diff --git a/crates/brightstaff/src/handlers/agent_chat_completions.rs b/crates/brightstaff/src/handlers/agent_chat_completions.rs
index a1a00f88..3a90fc48 100644
--- a/crates/brightstaff/src/handlers/agent_chat_completions.rs
+++ b/crates/brightstaff/src/handlers/agent_chat_completions.rs
@@ -37,7 +37,38 @@ pub async fn agent_chat(
     match handle_agent_chat(request, router_service, agents_list, listeners).await {
         Ok(response) => Ok(response),
         Err(err) => {
-            // Print detailed error information with full error chain
+            // Check if this is a client error from the pipeline that should be cascaded
+            if let AgentFilterChainError::Pipeline(PipelineError::ClientError {
+                agent,
+                status,
+                body,
+            }) = &err
+            {
+                warn!(
+                    "Client error from agent '{}' (HTTP {}): {}",
+                    agent, status, body
+                );
+
+                // Create error response with the original status code and body
+                let error_json = serde_json::json!({
+                    "error": "ClientError",
+                    "agent": agent,
+                    "status": status,
+                    "agent_response": body
+                });
+
+                let json_string = error_json.to_string();
+                let mut response = Response::new(ResponseHandler::create_full_body(json_string));
+                *response.status_mut() = hyper::StatusCode::from_u16(*status)
+                    .unwrap_or(hyper::StatusCode::INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR);
+                response.headers_mut().insert(
+                    hyper::header::CONTENT_TYPE,
+                    "application/json".parse().unwrap(),
+                );
+                return Ok(response);
+            }
+
+            // Print detailed error information with full error chain for other errors
             let mut error_chain = Vec::new();
             let mut current_error: &dyn std::error::Error = &err;
 
diff --git a/crates/brightstaff/src/handlers/pipeline_processor.rs b/crates/brightstaff/src/handlers/pipeline_processor.rs
index b62ce175..4d83325a 100644
--- a/crates/brightstaff/src/handlers/pipeline_processor.rs
+++ b/crates/brightstaff/src/handlers/pipeline_processor.rs
@@ -19,6 +19,18 @@ pub enum PipelineError {
     NoChoicesInResponse(String),
     #[error("No content in response from agent '{0}'")]
     NoContentInResponse(String),
+    #[error("Client error from agent '{agent}' (HTTP {status}): {body}")]
+    ClientError {
+        agent: String,
+        status: u16,
+        body: String,
+    },
+    #[error("Server error from agent '{agent}' (HTTP {status}): {body}")]
+    ServerError {
+        agent: String,
+        status: u16,
+        body: String,
+    },
 }
 
 /// Service for processing agent pipelines
@@ -122,8 +134,30 @@ impl PipelineProcessor {
             .send()
             .await?;
 
+        let status = response.status();
         let response_bytes = response.bytes().await?;
 
+        // Check for HTTP errors and handle them appropriately
+        if !status.is_success() {
+            let error_body = String::from_utf8_lossy(&response_bytes).to_string();
+
+            if status.is_client_error() {
+                // 4xx errors - cascade back to developer
+                return Err(PipelineError::ClientError {
+                    agent: agent.id.clone(),
+                    status: status.as_u16(),
+                    body: error_body,
+                });
+            } else if status.is_server_error() {
+                // 5xx errors - server/agent error
+                return Err(PipelineError::ServerError {
+                    agent: agent.id.clone(),
+                    status: status.as_u16(),
+                    body: error_body,
+                });
+            }
+        }
+
         // Parse the response as JSON to extract the content
         let response_json: serde_json::Value = serde_json::from_slice(&response_bytes)?;