Debugging Teams

Teams add coordination complexity. When something goes wrong, you need to trace execution across the leader and all members.

Debug Mode

Enable debug mode to see the messages sent to the model, tool calls, delegation patterns, and metrics.

from agno.team import Team
from agno.agent import Agent
from agno.models.openai import OpenAIResponses

news_agent = Agent(name="News Agent", role="Get the latest news")
weather_agent = Agent(name="Weather Agent", role="Get weather forecasts")

team = Team(
    name="Research Team",
    members=[news_agent, weather_agent],
    model=OpenAIResponses(id="gpt-5.4-mini"),
    debug_mode=True
)

team.print_response("What is the weather in Tokyo?", show_member_responses=True)

Three ways to enable debug mode:

Method	Scope
`debug_mode=True` on Team	All runs for this team
`debug_mode=True` on `run()`	Single run only
`AGNO_DEBUG=True` env var	All teams globally

Set debug_level=2 for more detailed logs:

team = Team(
    name="Research Team",
    members=[news_agent, weather_agent],
    model=OpenAIResponses(id="gpt-5.4-mini"),
    debug_mode=True,
    debug_level=2
)

What to Look For

When debugging, check:

Issue	What to inspect
Wrong member selected	Leader messages, delegation calls, member roles
Member not responding	Member’s tool calls, errors
Slow execution	Token counts, sequential vs parallel execution
Unexpected output	Leader’s synthesis step, member responses
High token usage	Coordination overhead, context size

Common Failure Modes

Leader Delegates to Wrong Member

The leader picks members based on their role. If delegation is wrong:

Check that roles clearly describe what each member does
Make roles distinct (avoid overlap)
Add instructions to the team leader

# Bad: Roles are vague
agent1 = Agent(name="Agent 1", role="Research things")
agent2 = Agent(name="Agent 2", role="Look stuff up")

# Good: Roles are specific and distinct
news_agent = Agent(name="News Agent", role="Get tech news from HackerNews")
finance_agent = Agent(name="Finance Agent", role="Get stock prices from Yahoo Finance")

Member Fails Silently

If a member fails, the leader may synthesize a response without that member’s output. Pass show_member_responses=True to print_response() to see what each member returned:

team.print_response("Research AI trends", show_member_responses=True)

Infinite Delegation Loop

The leader keeps delegating without producing a final response. This usually means:

Instructions are unclear about when to stop
Members are returning incomplete results

Add explicit stopping criteria to instructions:

team = Team(
    name="Research Team",
    members=[...],
    instructions=[
        "Delegate to members to gather information.",
        "Once you have enough information, synthesize and respond directly.",
        "Do not delegate more than 3 times per request."
    ]
)

High Token Usage

Teams make leader and member model calls. Token usage increases with the number of delegations, member responses, and synthesis calls. Check token usage in debug output or metrics:

response = team.run("Research AI trends")
print(f"Total tokens: {response.metrics.total_tokens}")

To reduce tokens:

Use fewer members
Keep member responses concise
Use mode=TeamMode.route (or respond_directly=True) to skip synthesis

Interactive CLI

Test multi-turn conversations with the built-in CLI:

from agno.team import Team
from agno.agent import Agent
from agno.db.sqlite import SqliteDb
from agno.models.openai import OpenAIResponses

news_agent = Agent(name="News Agent", role="Get the latest news")
weather_agent = Agent(name="Weather Agent", role="Get weather forecasts")

team = Team(
    name="Research Team",
    members=[news_agent, weather_agent],
    model=OpenAIResponses(id="gpt-5.4-mini"),
    db=SqliteDb(db_file="tmp/data.db"),
    add_history_to_context=True,
    num_history_runs=3
)

team.cli_app(stream=True)

Use await team.acli_app() for async.

Tracing with AgentOS

For production debugging, enable tracing and inspect traces in AgentOS:

Visual trace of all delegation and tool calls
Token usage breakdown by member
Session history
Error tracking

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Additional Resources

Debugging Teams

Debug Mode

What to Look For

Common Failure Modes

Leader Delegates to Wrong Member

Member Fails Silently

Infinite Delegation Loop

High Token Usage

Interactive CLI

Tracing with AgentOS

Developer Resources

​Debug Mode

​What to Look For

​Common Failure Modes

​Leader Delegates to Wrong Member

​Member Fails Silently

​Infinite Delegation Loop

​High Token Usage

​Interactive CLI

​Tracing with AgentOS

​Developer Resources

Debug Mode

What to Look For

Common Failure Modes

Leader Delegates to Wrong Member

Member Fails Silently

Infinite Delegation Loop

High Token Usage

Interactive CLI

Tracing with AgentOS

Developer Resources