Common issues

An agent’s calls are not showing up#

Symptom: the agent works, but nothing appears in Activity or Agents.

Cause: the agent is calling a tool that is not an ability, or it is signed in as a logged-in browser session rather than as an agent.

Fix:

1. Open Agent Control > Risk and check that the action the agent uses is listed there.
2. If it is not, your MCP plugin runs it as its own tool, outside the Abilities API, and Ability Gate cannot gate it. Check whether the plugin offers an ability-based alternative.
3. Make sure the agent uses an Application Password, not a browser cookie session. Or set Scope to “All REST callers”.
4. Check that Gate enabled is ticked in Settings.

Every call from a new agent is denied#

Symptom: the agent gets “This agent is paused by the site administrator”.

Cause: New agents start paused is on, or someone paused the agent.

Fix:

1. Open Agent Control > Agents.
2. Set the agent’s mode to Restricted.

Rollback refuses to run#

Symptom: the request screen says rows have changed since the request ran.

Cause: drift: someone or something edited the same data after the agent did.

Fix:

1. Read the list of changed rows on the request screen.
2. If you want the agent’s change undone and the later edits overwritten, tick Override changes made since and click Roll back again.
3. If the request also had external effects, tick I understand external effects are not undone as well.

The snapshot is partial#

Symptom: the request screen says “The snapshot is partial: some writes were not recorded and cannot be undone.”

Cause: the action changed a table without a primary key, changed the database schema, wrote to a table outside your site’s prefix, wrote more than 5,000 rows in one statement, or used a statement Ability Gate could not parse.

Fix:

1. Roll back to restore everything that was recorded.
2. Repair the rest by hand, or from your regular backup.
3. Consider a rule that holds that ability for approval, so you can preview it first next time.

The agent says the result is no longer available#

Symptom: after approval, the agent repeats the call and is told the request already ran but its result is no longer available.

Cause: the result was already collected once, or more than 24 hours passed.

Fix: do not ask the agent to repeat the call, or the action runs again as a new request. Check the outcome on the request screen, or have the agent call ability-gate/get-request.

AI features stopped working#

Symptom: a plugin’s AI features fail with an error about usage limits.

Cause: that plugin, or the whole site, reached its monthly token budget.

Fix:

1. Open Agent Control > AI Usage and check the limits.
2. Raise or remove the limit, or wait for the next month.

No approval emails arrive#

Fix:

1. Check Approver emails in Settings (the site admin email is used when empty).
2. Make sure your site can send email; an SMTP plugin helps on many hosts.
3. The admin bar count and Agent Control > Approvals always show waiting requests.