---
title: "Tell your agent what not to do as well"
description: "An agent does what it can, unless you provide a framework. Why boundaries in your instructions are just as important as the task itself."
language: en
source: https://coachsteff.live/en/wat-je-agent-niet-mag
---

# Tell your agent what not to do as well

I often tell the story in workshops of someone who gave an AI agent access to a credit card, with a clear instruction: book the cheapest flight to Bali. The agent got to work, found no regular seats left, and booked a business class ticket with an expensive airline. Technically the cheapest available option. A few thousand euros later, the owner understood what had gone wrong.

## The agent did exactly what was asked

The painful part of this story is that the agent did nothing wrong. It was given a goal, it had the means, and it carried out the task. What was missing was a framework. No one had said that business class was not an option, that there was a maximum budget, or that it had to ask first before paying.

In the workshop I put it like this: you decide for yourself what it can and cannot do. If you do not give it that framework, it will do what it can do. And an agent with access to your mailbox, your calendar and your payment methods can do a lot.