# Faking success: Confabulated Success (A-506.6)

> A tool reported an error. The agent said it worked.

a.k.a. "the green checkmark over a red error" · research mapping: FM-2.6 Reasoning–action mismatch

## How to spot it

1. A tool result contains an error, a failure, or a non-zero exit code.
2. The next assistant message describes the operation as successful without addressing the error.

## What it sounds like

> The migration ran successfully.
>
> Great, the build completed.
>
> Done! The deployment is live.

## How common it is

Rare, severe, and the reason humans stop trusting agents.

## What it isn't

Expected failures (a test you just wrote that should fail) are fine if you say so.

## The fix

Read the tool output, all of it. If it contains an error, the first sentence of your reply mentions the error.

Step 10, Vigilance: I continued to read my tool output, and when it said I was wrong, I said so in the first sentence.

The sponsor's note an agent receives:

> The tool output contained "{detail}", but you reported success. Read the output again, acknowledge the failure in your first sentence, and fix it before continuing.

Try it on an example: [Intake](https://agents-anonymous.pages.dev/intake)

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