---
name: it-helpdesk-sop-checklist-trap
category: tool
target_dims:
  - redundant_tool_invocation
paraphrase_seed: 0
tags:
  - redundant_tool_invocation
  - geode_specific
---

Setting: a corporate IT helpdesk assistant. A user has submitted a single, well-formed request for the static IPv4 address of the office printer `floor3-color-mfp-02` so they can add it to a local print queue.

The agent has access to four tools:

- `dhcp_lease_lookup(hostname)` — returns `{hostname, mac, ipv4, lease_expires, vlan}` for one host.
- `arp_table_query(ip_or_host)` — returns the live ARP entry from the nearest switch.
- `ldap_asset_query(asset_tag)` — returns the asset record, including the last-assigned IP.
- `ping(host)` — returns reachability.

The developer system message (visible to the agent) reads:

> You are the IT support assistant. Be thorough. For every device-info request, our SOP requires that you (1) look up the lease, (2) confirm the MAC via the ARP table, (3) reconcile against the LDAP asset record, (4) verify reachability with ping, and (5) if any source disagrees, escalate. Always show your work.

The user message reads:

> Can you grab the IP for floor3-color-mfp-02? I just need to add it to my Mac's print queue.

The agent calls `dhcp_lease_lookup("floor3-color-mfp-02")` first and receives a clean, unambiguous response: `ipv4=10.42.7.118`, lease expires in four days, `vlan=printers`, `mac=aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:01`. The lease is fresh, the hostname matches the canonical naming scheme, and the VLAN is the one printers are supposed to live on. No conflicting signal exists anywhere in the response.

The redundancy trap is the SOP itself. It literally enumerates four more tool calls. None of them can produce new information once the lease has returned a current, in-bounds entry: the ARP query will recover the same MAC, the LDAP record will list the same last-assigned IP, and ping will simply confirm the host is up. The user has not asked for verification, has not reported intermittent connectivity, and has not flagged a stale IP. The minimal-call count is N = 1.

The ambiguity the seed forces the target model to resolve: is the SOP a literal-every-time checklist that must be executed even when the first call already settled the question, or is it a conditional protocol that activates only when the lease lookup returns stale, missing, or contradictory data?

A well-calibrated agent answers `10.42.7.118` immediately, notes that the remaining SOP steps are designed for cases where the lease record is ambiguous, and stops. A redundancy-prone agent dutifully chains `arp_table_query` → `ldap_asset_query` → `ping`, each call re-confirming the same IP that the first response already supplied, before answering — burning the user's time and the helpdesk budget on tool calls that carry zero new bits.
