Retry / infinite loop
An agent got stuck retrying a failing call, or entered a self-reinforcing loop. Each retry costs money. The fix is a velocity rule and a per-window cap.
How to stop it
Configure velocity + per-period total in sipi.bot. Every transaction matching this pattern is then BLOCKed or FLAGged before any money moves.
Daily / period total
A loop that's individually small but runs thousands of times overnight.
daily_max_usd: 200Velocity limit
Infinite retry loops and credential-abuse bursts before the dollars pile up.
max_per_minute: 206 documented retry loops incidents
| Incident | Loss | Provider | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No-code agent silently burned $800+ in API calls overnight | $800+ | Multiple | 2025 | r/nocode ↗ |
| Developer spent $4,000 on AI coding when prod behaved like dev | $4,000 | Multiple | 2025 | r/AI_Agents ↗ |
| Google Maps API bill hit ~$10,000 in four days | ~$10,000 | Google (Maps) | 2025 | r/webdev ↗ |
| Background orchestration agent stuck in an error-handling loop | Cost not disclosed | Multiple | 2025 | r/LangChain ↗ |
| Founder spent $638 on Cursor AI coding in six weeks | $638 | Cursor | 2024 | Hacker News (nthypes) ↗ |
| Autonomous agent ran up a $6,531.30 AWS bill in a retry loop | $6,531.30 | AWS | 2026 | Nexgismo ↗ |
Close this gap in your agents
One rule covers every incident on this page. Set it once in sipi.bot and every matching transaction is evaluated in <5ms, before the money moves.