# Compensation Saga Runtime

> Design and review compensation and Saga runtime behavior for agent workflows. Use when handling multi-step side effects, rollback plans, irreversible actions, compensation ordering, manual escalation, cancellation cleanup, or audit-linked recovery flows.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-hsienw-ai-agent-engineering-playbook-compensation-saga-runtime`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [HsienW](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/hsienw)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [HsienW](https://github.com/HsienW)
- **Source:** https://github.com/HsienW/ai-agent-engineering-playbook/tree/master/skills-runtime-governance/compensation-saga-runtime

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-hsienw-ai-agent-engineering-playbook-compensation-saga-runtime
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# Compensation Saga Runtime

## Skill Interface

- Name: compensation-saga-runtime.
- Description: Design and review compensation and Saga runtime behavior for multi-step side effects, rollback plans, irreversible actions, compensation ordering, manual escalation, cancellation cleanup, and audit-linked recovery flows.
- Parameters: Completed side-effecting steps, failure point, reversible and irreversible actions, dependency order, audit trail, idempotency keys, retry and timeout policy, manual escalation rules, and verification cases.
- Instructions: Use this skill when an agent workflow performs side effects across several steps. Build compensation from completed steps, run it in policy-defined order, record failures, mark irreversible actions, and test cancellation, duplicate compensation, timeout, and audit reconstruction.

Compensation defines recovery for completed side effects when a later step
fails or the user cancels.

## Core Types

```ts
type CompensationAction = {
  actionId: string;
  description: string;
  execute: () => Promise;
  isReversible: boolean;
};

type CompensationPlan = {
  taskId: string;
  completedSteps: string[];
  failurePoint: string;
  actions: CompensationAction[];
};
```

## Planning Rules

- Build compensation plans from completed side-effecting steps only.
- Never compensate steps that did not execute.
- Run compensation in reverse dependency order unless a domain policy says
  otherwise.
- Mark irreversible actions and escalate them for manual handling.
- Store compensation events in the same audit trail as the original operation.
- Pair compensation with idempotency so retries do not duplicate rollback work.

## Execution Rules

- A failed compensation must not be silently swallowed.
- Compensation failure should record state, reason code, and manual follow-up.
- Cancellation may require compensation when side effects already happened.
- Compensation should have its own timeout, retry policy, and idempotency key.
- The runtime should distinguish original failure from compensation failure.

## Common Scenarios

- A resource was reserved and the user cancelled: release the reservation.
- A status was changed and a later notification failed: decide whether to keep
  the status or restore it based on policy.
- An irreversible notification was sent: mark as irreversible and create a
  correction or manual follow-up.
- A downstream create succeeded but later enrichment failed: keep the created
  resource and retry enrichment if policy allows.

## Verification

Test reverse-order compensation, irreversible actions, compensation timeout,
compensation failure escalation, duplicate compensation requests, cancellation
after side effect, and audit trail reconstruction.

## Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [HsienW](https://github.com/HsienW)
- **Source:** [HsienW/ai-agent-engineering-playbook](https://github.com/HsienW/ai-agent-engineering-playbook)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-hsienw-ai-agent-engineering-playbook-compensation-saga-runtime
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/hsienw
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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Listed on AgentStack — the marketplace for AI agent skills and MCP servers. Every listing is security-reviewed. Creators keep 70%.