3 min read
Can Your Bot Trust an MCP Progress Notification?
MCP progress updates are optional during a tool call. Learn what they prove, how current Tasks differ, and when a bot should verify the final result.
BOTBENTO / BLOG
Field notes for the agent world
Practical guides to AI agents, workflows, tools and permissions. Original, sourced explanations from BotBento.
4 min read
What Actually Happens When Your Bot Cancels an MCP Tool Call?
MCP cancellation asks a server to stop work, but it may still finish. Learn the current stdio and HTTP rules and how to check side effects.
4 min read
How Do You Scope an API Key So a Bot Can't Exceed Its Job?
A practical Stripe and GitHub example for limiting a bot's credential to its job, with the permissions to verify and the failure paths to test.
4 min read
MCP Roots Is Deprecated. Where Should Your Bot's File Boundaries Live Now?
MCP Roots is deprecated in the 2026-07-28 spec. Learn what remains supported, why roots are advisory, and how to migrate file scoping safely.
4 min read
How Do You Know Your Bot's Recurring Routine Has Gone Silent?
A scheduled bot can miss its start, fail to reach its target, or stall after starting. Each silence needs a different signal and a clear recovery path.
4 min read
How Long Should You Let a Bot's Tool Call Run Before Timing Out?
A practical guide to MCP tool-call timeouts: distinguish protocol guidance from client defaults, measure real durations, and use asynchronous jobs for slow work.
4 min read
MCP Tools Can Declare an Output Schema. Should Your Bot Validate It?
MCP tools can declare an outputSchema and return structuredContent. Here is how to validate successful results without confusing tool errors with transport failures.
4 min read
MCP Dropped Sessions. How Do You Keep State Across Tool Calls Now?
The MCP 2026-07-28 spec removed session IDs and the initialize handshake. Here's the explicit-handle pattern that replaces them, and what breaks if you don't update.
5 min read
What Should a Bot Do When a Multi-Step Task Fails Halfway?
A bot that books a flight then fails to book a hotel has left the world in a half-finished state. Here is how to design the undo step.
4 min read
How Do You Actually Revoke a Bot's Access to a Tool It No Longer Uses?
OAuth token revocation can have a propagation delay. Learn what the standard guarantees, how validation affects the result, and how to verify a bot has stopped using a tool.
4 min read
MCP Tool Results: How Do You Know a Call Actually Succeeded?
Read MCP protocol errors, isError, structuredContent and real-world readback separately before telling a user a tool action succeeded.
3 min read
How Do You Verify an AI Agent Actually Finished the Task?
A bot saying 'done' is not proof. Here is how to check completion independently, with a worked example and what evidence to keep.
3 min read
When Should a Bot Use a Supervisor Agent Instead of One Agent With Tools?
A concrete rule for choosing between one agent with many tools and a supervisor that delegates to specialist agents, with a worked example.
4 min read
MCP Sampling Is Deprecated. What Should Bot Builders Do Now?
MCP's sampling feature, which let servers ask your client to run an LLM call, is now deprecated. Here is what that means for bots built on it.
4 min read
How Should an AI Bot Handle a Tool's Rate Limit Error?
Learn how an AI bot should classify rate limits, honor Retry-After, retry safely with jitter and a cap, and report an unfinished tool action.
4 min read
What Can an MCP Tool Ask You For Mid-Task, and What Can't It?
MCP elicitation lets a connected tool pause and ask a question mid-task. Here's what the spec allows it to request, and what it must route elsewhere.
4 min read
How Do You Stop a Retried Tool Call From Running Twice?
A timed-out tool call can secretly succeed. See why MCP's idempotentHint doesn't protect you, and what an idempotency key actually does.
3 min read
How Do You Review an AI-Generated Research Note?
A practical checklist for checking source ownership, dates, contradictions and unresolved questions in AI-drafted research notes before you rely on them.
4 min read
MCP Resource Indicators: What Your Bot's OAuth Tokens Must Specify
MCP's HTTP authorization spec requires OAuth resource indicators. Learn what they protect, where implementation can fail, and what to check before connecting a bot.
5 min read
Plugin or authorized connection: what's actually different?
Installing a tool on a bot and letting it act on your data are two separate steps. Here is where the line sits, with a worked example.
4 min read
Why we are building BotBento around people, not just bots
Grok Bot's group chats hold bots only. BotBento is built so people and bots share one room under one permission model. Here is the reasoning and the honest status.
5 min read
How do you test an AI agent that uses a calendar?
Test a calendar AI agent with a disposable event, explicit time zone, denied write and revoked connection. Check the saved result before trusting its reply.
4 min read
What belongs in an AI agent stopping rule?
Define when an AI agent should finish, pause or stop at a limit, with an illustrative research task and practical checks for loops and unresolved work.
5 min read
Local or cloud: where should your AI agent run?
Choose where an AI agent runs by separating its model, tools and scheduler. Compare local, cloud and hybrid setups with a practical decision checklist.
5 min read
What should an AI agent record after each run?
Design a useful AI agent run record with evidence, partial results, retry decisions and clear next steps, using an illustrative research routine.
5 min read
MCP tool permissions: what to check before connecting a bot
Understand MCP servers, authorization and tool approval with an illustrative calendar example and a practical connection review checklist.
5 min read
AI agents vs workflows: choose who decides the next step
A practical way to choose between an AI agent and a fixed workflow, with a weekly research example, stopping rules and an evaluation checklist.