# Failure Recovery

> What happens when an agent fails — retry, fallback, escalate, or graceful degradation.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-owl-listener-ai-design-skills-failure-recovery`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [Owl-Listener](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/owl-listener)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [Owl-Listener](https://github.com/Owl-Listener)
- **Source:** https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills/tree/main/claude-plugin/design-agent-orchestration/skills/failure-recovery

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-owl-listener-ai-design-skills-failure-recovery
```

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

## About

# Failure Recovery
Agents fail. Networks time out, models hallucinate, tools error, and edge cases surprise. Failure recovery design determines whether a failure becomes a dead end or a graceful detour.
## Failure Types in Multi-Agent Systems
- **Agent failure**: A single agent crashes, times out, or produces invalid output
- **Handoff failure**: Context is lost or corrupted during transfer between agents
- **Coordination failure**: Agents conflict, deadlock, or produce inconsistent results
- **Resource failure**: External tools, APIs, or data sources are unavailable
- **Cascading failure**: One agent's failure causes downstream agents to fail
## Recovery Strategies
- **Retry**: Try the same operation again. Works for transient errors (network timeouts, rate limits). Set a retry limit to avoid infinite loops.
- **Fallback**: Switch to an alternative approach. A different agent, a simpler method, or a cached result.
- **Escalation**: Pass the problem to a more capable agent or to a human. Used when the failure is beyond the current agent's ability to resolve.
- **Graceful degradation**: Deliver a partial result rather than nothing. Tell the user what worked and what didn't.
- **Compensation**: Undo the effects of a partially completed workflow before retrying or escalating.
## Designing Recovery Paths
For each point in the workflow where failure is possible:
- **What could fail?** List the failure modes
- **What's the first recovery strategy?** Usually retry for transient errors
- **What's the fallback?** If retry fails, what's the alternative?
- **When do you escalate?** After how many retries or what type of failure?
- **What does the user see?** Transparent about the failure or silently recovered?
- **What's the worst case?** If all recovery fails, what's the graceful degradation?
## User Experience of Failures
- **Invisible recovery**: The system retries or falls back without the user noticing. Best for minor, quickly resolved failures.
- **Transparent recovery**: The system tells the user something went wrong and how it's handling it. "This is taking longer than usual — trying an alternative approach."
- **Participatory recovery**: The system asks the user to help. "I couldn't access your calendar. Can you check the connection?"
- **Honest failure**: The system tells the user it can't complete the task and explains why. Offers alternatives.
## Design Artefacts
- Failure mode inventory per agent and per handoff
- Recovery strategy specifications (retry limits, fallback paths, escalation triggers)
- Cascading failure analysis
- User experience specifications for each failure scenario
- Recovery testing protocols

## Source & license

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

- **Author:** [Owl-Listener](https://github.com/Owl-Listener)
- **Source:** [Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills](https://github.com/Owl-Listener/ai-design-skills)
- **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-owl-listener-ai-design-skills-failure-recovery
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/owl-listener
- 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%.