Agents Need Stop Buttons And Timeouts

# Agents Need Stop Buttons And Timeouts

Every serious system needs a clear way to stop.

This sounds obvious, but many agentic products still behave as if retries, long-running loops, and background attempts are harmless by default. They are not. Unbounded execution is how costs drift, state corrupts, and operators lose the ability to understand what the system is doing.

## Minimum control layer

- per-step timeout
- workflow-level timeout
- operator-visible cancel action
- explicit final status on termination

## Why this is not optional

Control is part of trust. Systems that cannot be interrupted cleanly do not feel capable. They feel dangerous.

## The product point

A stop button is not an admission of weakness. It is an expression of design maturity.