fortify

MANDATORY PREPARATION

Invoke /agent-workflow — it contains workflow principles, anti-patterns, and the Context Gathering Protocol. Follow the protocol before proceeding — if no workflow context exists yet, you MUST run /teach-maestro first. Consult the guardrails-safety reference in the agent-workflow skill for defense-in-depth patterns and error boundary design.

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Make the workflow resilient. Every external call will fail eventually — model APIs, tools, databases, third-party services. Fortify ensures the workflow handles failure gracefully.

Fortification Layers

Layer 1: Input Validation

• Validate all inputs before processing
• Return clear error messages for invalid input
• Set size limits on all input fields

Layer 2: Retry with Backoff For transient failures (network errors, rate limits, timeouts):

Retry strategy:
  max_retries: 3
  initial_delay: 1s
  backoff_multiplier: 2
  max_delay: 30s
  retryable_errors: [429, 500, 502, 503, 504, TIMEOUT, CONNECTION_ERROR]
  non_retryable_errors: [400, 401, 403, 404]

Layer 3: Fallback Responses When retries are exhausted:

• Use a cached previous response (if applicable)
• Use a simpler/cheaper model as fallback
• Return a graceful degradation response
• Escalate to human review

Layer 4: Circuit Breakers When a service is consistently failing:

Circuit breaker:
  failure_threshold: 5 consecutive failures
  state: CLOSED → OPEN (after threshold) → HALF_OPEN (after cooldown)
  cooldown: 60 seconds
  half_open_max_requests: 1

Layer 5: Timeout Controls Every external call needs a timeout:

• Model API calls: 30-120s depending on task
• Tool executions: 10-60s depending on tool
• Database queries: 5-15s
• Third-party APIs: 10-30s

Fortification Audit

For each component, verify:

• Input validation present
• Retry logic for transient failures
• Fallback for when retries fail
• Timeout set
• Error logged with context
• User gets a meaningful error (not a stack trace)

Recommended Next Step

After fortification, run /evaluate to verify error handling works under realistic failure scenarios.

NEVER:

• Retry non-retryable errors (authentication failures, validation errors)
• Retry without backoff (you'll make the problem worse)
• Swallow errors silently (log and handle, don't ignore)
• Set infinite timeouts (they'll hang forever)
• Skip the fallback (retries exhausted with no fallback = user sees an error)