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Common Issues

Recognize and solve common problems in ExecAssist with step-by-step solutions.

Overview​

This guide covers the most frequently encountered issues in ExecAssist, organized by symptom. For each issue, you'll find the likely causes and step-by-step solutions.

Email Processing Issues​

Emails Not Being Processed​

Symptoms:

  • New emails arrive but no executions appear
  • Mailbox shows as monitored but nothing happens

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Mailbox subscription inactive

    • Go to Monitored Mailboxes
    • Click on the mailbox
    • Check subscription status
    • If inactive, click Create Subscription

  2. Agent not assigned

    • Edit the mailbox
    • Verify an agent is selected
    • Save changes

  3. Agent inactive

    • Go to Agents
    • Check the assigned agent's status
    • Activate if necessary

  4. Ignore rules filtering emails

    • Go to Ignore Rules
    • Review active rules
    • Check if test emails match any rules

  5. System paused

    • Look for the red banner at the top
    • Go to Account Settings
    • Uncheck "Pause Agent Execution"

Emails Processed But No Response Sent​

Symptoms:

  • Executions appear in activity
  • Status shows "Completed"
  • No reply email received

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Agent didn't decide to reply

    • View execution details
    • Check tool calls - was reply_to_email called?
    • Review agent instructions to ensure reply is expected

  2. Reply tool not assigned

    • Edit the agent
    • Verify reply_to_email is in assigned tools
    • Save changes

  3. Email sending failed

    • Check execution for errors
    • Verify mailbox has send permissions
    • Check for email delivery issues

Duplicate Responses​

Symptoms:

  • Same email receives multiple replies
  • Multiple executions for one email

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Email received multiple times

    • Check email headers for duplicates
    • Verify email forwarding rules
    • Check for webhook retry issues

  2. Subscription issues

    • Delete and recreate the subscription
    • Check for multiple active subscriptions

Agent Performance Issues​

Agent Responses Are Wrong​

Symptoms:

  • Agent provides incorrect information
  • Responses don't match expectations
  • Facts are hallucinated

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Instructions need improvement

    • Review agent instructions
    • Add more specific guidance
    • Include examples of correct responses
    • Use "Improve with AI" feature

  2. Knowledge base missing information

    • Search the knowledge base manually
    • Add missing documentation
    • Re-index if recently updated

  3. Model limitations

    • Consider upgrading to a more capable model
    • Simplify the task into smaller steps
    • Add more context in instructions

Agent Responses Are Slow​

Symptoms:

  • Long time between email receipt and response
  • Executions take several minutes
  • Timeouts occurring

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Model overloaded

    • Check provider status page
    • Try at a different time
    • Consider a different provider

  2. Large context

    • Reduce instruction length
    • Limit email thread history
    • Optimize tool result sizes

  3. Too many tool calls

    • Review execution tool calls
    • Optimize instructions to reduce unnecessary calls
    • Consider caching common lookups

Agent Uses Too Many Tokens​

Symptoms:

  • High costs per execution
  • Much higher than expected usage
  • Token counts seem excessive

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Instructions too long

    • Shorten system prompt
    • Remove redundant instructions
    • Use more concise language

  2. Unnecessary tool calls

    • Review tool call patterns
    • Adjust instructions to guide tool usage
    • Remove rarely-used tools

  3. Long responses

    • Add length guidance in instructions
    • Set lower max_tokens
    • Explicitly request concise responses

Connection Issues​

LLM Provider Unavailable​

Symptoms:

  • Provider shows red status
  • Executions fail with provider errors
  • "API key invalid" messages

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Invalid API key

    • Verify the API key is correct
    • Check for extra spaces or characters
    • Regenerate key if necessary

  2. Key expired or revoked

    • Log into provider dashboard
    • Check key status
    • Create new key if needed

  3. Rate limiting

    • Check provider rate limits
    • Reduce concurrent executions
    • Upgrade provider plan

  4. Provider outage

    • Check provider status page
    • Wait for recovery
    • Switch to backup provider if available

Mailbox Connection Failed​

Symptoms:

  • "Subscription failed" errors
  • Cannot create new subscriptions
  • Mailbox shows disconnected

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Microsoft Graph permissions

    • Verify app has required permissions
    • Check admin consent was granted
    • Re-authorize if needed

  2. Mailbox permissions

    • Verify account has access to the mailbox
    • Check shared mailbox permissions
    • Contact Azure admin if needed

  3. Subscription expired

    • Subscriptions expire after 3 days
    • System auto-renews normally
    • Manually recreate if stuck

Cost Issues​

Unexpected High Costs​

Symptoms:

  • Bill much higher than expected
  • Cost spikes in usage dashboard
  • Individual executions very expensive

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Model pricing misconfigured

    • Check model pricing settings
    • Update to current provider rates
    • Recalculate historical costs

  2. Token usage higher than expected

    • Review execution details
    • Check for long context or responses
    • Optimize instructions

  3. High execution volume

    • Review execution counts
    • Check for duplicate processing
    • Implement ignore rules for spam

  4. Wrong model selected

    • Verify agent model selection
    • Use smaller models for simple tasks
    • Match model to task complexity

Cost Tracking Not Working​

Symptoms:

  • Costs show as $0
  • Missing cost data
  • Inconsistent cost reporting

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Model pricing not configured

    • Go to LLM Providers
    • Set input/output prices for each model
    • Save changes

  2. Old executions before pricing

    • Historical data won't update
    • Costs calculate from pricing set date
    • Configure pricing going forward

Search Issues​

Search Returns No Results​

Symptoms:

  • Agent says it can't find information
  • Search tool returns empty
  • Knowledge base queries fail

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Index not configured

    • Go to Search Indexes
    • Verify index exists and is active
    • Create index if missing

  2. Content not indexed

    • Check last index update time
    • Re-run indexing if needed
    • Verify source documents exist

  3. Search query too specific

    • Review agent's search queries
    • Adjust instructions for better queries
    • Test searches manually

Search Returns Wrong Results​

Symptoms:

  • Agent cites irrelevant information
  • Search results don't match queries
  • Wrong documents being found

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Index needs reindexing

    • Check for stale content
    • Re-run the indexing process
    • Verify document updates are captured

  2. Query formulation issues

    • Review how agent forms queries
    • Add search guidance in instructions
    • Test different query approaches

User Interface Issues​

Page Won't Load​

Symptoms:

  • Blank page or spinner
  • Error message displayed
  • Console errors in browser

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Browser cache

    • Hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R)
    • Clear browser cache
    • Try incognito/private mode

  2. Authentication issue

    • Sign out and sign back in
    • Check for expired session
    • Verify Azure AD status

  3. API unavailable

    • Check backend health
    • Verify API is running
    • Check for deployment issues

Data Not Updating​

Symptoms:

  • Changes not reflected
  • Stale data showing
  • Updates appear then disappear

Possible Causes & Solutions:

  1. Browser caching

    • Refresh the page
    • Clear browser cache
    • Check network tab for cached responses

  2. Concurrent edit conflict

    • Refresh to get latest data
    • Re-apply your changes
    • Coordinate with other admins

Chat Issues​

Agent Asks Unnecessary Clarifying Questions in Chat​

Symptoms:

  • Agent in Teams, Slack, or in-app chat sends a clarifying question when a short reply was intended as a direct answer
  • Users receive unexpected "Did you mean to answer my earlier question?" messages
  • Chat threads feel interrupted by unwanted disambiguation prompts

Cause:

The chat reply disambiguation heuristic detects short replies that may be answering a previous agent question. Occasionally the heuristic triggers on messages that were not meant as answers, resulting in a clarifying question the user did not expect.

Solution:

Turn off the heuristic temporarily while you investigate:

  1. Go to Account Settings
  2. Scroll to the Features & Notifications section
  3. Toggle Chat reply disambiguation off
  4. Save — the change takes effect on the next chat message

Re-enable the toggle once you have identified the root cause (for example, unusual short-reply patterns in your team's chat workflow). While the toggle is off, agents process short replies without checking for pending questions.

Getting More Help​

If you can't resolve an issue using this guide:

  1. Check execution details - Most issues leave traces in execution logs
  2. Review recent changes - Did something change before the issue started?
  3. Check system status - Provider outages affect everyone
  4. Contact support - Provide execution IDs and error messages