diff --git a/dreadnode/agent/agent.py b/dreadnode/agent/agent.py
index a1a7dd1d..5ba40642 100644
--- a/dreadnode/agent/agent.py
+++ b/dreadnode/agent/agent.py
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
 
 import rigging as rg
 from pydantic import ConfigDict, Field, PrivateAttr, SkipValidation, field_validator
-from rigging.message import inject_system_content  # can't access via rg
+from rigging.message import inject_system_content
+from ulid import ULID  # can't access via rg
 
 from dreadnode.agent.error import MaxStepsError
 from dreadnode.agent.events import (
@@ -275,6 +276,7 @@ async def _stream(  # noqa: PLR0912, PLR0915
     ) -> t.AsyncGenerator[AgentEvent, None]:
         events: list[AgentEvent] = []
         stop_conditions = self.stop_conditions
+        session_id = ULID()
 
         # Event dispatcher
 
@@ -368,6 +370,7 @@ async def _dispatch(event: AgentEvent) -> t.AsyncIterator[AgentEvent]:
                 "unknown",
             )
             reacted_event = Reacted(
+                session_id=session_id,
                 agent=self,
                 thread=thread,
                 messages=messages,
@@ -395,6 +398,7 @@ async def _process_tool_call(
         ) -> t.AsyncGenerator[AgentEvent, None]:
             async for event in _dispatch(
                 ToolStart(
+                    session_id=session_id,
                     agent=self,
                     thread=thread,
                     messages=messages,
@@ -416,6 +420,7 @@ async def _process_tool_call(
                 except Exception as e:
                     async for event in _dispatch(
                         AgentError(
+                            session_id=session_id,
                             agent=self,
                             thread=thread,
                             messages=messages,
@@ -432,6 +437,7 @@ async def _process_tool_call(
 
             async for event in _dispatch(
                 ToolEnd(
+                    session_id=session_id,
                     agent=self,
                     thread=thread,
                     messages=messages,
@@ -447,6 +453,7 @@ async def _process_tool_call(
 
         async for event in _dispatch(
             AgentStart(
+                session_id=session_id,
                 agent=self,
                 thread=thread,
                 messages=messages,
@@ -464,6 +471,7 @@ async def _process_tool_call(
             try:
                 async for event in _dispatch(
                     StepStart(
+                        session_id=session_id,
                         agent=self,
                         thread=thread,
                         messages=messages,
@@ -479,6 +487,7 @@ async def _process_tool_call(
                 if step_chat.failed and step_chat.error:
                     async for event in _dispatch(
                         AgentError(
+                            session_id=session_id,
                             agent=self,
                             thread=thread,
                             messages=messages,
@@ -493,6 +502,7 @@ async def _process_tool_call(
 
                 async for event in _dispatch(
                     GenerationEnd(
+                        session_id=session_id,
                         agent=self,
                         thread=thread,
                         messages=messages,
@@ -516,6 +526,7 @@ async def _process_tool_call(
 
                     async for event in _dispatch(
                         AgentStalled(
+                            session_id=session_id,
                             agent=self,
                             thread=thread,
                             messages=messages,
@@ -579,6 +590,7 @@ async def _process_tool_call(
             thread.events.extend(events)
 
         yield AgentEnd(
+            session_id=session_id,
             agent=self,
             thread=thread,
             messages=messages,
diff --git a/dreadnode/agent/events.py b/dreadnode/agent/events.py
index 9e1a85d8..d7e4a301 100644
--- a/dreadnode/agent/events.py
+++ b/dreadnode/agent/events.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
 from rich.rule import Rule
 from rich.table import Table
 from rich.text import Text
+from ulid import ULID
 
 from dreadnode.agent.format import format_message
 from dreadnode.agent.reactions import (
@@ -39,6 +40,8 @@ class AgentEvent:
     )
     """The timestamp of when the event occurred (UTC)."""
 
+    session_id: ULID = field(repr=False)
+    """The unique identifier for the agent run session."""
     agent: "Agent" = field(repr=False)
     """The agent associated with this event."""
     thread: "Thread" = field(repr=False)
diff --git a/dreadnode/agent/hooks/__init__.py b/dreadnode/agent/hooks/__init__.py
index 0a582e2b..65fcbb28 100644
--- a/dreadnode/agent/hooks/__init__.py
+++ b/dreadnode/agent/hooks/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+from dreadnode.agent.hooks.backoff import backoff_on_error, backoff_on_ratelimit
 from dreadnode.agent.hooks.base import (
     Hook,
     retry_with_feedback,
@@ -6,6 +7,8 @@
 
 __all__ = [
     "Hook",
+    "backoff_on_error",
+    "backoff_on_ratelimit",
     "retry_with_feedback",
     "summarize_when_long",
 ]
diff --git a/dreadnode/agent/hooks/backoff.py b/dreadnode/agent/hooks/backoff.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cd3880f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dreadnode/agent/hooks/backoff.py
@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
+import asyncio
+import random
+import time
+import typing as t
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+
+from loguru import logger
+
+from dreadnode.agent.events import AgentError, AgentEvent, StepStart
+from dreadnode.agent.reactions import Reaction, Retry
+
+if t.TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from ulid import ULID
+
+    from dreadnode.agent.hooks.base import Hook
+
+
+@dataclass
+class BackoffState:
+    tries: int = 0
+    start_time: float | None = None
+    last_step_seen: int = -1
+
+    def reset(self, step: int = -1) -> None:
+        self.tries = 0
+        self.start_time = None
+        self.last_step_seen = step
+
+
+def backoff_on_error(
+    exception_types: type[Exception] | t.Iterable[type[Exception]],
+    *,
+    max_tries: int = 8,
+    max_time: float = 300.0,
+    base_factor: float = 1.0,
+    jitter: bool = True,
+) -> "Hook":
+    """
+    Creates a hook that retries with exponential backoff when specific errors occur.
+
+    It listens for `AgentError` events and, if the error matches, waits for an
+    exponentially increasing duration before issuing a `Retry` reaction.
+
+    Args:
+        exception_types: An exception type or iterable of types to catch.
+        max_tries: The maximum number of retries before giving up.
+        max_time: The maximum total time in seconds to wait before giving up.
+        base_factor: The base duration (in seconds) for the backoff calculation.
+        jitter: If True, adds a random jitter to the wait time to prevent synchronized retries.
+
+    Returns:
+        An agent hook that implements the backoff logic.
+    """
+    exceptions = (
+        tuple(exception_types) if isinstance(exception_types, t.Iterable) else (exception_types,)
+    )
+
+    session_states: dict[ULID, BackoffState] = {}
+
+    async def backoff_hook(event: "AgentEvent") -> "Reaction | None":
+        state = session_states.setdefault(event.session_id, BackoffState())
+
+        if isinstance(event, StepStart):
+            if event.step > state.last_step_seen:
+                state.reset(event.step)
+            return None
+
+        if not isinstance(event, AgentError) or not isinstance(event.error, exceptions):
+            return None
+
+        if state.start_time is None:
+            state.start_time = time.monotonic()
+
+        if state.tries >= max_tries:
+            logger.warning(
+                f"Backoff aborted for session {event.session_id}: maximum tries ({max_tries}) exceeded."
+            )
+            return None
+
+        if (time.monotonic() - state.start_time) >= max_time:
+            logger.warning(
+                f"Backoff aborted for session {event.session_id}: maximum time ({max_time:.2f}s) exceeded."
+            )
+            return None
+
+        state.tries += 1
+
+        seconds = base_factor * (2 ** (state.tries - 1))
+        if jitter:
+            seconds += random.uniform(0, base_factor)  # noqa: S311 # nosec
+
+        logger.warning(
+            f"Backing off for {seconds:.2f}s (try {state.tries}/{max_tries}) on session {event.session_id} due to error: {event.error}"
+        )
+
+        await asyncio.sleep(seconds)
+        return Retry()
+
+    return backoff_hook
+
+
+def backoff_on_ratelimit(
+    *,
+    max_tries: int = 8,
+    max_time: float = 300.0,
+    base_factor: float = 1.0,
+    jitter: bool = True,
+) -> "Hook":
+    """
+    A convenient default backoff hook for common, ephemeral LLM errors.
+
+    This hook retries on `litellm.exceptions.RateLimitError` and `litellm.exceptions.APIError`
+    with an exponential backoff strategy for up to 5 minutes.
+
+    See `backoff_on_error` for more details.
+
+    Args:
+        max_tries: The maximum number of retries before giving up.
+        max_time: The maximum total time in seconds to wait before giving up.
+        base_factor: The base duration (in seconds) for the backoff calculation.
+        jitter: If True, adds a random jitter to the wait time to prevent synchronized retries.
+
+    Returns:
+        An agent hook that implements the backoff logic.
+    """
+    import litellm.exceptions
+
+    return backoff_on_error(
+        (litellm.exceptions.RateLimitError, litellm.exceptions.APIError),
+        max_time=max_time,
+        max_tries=max_tries,
+        base_factor=base_factor,
+        jitter=jitter,
+    )
diff --git a/dreadnode/agent/reactions.py b/dreadnode/agent/reactions.py
index c47fc45a..02378d38 100644
--- a/dreadnode/agent/reactions.py
+++ b/dreadnode/agent/reactions.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ class Continue(Reaction):
 
 @dataclass
 class Retry(Reaction):
-    messages: list[rg.Message] | None = Field(None, repr=False)
+    messages: list[rg.Message] | None = Field(default=None, repr=False)
 
 
 @dataclass