Can someone help explain the following behavior? Rule "rule1" Agenda-group "apples" No-loop When Apple(color matches "red") Response(name1 ==null); $response : Response() Then $response.setName1("gala"); drools.setFocus("oranges"); End Rule "rule2" Agenda-group "oranges" No-loop When Orange(color matches "orange") Response(name2==null) $response:Response(); Then $response.setName2("sunkist"); update($response) drools.setFocus("banannas"); There is 1 Apple in working memory with color matches red and 1 Orange with color matches orange. And there is 1 Response in working memory. What we don't understand is that upon the update from Rule2, the activation from rule1 refires even though $response.name1 has seemingly been set to "gala" and should no longer match. If the above is written as: Rule "rule1" Agenda-group "apples" No-loop When Apple(color matches "red") $response:Response(name1 ==null); Then $response.setName1("gala"); drools.setFocus("oranges"); End Rule "rule2" Agenda-group "oranges" No-loop When Orange(color matches "orange") $response: Response(name2==null) Then $response.setName2("sunkist"); update($response) drools.setFocus("banannas"); Then rule1 activation is not refired.