Auset Brain

PROVIDER_EXHAUSTION_ISSUE

4 min read

Provider Exhaustion Issue — CRITICAL (Mar 11, 2026)

Summary

All 7 API providers (Groq, Gemini, Cerebras, SambaNova, OpenRouter, local-qwen, local-llama) are EXHAUSTED, preventing ANY agent progress.

Timeline

Mar 11 00:00 UTC (Midnight)

  • Provider quotas reset (reported as “recovery occurred”)
  • Agents received new quotas

Mar 11 01:52-01:54 UTC (Fresh logs)

  • P59, P58, P61 showed log updates
  • Interpreted as “agents accelerating”
  • ACTUALLY: agents spinning in retry loops, not making real progress

Mar 11 15:30 UTC (11:30 AM ET)

  • CRITICAL: All quotas FULLY CONSUMED AGAIN
  • All 7 providers returning 429/503/400 errors
  • Agents stuck at iteration 4/50 for 14+ hours with ZERO progress
  • Quota consumption pattern: fully exhausted within 15.5 hours

Root Cause

Quota Consumption Problem: Agents are consuming quotas MUCH faster than expected.

  • Expected: quotas last 24 hours, allowing 50-100 iterations per task
  • Actual: quotas fully consumed in 15.5 hours (partial day)
  • Implications: agents can only run 50-65% of daily capacity before hitting limits

Affected Tasks

Currently Stuck (3/8 agents):

  • P59: Investor Seed Data (4/50 iterations, 8% progress)
  • P58: Admin Content Editors (14% progress)
  • P61: Real-Time Messaging (4/50 iterations, 8% progress)

Recently Failed (Fatal):

  • P60: Document Center + S3 (OpenRouter 503)
  • Clara task: quik-nation-ai-boilerplate (all 7 models failed)
  • P71: Vehicle Fields (all 7 models failed, stale since Mar 10 19:38)

Solution Options

Option 1: Wait for Provider Recovery (Current Plan)

  • Timeline: Midnight UTC Mar 12 (33 hours away)
  • Risk: Same issue will repeat if quota consumption pattern doesn’t change
  • Action: Hold all dispatch until midnight UTC Mar 12

Option 2: Upgrade to Premium/Paid Tiers (Possible)

  • Groq: Free tier has limits, premium available
  • Gemini: Standard API tier has rate limits
  • OpenRouter: Has usage-based billing
  • SambaNova: Free tier has quota limits
  • Cost: Unknown, requires research
  • Current agents making TOO MANY API calls per iteration
  • Reduce retry loops, batch operations, cache results
  • Owner: Opus (needs to review agentic-loop.js)
  • Shift complex tasks to M1 Mac (Llama 13B inference)
  • Llama 13B is faster (15-20 sec/response vs APIs 5-30 min)
  • Llama 13B is free (no API quotas)
  • Owner: Amen Ra + Amos (setup + integrate)

Critical Questions

  1. Why are quotas consumed so fast?

    • Are agents making unnecessary API calls?
    • Is the retry logic too aggressive?
    • Are tasks naturally harder than expected?

  2. Is this expected behavior?

    • Do other teams hit this issue?
    • Should we budget for paid API tiers?

  3. What’s the real capacity?

    • Can we run 1 agent 24/7 or 3 agents 8/7?
    • What’s the sustained throughput with current quotas?

Next Steps

  1. Monitor: Watch next provider recovery (midnight UTC Mar 12)
  2. Analyze: Check agentic-loop.js for inefficient API usage
  3. Plan: Determine if this is a permanent constraint or temporary issue
  4. Escalate: Amen Ra needs to decide: premium APIs vs Quik Cloud shift vs accept lower throughput

Status — RECURRING CRITICAL (Mar 10 22:35 ET / Mar 11 03:35 UTC)

CRITICAL UPDATE: Quota exhaustion recurred AGAIN with ALL 7 providers failing:

  • Time: Mar 10 10:35 PM ET (Mar 11 03:35 UTC)
  • ALL 7 providers returning 429/503 errors simultaneously
  • All 4 agents blocked (P59 iteration 9/50, P71 fatal, P58 iteration 4/50, P72 fatal)
  • Agentic loop completely frozen — zero API calls possible

Pattern Confirmed: This is NOT a one-time issue. Quotas are exhausted within ~15.5 hours of reset, matching the earlier pattern documented.

Implication: With current quota allocation, agents cannot sustain 24/7 operations. Max sustained capacity is ~60-65% of daily work.

Current: BLOCKED — All agents stuck, no dispatch possible Next window: Unknown — awaiting provider quota reset (could be 20+ hours)

Last Updated: Mar 10, 10:35 PM ET (Mar 11 03:35 UTC) by Haiku Monitoring: Continuous via /loop 5m (recurring every 5 minutes, job ID 989bd57c) Action Required: Amen Ra decision on quota upgrade vs. alternative strategy

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