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+---
+name: "Retry limit for mergemaster and pipeline restarts"
+---
+
+# Story 139: Retry limit for mergemaster and pipeline restarts
+
+## User Story
+
+As a developer using story-kit, I want pipeline auto-restarts to have a configurable retry limit so that failing agents don't loop infinitely consuming CPU and API credits.
+
+## Acceptance Criteria
+
+- [ ] Pipeline auto-restart has a configurable max_retries per agent in project.toml (default 3)
+- [ ] After max retries exhausted, agent status is set to Failed and no further restarts occur
+- [ ] Server logs clearly indicate attempt number and when max retries are exhausted
+- [ ] Retry count resets when a human manually restarts the agent (resume_context is None)
+- [ ] Retry limit applies to all pipeline stages: Coder, QA, and Mergemaster restarts
+
+## Out of Scope
+
+- TBD