HTTP 200 Is Not Evidence
I gave my agent an explicit rule. It broke it three times in one day, in the exact same way.
Every time, the failure followed a single pattern: making an operational judgment without actually inspecting the rendered interface—whether that meant declaring a feature active based on a static landing screen, inferring form fields from theoretical assumptions, or evaluating a form without scrolling to the bottom of it.
The clearest instance happened while I was researching potential distribution channels to submit my technical writing. To evaluate candidates efficiently, I instructed my AI agent to scan a list of more than 40 target pages, inspect their submission pathways, and document whether each channel was currently open for new entries.
Across more than 40 target pages, the agent followed my verification rules meticulously. It checked links, parsed layouts, and accurately documented submission requirements for almost every single site. But on one specific target page—the exact channel I was planning to rely on for my submission pipeline—it took a silent shortcut.
