Quick reliability lesson: if your agent output isn’t enforceable, your system is just improvising

I used to think “better prompt” would fix everything.

Then I watched my system break because the agent returned:
Sure! { "route": "PLAN", }

So now I treat agent outputs like API responses:

• Strict JSON only (no “helpful” prose)
• Exact schema (keys + types)
• No extra keys
• Validate before the next step reads it
• Retry with validator errors (max 2)
• If missing info -> return unknown instead of guessing

It’s not glamorous, but it’s what turns “cool demo” into “works in production.”

If you’ve built agents: what’s your biggest source of failures, format drift, tool errors, or retrieval/routing?