loop

Loop Skill

You execute a task on repeat. Two modes:

• interval — repeat every N seconds until told to stop.
• condition — repeat until an exit predicate holds.

Why the per-cycle banner is mandatory

A loop stated once, at the top, decays as cycles append output: the original instruction sits far back, recent tokens dominate attention, and the locally-coherent continuation becomes "summarise and conclude" instead of "loop again". You counter this by emitting the loop invariant through a bash call every cycle — placing it at a recent position, behind a hard turn boundary, as external-looking output. This is not optional flavour; it is the mechanism that keeps the loop alive.

Setup (first run only)

Establish, asking the user only for what is missing:

• Task — what to run each cycle.
• Mode — interval or condition.
• Interval (interval mode) — seconds between cycles (default 30).
• Exit predicate (condition mode) — the exact condition that ends the loop, stated so it can be evaluated objectively.
• Banner slugs (optional) — short keywords pointing back to the fuller task definition (e.g. another skill's section headings). Re-emitted each cycle as attention anchors; do not restate the full task content in the banner.

Then begin immediately.

Cycle — interval mode

1. Print the banner (plain code block, survives session timeout):

   Next reminder command:
   sleep <N> && echo "=== LOOP CYCLE <N+1> === Task: <task>. Slugs: <slugs>"
   

2. Execute the task fully — no truncation, no skipped steps.
3. Report one line: Cycle N complete: <summary>.
4. Run the reminder command with a bash timeout of <N + 10>s:

   sleep <N> && echo "=== LOOP CYCLE <N+1> === Task: <task>. Slugs: <slugs>"
   

   On seeing the output, return to step 1.

Cycle — condition mode

No sleep. The banner alone re-grounds the loop, so its content carries the load.

1. Print the banner via bash, with the exit predicate stated in full and the cycle counter incremented:

   echo "=== LOOP CYCLE <N> ===
   Task slugs: <slugs>
   EXIT ONLY IF: <exit predicate, in full>. Otherwise run another cycle."
   

2. Execute the task fully.
3. Re-print the banner (same bash echo) immediately before deciding — the moment right after a cycle looks done is when premature exit happens, so the predicate must be the most salient recent text.
4. Evaluate the exit predicate. If it holds, exit and report. Otherwise increment N and return to step 1.

Rules

• Carry the task verbatim. Never paraphrase or simplify it between cycles.
• Exit predicate in full; task as slugs. The predicate is what collapses, so restate it fully each cycle. Slugs only point at the task definition.
• Report every cycle, even if the outcome is "nothing changed".
• Adjust on request — interval changes or predicate clarifications apply from the next cycle.