Operating

Running loops in anger: the failure modes, the anti-patterns, what observability a loop needs, how to recover one that has gone wrong, and how to keep an infinite loop from being infinite.

• Anti-Patterns — Failure modes are how running loops break. Anti-patterns are how loops get designed broken in the first place — the mistakes this catalog exists to…
• Failure Modes — When a loop misbehaves, the single fastest diagnostic is a name. This catalog gives every operational failure its name, its tell in the instruments,…
• Infinite Loops — the Eight Ways a Loop Runs Forever — A loop has no natural end. The model's only built-in stop is its own opinion of itself, and an opinion is not a bound. Every infinite loop in…
• Multi-Loop Coordination — One loop is a tool; several are a fleet — and a fleet needs a contract. Four clauses keep loops from fighting: ownership, separate spines, priority,…
• Observability — You can't stay the engineer of a fleet you can't see. Observability for loops boils down to three artifacts — the run log, the spines, the escalations…
• Operating Loops — the Day-to-Day Handbook — Designing a loop takes an afternoon. Operating loops is every day that comes after — the routines that keep a running fleet reassuringly dull. This…
• The Recovery Playbook — Your loop has already failed. The good news: what comes next is a fixed sequence, not a judgment call. Five steps, in order, no skipping — and every…
• Safety — Safety for loops isn't a vibe — it's four mechanisms, each one living somewhere prose can't reach: permissions, levels, gates, and switches. Everything…