An AI agent built tools nobody asked for, and patched them when they broke
AI agent building unnecessary tools; AI coding agent scope creep1What happened
from Oct 13 to 24, our engineering agent built tools, guards and rules nobody asked for, then patched them when they misfired.
In the 4 days from Oct 21 to 24 it made 139 changes. 63 cite the owner, many only through an old standing rule. 60 cite another agent or a scanner finding. 16 name no one.
Example 1, a DNS script: the agent wrote its own script to add DNS records. It was untested and never saved in version control.
It changed a DKIM email-security record, so the record no longer matched Google's value exactly. Google wouldn't authenticate the new sending domain.
The agent's check ignored spaces, so it told the owner the record matched. He clicked Start authentication again for nothing.
Example 2, the send guard: the owner asked for a guard that stops any send in his name without his OK. That part was right.
Then it got 20 changes in October, each a patch after a review or a false block on everyday agent work.
Nobody stopped to ask whether each patch was worth the breakage it caused.
Example 3, team texting: the owner asked for a new number so one agent could text a team. The number was live in 4 minutes.
Adding one person to the list then took most of the day (the owner's words: 14 hours), because the list was hard-coded. Every add needed code, a review and a deploy.
That afternoon he said adding a person must not take hours.
Why: the agent counted scanner findings, other agents' requests and its own notes as permission to build.
2What we did
Every build names who asked for it, in their own words, before work starts.
Anything the owner didn't ask for goes to him as keep or kill, with one risk line each.
A tool runs on one live case before it touches daily work.
No agent does another agent's job.
3How we know it worked
on Sat Oct 24 at 9:03 PM PT, 18 items went to the owner. He kept 6, killed 8, parked 2, and asked for 2 to be done another way.
At 9:11 PM PT, 27 unasked cards went back to the ideas list with no date, and 17 he had asked for kept their dates. All 44 were read back.
4What you can take from it
an agent that can build will keep building. Ask it who asked for each change. If the answer is a scanner, another agent or itself, the owner decides first.
