Cancel and retry a task

Do this when a run is going the wrong way, is costing more than you expected, or has stopped because it hit a limit. Which control you reach for depends on whether you want the run to end, to hold, or to keep going with more room. There is no retry endpoint. Retrying means starting a new task.

Prerequisites

A task id and its agent id.
An API key for the owning workspace.
Know the task’s current status. GET /v1/agents/{agent_id}/tasks/{task_id} returns it, reconciled against the workflow.

Choose a control

Option	Pick it when
`DELETE /v1/agents/{agent_id}/tasks/{task_id}`	You want the run stopped now and do not want its result.
`POST .../tasks/{task_id}/pause` and `/resume`	You want to inspect state mid-run and continue afterwards.
`POST /v1/tasks/{task_id}/continue`	The task is `waiting_for_continuation` and you want it to keep going.
`POST .../tasks/{task_id}/command`	You want to change the model, adjust budget, or queue a message into a live run.
Start a new task	The run failed and you want another attempt.

Steps

Cancel

curl -s -X DELETE "$AGENTAREA_URL/v1/agents/$AGENT_ID/tasks/$TASK_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTAREA_TOKEN"

{
  "status": "cancelled",
  "task_id": "3f2a8c11-...",
  "execution_id": "task-3f2a8c11-..."
}

This cancels the Temporal workflow. It does not write cancelled to the task row. Reads that reconcile against the workflow report cancelled; a plain list query still shows the last persisted status. See Verify below.

Pause and resume

curl -s -X POST "$AGENTAREA_URL/v1/agents/$AGENT_ID/tasks/$TASK_ID/pause" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTAREA_TOKEN"

curl -s -X POST "$AGENTAREA_URL/v1/agents/$AGENT_ID/tasks/$TASK_ID/resume" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTAREA_TOKEN"

The workflow parks between iterations. It holds its conversation, budget counter, and pending approvals, and consumes no worker slot while paused.

Continue a task waiting on a limit

A task that exhausts its iteration budget or its spend cap does not fail immediately. It writes waiting_for_continuation, emits task.awaiting_continuation, and idles for up to 24 hours.The grant must match the reason it stopped:

curl -s -X POST "$AGENTAREA_URL/v1/tasks/$TASK_ID/continue" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTAREA_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"additional_iterations": 20}'

{
  "accepted": true,
  "continuation_count": 1,
  "max_iterations": 30,
  "budget_usd": "10.00"
}

For a budget stop, send additional_budget_usd. Send both if you are unsure:

curl -s -X POST "$AGENTAREA_URL/v1/tasks/$TASK_ID/continue" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTAREA_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"additional_iterations": 20, "additional_budget_usd": "5.00"}'

Note the path: this one is not nested under the agent.

Steer a running task

POST /v1/agents/{agent_id}/tasks/{task_id}/command takes four commands. Each requires its own field:

`command`	Required field	Effect
`change_model`	`model_instance_id`	Switch the model for the remaining iterations.
`update_budget`	`budget_usd`	Set a new absolute spend ceiling. Cannot go below what has already been spent.
`queue_message`	`message`	Inject a user message before the next model call.
`remove_message`	`message_id`	Drop a queued message before the agent sees it.

curl -s -X POST "$AGENTAREA_URL/v1/agents/$AGENT_ID/tasks/$TASK_ID/command" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTAREA_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"command": "update_budget", "budget_usd": "25.00"}'

{"status": "accepted", "command": "update_budget"}

Retry

Start a new task with the same body. A failed task cannot be resumed: its workflow has terminated, and the task row is the record of that attempt. Reuse the original description and parameters from GET /v1/agents/{agent_id}/tasks/{task_id}.A task that completed is different — it stays alive for 30 minutes accepting follow-ups. Send queue_message rather than starting a new task if you want to continue the same conversation.

Verify

After cancelling, confirm the task reports a terminal status through the reconciling read:

curl -s "$AGENTAREA_URL/v1/agents/$AGENT_ID/tasks/$TASK_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTAREA_TOKEN" | jq '{status, failure_reason}'

{
  "status": "cancelled",
  "failure_reason": null
}

After continuing, confirm the grant took by checking that the task left the waiting state:

curl -s "$AGENTAREA_URL/v1/agents/$AGENT_ID/tasks/$TASK_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AGENTAREA_TOKEN" | jq -r '.status'

running

Troubleshooting

409 "Task is not running" from a command

The workflow is no longer running, so the signal could not be delivered. This is deliberately an error rather than a misleading 200 — a model switch that never reached the workflow must not look like it succeeded. Check the status first.

409 from /continue with not_waiting_for_continuation

The task is not in waiting_for_continuation . Either it never hit a limit, or the 24-hour window expired and it already failed.

409 with additional_iterations_required or additional_budget_required

The grant did not match the stop reason. A task stopped on iteration_limit needs iterations; one stopped on budget_exceeded needs budget. Read failure_reason from the task to see which.

422 from /continue

Both additional_iterations and additional_budget_usd were absent or zero. At least one resource must be granted.

404 from DELETE on a task you can see

The endpoint returns 404 when the workflow could not be cancelled, which includes a task that already reached a terminal state. A completed task has nothing to cancel.

The list view still shows running after a successful cancel

Expected. The cancel path does not write the row; only reads that reconcile against the workflow report the terminal status. Fetch the single task rather than trusting a list.

update_budget returns 400

A new ceiling below the amount already spent is rejected by the workflow. Query the current cost from GET /v1/agents/{agent_id}/tasks/{task_id}/summary and set a higher value.

Tasks

A task is one persisted request to one agent

Debug a failed task

Read the failure code, narrow it with the task rollup

Durable execution

What Temporal actually provides to an AgentArea task

Start here

Concepts

Guides

Self-host

Reference

API reference

API endpoints

Community

Cancel and retry a task

Prerequisites

Choose a control

Steps

Cancel

Pause and resume

Continue a task waiting on a limit

Steer a running task

Retry

Verify

Troubleshooting

Tasks

Debug a failed task

Durable execution

​Prerequisites

​Choose a control

​Steps

Cancel

Pause and resume

Continue a task waiting on a limit

Steer a running task

Retry

​Verify

​Troubleshooting

​Related

Tasks

Debug a failed task

Durable execution

Prerequisites

Choose a control

Steps

Verify

Troubleshooting

Related