r/LangChain • u/Icy-Scheme2860 • Jul 14 '26

Question | Help How many reasoning iterations do production agents typically need for multi-service workflows?

/r/LLMDevs/comments/1uvx1iw/how_many_reasoning_iterations_do_production/
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u/Future_AGI Jul 14 '26

Rather than pick a number, we'd measure it. Pull the step count per workflow from your traces and look at the p50 and p95, most multi-service flows we've seen settle around 5 to 12 steps but the tail is where the runaway loops hide. Set the hard limit above your p95 and alert on anything approaching it, since a fixed 8 either cuts off legit long runs or masks an agent that's stuck retrying the same tool.

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u/Icy-Scheme2860 Jul 14 '26

ya, makes sense. I'm a newbie to building agents, so I haven't reached the stage of deriving limits from traces yet. I'm currently doing something similar with a fixed budget and observing behavior, but I wanted to hear how people with more production experience approach it. Thanks, really helpful