What is a stop condition?

The rule that makes an agent halt, escalate, or pass the work to a person.

How does it work?

Every stop condition has four parts. They are a trigger, an action, an owner, and a resume rule. In AR, a recorded promise to pay triggers a halt, the collector on the account owns it, and a missed promise date resumes the chase. In a purchase, a price, item, or merchant outside the approved mandate sends the agent back for a new yes.

Where does the human gate sit?

When a customer disputes an invoice, the agent halts the chase and hands the thread to the dispute owner with the customer’s words attached. When cash lands short, it halts until an analyst decides if the gap is a deduction, a short pay, or a dispute. A passkey proves a person said yes once. It does not mark the moment the agent must ask again.

What does it change for the team?

Product must own stop conditions the way it owns pricing and permissions, in the spec with versions and measures. If risk owns every one, the result is a blanket review queue. If nobody owns them, the agent runs until a customer complains. Teams track how often each one fires, how fast the owner picks up, and how often the resume rule restarts the agent at the right time.

Which essays cover it?

• Stop Conditions Are the Product

@misc{couch2026whatisastopcondition,
  author = {Couch, Chris},
  title = {What is a stop condition?},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Lead to Cash},
  url = {https://chriscouch.ai/what-is/stop-condition/}
}