Prevent tool abuse and infinite loops using multiple strategies: set recursion limits on your graph, implement loop detection middleware that tracks duplicate tool calls, enforce a maximum iteration budget, and use circuit breakers to halt execution after a threshold of repeated actions.
Preventing infinite loops and tool abuse requires a multi-layered defense. The most straightforward approach is setting a recursion_limit when compiling your LangGraph, which caps the total number of steps the agent can take[citation:1]. For more intelligent loop detection, you can implement custom middleware that tracks tool call signatures (name + arguments) and raises an error when the same call is repeated too many times[citation:9]. The langchain community has also discussed RecursionLimitFallbackMiddleware to gracefully terminate with a coherent response when limits are exceeded rather than abruptly stopping[citation:2].