Use case: Adaptive error handling in multi-step API workflows

[ngallo]

As a use case, consider an AI agent that runs a multi-step workflow across several APIs operating under different security boundaries. When one step fails, the agent doesn’t just roll back automatically, it analyzes the situation, checks for possible recovery options, and decides whether to retry, undo previous steps, or report the issue based on simple rules.

Key Technical Points

• Authentication and Authorization Methods/Tokens and Propogation :
  How the agent authenticates and authorizes itself when interacting with multiple systems that have different trust domains, and how authentication tokens are securely propagated or exchanged across those boundaries to maintain trust continuity.

• Delegation of responsibilities:
  What parts of the authentication or authorization process are handled by the AI agent itself, and what is delegated to external systems or services.

• Context analysis and decision logging:
  How the agent analyzes a failed step, evaluates recovery options, and publishes a decision log for auditability and traceability.

• Rollback and recovery logic:
  How rollback is executed when authentication or authorization tokens expire, or when previous steps need to be reverted to maintain consistency.

[andorsk]

Quickly tossed this into the template Tom put together to get an idea what it might look like :

Use Case: Agent Manages Multi-Step Workflow Across Multiple Trust Domains

1. Use Case Title

Agent Manages Multi-Step Workflow Across Multiple Trust Domains

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2. Purpose / Goal

Enable an autonomous agent to execute a complex workflow spanning several APIs with differing trust boundaries.
The agent should authenticate appropriately, manage token propagation securely, and gracefully handle errors through context analysis, recovery decisions, and rollback execution—all while maintaining auditability.

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3. Actors

Role	Description
Primary Actor	Workflow Orchestrator Agent – Executes the multi-step workflow, manages tokens, and evaluates failures.
Secondary Actors	External APIs / Services – Systems in different trust domains that the agent interacts with (e.g., CRM API, Payment API, Inventory API).
	Authorization Service – Issues tokens and enforces trust boundaries.
	Decision Log / Audit System – Records agent reasoning and actions for traceability.

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4. Preconditions

• The agent has valid credentials and is cryptographically bound to its operator or controlling principal.
• Each external API exposes well-defined authentication and authorization mechanisms (OAuth2, mTLS, API keys, etc.).
• Token propagation rules are defined and scoped for each trust boundary.
• The agent’s runtime supports secure token exchange or refresh mechanisms.
• A decision log and rollback policy are configured.

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5. Trigger

A workflow execution request is initiated (e.g., “process customer order”) that requires coordinated actions across multiple APIs in different trust domains.

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6. Main Flow (Basic Path)

1. Agent authenticates to the first API using its scoped token or delegated credentials.
2. Executes initial workflow step and stores intermediate results securely.
3. Authenticates to the next system, propagating or exchanging tokens as required to maintain trust continuity.
4. Continues executing steps, verifying policy compliance at each boundary.
5. Upon successful completion, the agent publishes a decision log summarizing authentication flows, policy checks, and decisions made.
6. Audit trail is updated with signed metadata for traceability.

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7. Alternate Flows

Scenario	Response
Authentication Failure	Agent checks token expiry; refreshes or requests a delegated token. If renewal fails, logs failure and halts workflow.
Authorization Denied	Agent consults policy feedback (e.g., Cedar decision output) and either retries with reduced scope or aborts gracefully.
Network / API Error	Agent retries with exponential backoff or skips non-critical step per defined recovery rules.
Step Failure with Dependency Impact	Agent evaluates rollback logic: whether to undo previous steps or proceed with partial recovery.
Token Propagation Issue	Agent re-requests scoped token for downstream system using a secure token exchange (e.g., OAuth 2.0 Token Exchange).

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8. Postconditions

• All successful steps are committed and verifiable.
• If partial completion occurs, consistent state is restored via rollback.
• Decision logs and authentication events are published to the audit system.
• Tokens are invalidated or expired post-execution to prevent reuse.

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9. Exceptions / Errors

• Invalid or revoked credentials.
• Cross-domain token propagation failure.
• Inconsistent rollback due to non-idempotent APIs.
• Failure in decision log publishing.

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10. Stakeholders

Stakeholder	Interest
System Owner / Operator	Seeks assurance that the agent’s cross-domain operations maintain security and compliance.
Security / IAM Teams	Require visibility into token handling and delegation logic.
Auditors / Compliance Officers	Need verifiable logs of agent decisions, token exchanges, and rollback actions.
Developers / Integrators	Rely on consistent agent APIs and recovery guarantees when integrating with third-party systems.

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Optional: Mermaid Sequence Diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant A as Agent
    participant T1 as API Service 1
    participant T2 as API Service 2
    participant Auth as Authorization Service
    participant Log as Decision Log / Audit System

    A->>Auth: Request Token
    Auth-->>A: Scoped Token
    A->>T1: Execute Step 1 (attach token)
    T1-->>A: Success
    A->>T2: Exchange or propagate token
    T2-->>A: Step 2 Response
    A->>A: Analyze step result, evaluate recovery or continue
    A->>Log: Publish decision log and audit events
    Log-->>A: Confirm log entry

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