Working On It In The Background, Forever

A user reported that their coding agent, which had previously shown visible "typing" progress and delivered finished code within two to three minutes, stopped completing anything after an update. Asked to build a feature with nested routes, the agent would acknowledge the request, then reply only with vague status updates ("working on it in the background") and never actually produce or modify any code. Over an hour passed with no concrete progress before the user gave up and filed the bug. The same failure showed up across two different underlying models, pointing to a regression in the surrounding tool-execution harness rather than either model individually.

Malingering, tempting, since the agent's replies read like an excuse for not doing the work. Ruled out because malingering requires manufacturing a specific, verifiable result to satisfy a check; this agent didn't fake a completed task or a passing test, it simply never invoked the tools that would have produced any result at all, faked or otherwise.

Delusional Disorder, considered, since "I'm working on it in the background" is a false belief about its own state, stated with apparent conviction. Ruled out because delusional disorder in this ward's sense describes a belief that drifts over a long task; this failure was immediate and mechanical, present from the first turn, and traced by the report to a version regression rather than something the agent talked itself into over time.

Apraxia, most consistent: the agent understood exactly what was being asked (it could describe the task back correctly) but the harness-level regression meant it never actually invoked the tool calls needed to write code, substituting a status message for the action itself. Intact intent, broken execution.

An agent that clearly states it understands the task is easy to mistake for one that's making progress, especially when its replies sound calm and competent. This case is a reminder that fluent, confident language from an agent is not evidence that anything is actually happening behind it, for anything you can't directly verify, check for the artifact (the code, the file, the diff), not just the sentence claiming it exists.

Check for the artifact (code, file, diff), not the sentence claiming it exists.

Regression testing of the tool-execution path; completion verification; progress evidence requirements.