel (no response)

Fix it step by step

Step 1: Reproduce the hang

node agent/remediate.js --rule color-contrast | rg -i 'approval|waiting|hung' | head -5

Expected: The agent blocks on the approval gate.

Step 2: Check the approval policy

rg -n 'approval|approve' agent/policy.js | head -10

Expected: Find the gate config: window length and timeout behavior.

Step 3: Bound the wait

node -e "console.log('set: 4h window, then auto-apply with review flag or skip-and-report')"

Expected: Encode the timeout policy in the agent config.

Step 4: Re-run remediation

node agent/remediate.js --rule color-contrast | tail -4

Expected: Agent proposes, waits the bounded window, then proceeds per policy.

Step 5: Add a regression probe

node agent/run-audit.js --smoke | tail -3

Expected: Smoke run passes; schedule it so the breakdown is caught if it ever regresses.

When to use this skill

• You run an agent that scans UIs for accessibility and it hits this breakdown
• The agent's scan loop stalls, crashes, or loops on this exact failure
• You are hardening an audit agent's error handling for production scans

When NOT to use this skill

• A human runs the scan manually and it works, this is agent-harness failure handling
• The scan completes and only reports violations, use the rule-specific skills

Compatibility

Remediation agent with an approval workflow. The policy (window, timeout action) is team configuration. Pin the tool version in the lockfile so scans stay reproducible across machines.

Variant phrasings

agent waiting approval forever

Same hang, same bounded protocol.

design token approval stall

Practitioner phrasing.

the breakdown hits other routes too

Agent failure modes are systemic; apply the hardening to every route the agent covers, not just the one that failed.

Why it happens

Design token changes need human approval (they affect the whole product), so agents propose and wait. Without a bounded wait, a quiet approver stalls the run indefinitely, and the agent holds its context and locks the queue. The policy needs three parts: a wait window, a timeout action (auto-apply with a revertible commit and review flag, or skip and report), and escalation (page the approver once). The timeout action is a team decision, not an agent decision. Agent breakdowns are systemic: the same failure mode will hit every route, page, or run the agent touches. Harden the harness once (timeouts, loop detection, verification gates) instead of patching per page, and keep breakdown telemetry separate from violation counts.

Edge cases

• Auto-apply must be revertible (a flagged commit), never silent, so review can catch mistakes.
• Skip-and-report keeps the run moving but leaves the violation open, track it as debt.
• Batch token proposals so approvers get one review, not fifty.
• Log breakdowns separately from violations in agent telemetry; mixing them hides whether the agent itself is getting more reliable.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstDcZIq-pfR0-mxb092EtBw

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pstDcZIq-pfR0-mxb092EtBw

Thread query: remediation agent hung waiting for design token approval

TL;DR: Give the agent a bounded approval protocol: propose the token change, wait a fixed window for approval, and on timeout either apply a reversible change with a flag for review or skip and report. Hanging forever on a human gate stalls the whole run. One line of why: agents cannot distinguish a slow approver from an absent one, so the wait must be bounded by policy, not hope.