Agents & tools · Glossary term

What is Compensating Action?

A deliberate operation that semantically counteracts a completed side effect when the original operation cannot be rolled back atomically.

Why does Compensating Action matter?

Multi-step agent workflows cross databases and external services where a later failure cannot undo earlier writes through one transaction.

If a booking workflow charges a card but the reservation fails, issue a tracked refund and preserve both events rather than deleting history.

Compensation is a new business action, not time travel. It can fail and therefore needs idempotency, monitoring, and escalation.

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Durable ExecutionRunning a workflow so its state and completed steps survive process crashes, restarts, or long waits without redoing confirmed side effects.
IdempotencyThe property that repeating the same operation with the same identity does not create additional side effects beyond the first successful…
CheckpointA durable snapshot used to resume from a known boundary. In a workflow, it stores operational state and artifact references.
Approval GateA control point that blocks a consequential action until an authorized person or policy grants permission.