Agent misreads silent/empty tool output as a confirmed negative result

When an agent writes its own verification code (e.g., a script searching structured data for a match) and that code produces no output for a "not found" case, the agent can treat the absence of printed output as equivalent to "confirmed: not present" — without distinguishing that from "the search had a bug," "wrong field/key used," or "matched but the content field was never printed." In a recent session, this caused a multi-turn cascade: a verification script correctly located the right record but only printed metadata (filename/timestamp) to confirm a match existed, never the actual content field. The agent then reported "no relevant activity found," which was wrong — the content was sitting in the very record it had identified.

Suggested mitigation directions: prompting/guidance encouraging agents to have verification scripts emit an explicit sentinel for both outcomes (found: print the actual content; not found: print an explicit "NOT FOUND" marker) rather than allowing silent/empty output for the negative case; and/or a nudge in agentic tool-use scaffolding that treats "did I display the raw content, not just confirm a match" as a distinct, checkable step before allowing a conclusion to be stated.