Cascading Failure
A problem in which one failure triggers other failures across multiple stages, components, or failure types and spreads into broader downstream failure.
Example
One incorrect planning assumption leads successively to the wrong tool choice, an invalid execution, and a failure to update subsequent state.
Distinctions and cautions
Error Propagation emphasizes carrying an existing error into later steps; Cascading Failure emphasizes additional failures triggered by an earlier failure and spreading beyond it. Simply copying one error into several outputs does not necessarily constitute a cascade. The terminological boundary may vary with analytical purpose and the granularity of records.
Evidence
View evidence →
FAMA
- Title
- FAMA
- Author / organization
- UNKNOWN
- Year
- 2026
- Source type / publication status
- Findings ACL peer-reviewed research; published
- Supported concepts / claim context
- Error accumulation and Cascading Failure.
- Scope and limitations
- Conversational/tool environments, especially open-source models; depends on the environment/model.
- Access / version note
- Author or organization remains UNKNOWN in the source authority.
- Recorded official URL / DOI / identifier
- DOI:
10.18653/v1/2026.findings-acl.1716(DOI resolver)
EVOTOOL
- Title
- EVOTOOL
- Author / organization
- Yang et al.
- Year
- 2026
- Source type / publication status
- ACL peer-reviewed research; published
- Supported concepts / claim context
- Planner/selector/caller distinctions and cross-module propagation.
- Scope and limitations
- Modular architecture; not a universal architecture.
- Access / version note
- Published ACL.
- Recorded official URL / DOI / identifier
- DOI:
10.18653/v1/2026.acl-long.2016(DOI resolver)
BackdoorAgent
- Title
- BackdoorAgent
- Author / organization
- UNKNOWN
- Year
- 2026
- Source type / publication status
- Findings ACL peer-reviewed research; published
- Supported concepts / claim context
- Cross-stage propagation involving memory, tools and planning.
- Scope and limitations
- Adversarial backdoor setting; cannot be unconditionally generalized to naturally occurring failures.
- Access / version note
- Author or organization remains UNKNOWN in the source authority.
- Recorded official URL / DOI / identifier
- DOI:
10.18653/v1/2026.findings-acl.791(DOI resolver)