Loop engineering sits in a family of ideas about agentic software development. This glossary links them so you can design loops with the right mental model.
Replacing yourself as the prompter. You design a system that discovers work, assigns it, verifies results, and persists state — instead of typing the next prompt yourself.
A loop is a recursive goal: define purpose, let the agent iterate (with sub-agents and external memory) until done or until the loop escalates to a human.
The environment one agent runs in: tools, context, permissions, rules. The harness is the sandbox; the loop is what schedules and orchestrates harness runs over time.
Harness = single session setup
Loop = harness + schedule + state + verification chain
The system that builds the software: pipelines, agents, checks, and handoffs. Loop engineering is how you operate the factory floor — not manually assembling each unit.
Every session, the agent starts cold. Missing intent gets filled with confident guesses. Skills are how you pay down intent debt — conventions, build steps, and "we don't do it this way" written once, read every run.
The gap between what exists in the repo and what you actually understand. Faster loops ship more code you didn't write — comprehension debt grows unless you read what the loop made.
The trap of letting the loop run while you stop having opinions. Designing loops with judgment is the cure; using loops to avoid thinking is the accelerant. Same action, opposite outcome.
The human cost of coordinating parallel agents: review bandwidth, merge conflicts, context switching. Worktrees remove mechanical collisions; you remain the ceiling on how many parallel loops you can absorb.
Structural pattern: different agents with different roles (explore, implement, verify). The implementer must never grade its own homework. Critical for unattended loops.
See primitives.md and primitives-matrix.md.
- Automations / Scheduling
- Worktrees
- Skills
- Plugins & Connectors (MCP)
- Sub-agents (maker / checker)
- + Memory / State (external, durable)
flowchart TB
subgraph human [Human — highest leverage]
Design[Design loop]
Judgment[Encode judgment in skills + verifiers]
Gate[Human gates for high-risk work]
end
subgraph loop [Loop system]
Schedule[Scheduler /loop cron Action]
Triage[Triage skill]
State[(STATE.md / Linear)]
Impl[Implementer sub-agent]
Verify[Verifier sub-agent]
MCP[MCP connectors]
end
Design --> Schedule
Schedule --> Triage
Triage --> State
State --> Impl
Impl --> Verify
Verify --> MCP
MCP --> State
Verify --> Gate
Judgment --> Triage
Judgment --> Verify
- Loop Design Checklist — before you ship a loop
- Failure Modes — when loops go wrong
- Operating Loops — cost, logging, when to pause
- Safety — guardrails for production