#6320 Workflow builder loops on get_flow, never proposes workflow — circuit breaker halts run · openhuman

Description

The workflow builder agent enters a get_flow repeat loop on every attempt to create or revise a workflow. The circuit breaker fires, the turn is halted, and the agent falls back to asking a clarifying question. No workflow is ever proposed or created. The user is stuck in an infinite clarification loop.

Observed on v0.63.29, flow a142eaa5-dd8b-493e-a37f-c8cf13c67839, 4 consecutive turns all exhibiting the same failure.

Steps to Reproduce

Open OpenHuman v0.63.29
Navigate to Workflows
Create a new workflow or open an existing one
In the workflow builder chat, describe a workflow to build or ask it to revise
Observe: builder thinks for 1–2 minutes, then asks a clarifying question instead of proposing the workflow
Repeat step 4 — same result every time

Expected Behaviour

The workflow builder iterates, calls propose_workflow or create_workflow, and presents a workflow graph to the user for approval.

Actual Behaviour

Agent calls get_flow repeatedly in a loop with the same arguments
successful-repeat tracker circuit breaker fires and halts the run: WRN: repeat_progress [tinyagents::mw] crate successful-repeat tracker halted the run tool=get_flow
Turn closes with halted=true verdict=Some(Reject) after 10 tool calls
flows_build reports has_proposal=false trail_off=true on every turn — no proposal is ever generated
Agent falls back to asking a clarifying question (fallback_len=146)
Turn latency: 58s, 133s, 81s per attempt

Log evidence (all from flow a142eaa5-dd8b-493e-a37f-c8cf13c67839):

21:37:07 WRN:repeat_progress [tinyagents::mw] crate successful-repeat tracker halted the run tool=get_flow
21:37:28 WRN:flows flows_build: trail-off detected (no proposal, no cap, no question) has_proposal=false trail_off=true
21:40:36 WRN:repeat_progress [tinyagents::mw] crate successful-repeat tracker halted the run tool=get_flow
21:40:53 INF:log [agent_loop] closed turn from tool records after 10 tool call(s): halted=true verdict=Some(Reject) fallback=true — #4093 #6278 #6279
21:40:53 WRN:flows flows_build: trail-off detected (no proposal, no cap, no question) has_proposal=false trail_off=true

All 4 turns complete with:

flows_build: workflow_builder turn complete flow_id="a142eaa5..." has_proposal=false hit_cap=false capped=false trail_off=true

Contributing factor — transcript trimming:

WRN:log [transcript] resume prefix trimmed from 64 to 47 messages (max_history_messages=50)
WRN:log [transcript] resume prefix trimmed from 54 to 48 messages (max_history_messages=50)
WRN:log [transcript] resume prefix trimmed from 56 to 49 messages (max_history_messages=50)

Agent is losing its own prior turns and re-doing the same get_flow lookups from scratch each time, which may be triggering the repeat-detection.

Impact

P1 — Workflow creation is completely broken. Users cannot create or edit any workflow. Every attempt ends in a clarifying question after a 1–2 minute wait. Core feature unusable.

Acceptance Criteria

workflow_builder calls propose_workflow or create_workflow within the first 3 iterations for a straightforward workflow request
get_flow is not called more than once per turn for the same flow_id
Circuit breaker (successful-repeat tracker) does not fire during normal workflow creation
Turn completes with has_proposal=true and a graph is presented to the user
Turn latency for workflow creation is under 30s