Failure model (spec)

Failures are represented as immutable FailureArtifact objects.

FailureArtifact fields

A failure artifact MUST include:

• failure_class — machine-actionable classification
• category — operational_failure or epistemic_failure
• phase — canonical phase where the failure occurred
• recoverable — whether the runner may attempt recovery
• mode and message — how the failure was detected and what happened

Failure classes and profiles

Each FailureClass has a profile defining retryability, replayability, and category. The profile is the source of truth for how the runner and tooling may react.

FailureClass	Category	Retryable	Replayable
validation_error	operational	No	Yes
execution_error	operational	Yes	No
resource_exhaustion	operational	Yes	No
fatal_failure	operational	No	No
user_interruption	operational	No	Yes
budget_exceeded	operational	No	Yes
max_iterations	operational	No	Yes
verification_veto	operational	No	Yes
epistemic_uncertainty	epistemic	No	Yes

Invariants

• Every FailureClass MUST have a profile.
• A failure artifact’s category MUST match the profile’s category.
• If recoverable is true, the profile MUST mark the class retryable.

(Implementation reference: src/bijux_agent/pipeline/results/failure.py.)