How a run ends

An agent that ends with a conclusion (see below) gets the conclude tool, to end a run on purpose: no_op when there is nothing to report (no finding is recorded), or a finding with a verdict about a named entity. With a finding it also gives:

• headline: one line of up to 100 characters, what was found in the reader’s terms.
• next_step: up to 300 characters, what a person should do; empty when nothing needs doing.

These are what the project’s Overview shows on each card, and agents are told to give both. For a run without them, Tares takes the headline from the note’s heading, bold lead or first sentence, and the next step from the text after “Next step:”, “Next:” or “Recommendation:”. See Watch, then escalate.

Set it on the agent

The agent form’s How it ends section sets how a run finishes:

• Ends every run with a conclusion (concludes: true): the agent always gets the conclude tool, whatever its prompt says, and Tares adds the instructions for it, so the prompt only describes the job. If a run stops without concluding, Tares asks once more with conclude as the only choice. Off, the agent’s last message is its finding, with no verdict. An agent whose prompt names conclude still gets the tool, as before; tick the box to make it required.
• Verdicts it can give (verdicts): your own words, each with when to give it. Up to 10, each one word (letters, digits, dashes), listed once, and not no_op (nothing to report is always possible). With a list, the tool accepts only those words and tells the model what each means, a finding must carry one, and an off-list word or a missing verdict goes back to the agent to fix within the same run. Without a list, a finding can carry any verdict, or none.

agents:
  - name: triage
    trigger: watch-web
    concludes: true
    verdicts:
      - { verdict: investigate, when: one entity looks like a problem and needs a closer look }
    prompt: |
      ...

The Triage (on a schedule) preset comes with investigate; Root cause after a handoff with rca (you found what is failing and why) and resolved (it was noise, or it is already over). The agent’s summary shows how it ends, and its handoffs key off these words.