agent failed to write findings back: report locked by another approver
Handles agent write-back failures on locked expense reports with lock checks and queued retries. Use when an agent cannot write audit findings because the report is locked. Not for permission-denied errors.
TL;DR
An approver has the report open, so the agent's write is rejected. Check the lock before writing, queue the findings, and retry with backoff; never lose findings because a report was temporarily locked.
Error
agent failed to write findings back: report locked by another approverSteps
- Before writing, check whether the report is locked and by whom. Expected: you know the lock holder.
- If locked, save the findings to the agent's queue with the report ID and timestamp. Expected: no findings are lost.
- Retry the write with exponential backoff (minutes, not seconds; approvers hold locks for a while). Expected: the write lands when the lock releases.
- After a successful write, verify the findings appear on the report. Expected: the audit comments or flags are visible.
- Set a maximum retry window (for example, 24 hours); after that, notify a human instead of retrying forever. Expected: stuck writes escalate instead of spinning.
When to use
- An agent's write-back fails because the report is locked.
- Findings must not be lost when a write is rejected.
When not to use
- The write fails with permission denied (a credentials or role problem).
- The report was deleted (nothing to write to).
Tool compatibility
- Expensify, Concur report-locking behavior; custom agent write-back.
Variant phrasings
Report locked, cannot save findings
Same failure, shorter wording.
Write rejected: report in use
The concurrency phrasing of the same lock.
Why it happens
Expense tools lock reports during human review to prevent conflicting edits. An agent writing on its own schedule collides with those locks; queued retries bridge the timing gap.
Provenance
Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_uPnJuj8O7opyQOLz3dnC6Q