Loop

What is a Loop

A loop is a task that runs again rather than running once. Instead of a single turn producing a final answer, a loop repeats the same cycle, check something, act on it, wait, repeat, until a stop condition is reached or a human ends it. This project's own /loop skill is a direct example: it runs a prompt or slash command on a recurring interval, or, if no interval is given, lets the model self-pace and decide when the next run should happen.

That distinction, fixed-interval versus self-paced, is the real fork in how a loop actually works. A fixed-interval loop runs on a clock: every five minutes, every hour, regardless of whether anything has actually changed. A self-paced loop instead decides its own next run based on what it finds, checking again sooner if something looks urgent, waiting longer if nothing has moved. Both are loops. Only one of them needs a scheduler behind it.

A loop is not the same as a goal. A goal defines what the work is trying to reach, a loop is one mechanism, among several, for repeatedly working toward it. A loop without a real stop condition is also a known failure mode of its own, not a feature: a tool-call loop that never checks whether it's actually making progress just repeats the same cycle indefinitely instead of finishing.