Loop Skill
You are setting up an autonomous loop. An agent runs repeatedly until an exit condition is met.
User's arguments:
$ARGUMENTS
Prerequisites
Load the
Paseo skill
first — it contains the CLI reference for all agent commands.
What Is a Loop
A loop runs an agent repeatedly until it's done. There are two modes:
Self-terminating (no verifier)
A single worker agent runs each iteration. It returns
{ done: boolean, reason: string }
via structured output. The loop exits when
done
is true.
Worker + Verifier
A worker agent runs each iteration (detached, no structured output). After the worker finishes, a separate verifier agent evaluates the verification prompt and returns
{ done: boolean, reason: string }
. The loop exits when
done
is true.
Feedback between iterations
In both modes, the
reason
from the previous iteration is fed back to the next worker as
gh pr checks 42. Report done when ALL checks
have passed (no pending, no failures). If any checks are still running or have failed, report not
done and list which checks are pending or failing."
No verifier (self-terminating: the worker inspects CI and reports done when green)
sleep: 5m
archive: yes
name: babysit-pr-42
/loop implement the auth refactor from the plan in /tmp/plan.md
→ worker-prompt-file: /tmp/plan.md
verifier-prompt: "Verify every step of the plan was implemented. Check file changes, types, and
run npm run typecheck and npm test. Report each criterion individually with evidence."
name: auth-refactor
worktree: auth-refactor
/loop run the test suite until it passes
→ worker-prompt: "Run npm test. If any tests fail, read the failure output, investigate the root
cause in the source code, and fix it. Report done when npm test exits with code 0 and all
tests pass. Report not done if any test still fails, and explain which tests failed and why."
No verifier (self-terminating: worker reports done when tests pass)
name: fix-tests
/loop watch error rates after deploy, check every 10 minutes
→ worker-prompt: "Check the error rate for the canary deployment by running ./scripts/check-canary.sh.
Report done when the error rate has been below 0.1% for at least 2 consecutive checks. Report not
done with the current error rate and trend."
No verifier (self-terminating: worker reports done when error rate is stable)
sleep: 10m
max-iterations: 30
archive: yes
name: canary-watch
Using the Script
The loop is implemented as a bash script at
~/.claude/skills/paseo-loop/bin/loop.sh
.
Self-terminating: worker checks PR CI and reports done when all checks pass
~/.claude/skills/paseo-loop/bin/loop.sh \ --worker-prompt "Check CI status of PR #42 using gh pr checks 42. Report done when ALL checks pass. Report not done with a list of pending/failing checks." \ --name "babysit-pr" \ --sleep 5m \ --archive
Worker + verifier: worker implements, verifier independently checks
~/.claude/skills/paseo-loop/bin/loop.sh \ --worker-prompt "Implement the auth refactor: ..." \ --verifier-prompt "Verify the auth refactor is complete. Run npm run typecheck and npm test. Check that all file changes match the plan. Report each criterion with evidence." \ --name "auth-refactor" \ --worktree "auth-refactor" Arguments Flag Required Default Description --worker-prompt Yes — Prompt given to the worker each iteration --worker-prompt-file Yes — Read the worker prompt from a file --worker No codex Worker agent ( provider/model , e.g. codex/gpt-5.4 , claude/sonnet ) --verifier-prompt No — Verification prompt for a separate verifier agent --verifier-prompt-file No — Read the verifier prompt from a file --verifier No claude/sonnet Verifier agent ( provider/model ) --name Yes — Name prefix for agents --sleep No — Delay between iterations (e.g. 30s , 5m , 1h ) --max-iterations No unlimited Safety cap on iterations --archive No off Archive agents after each iteration --worktree No — Worktree name. Created on first use, reused after. --thinking No medium Thinking level for worker * Provide exactly one of --worker-prompt or --worker-prompt-file . Provide at most one of --verifier-prompt or --verifier-prompt-file . Behavior by parameters Parameters Mode Use case --worker-prompt only Self-terminating worker Worker does work and decides when done --worker-prompt + --verifier-prompt Worker + verifier Worker implements, verifier independently checks --worker-prompt + --sleep Polling with self-termination Periodic check until a condition is met --worker-prompt + --verifier-prompt + --sleep Periodic work + verifier Periodic work with independent verification Agent Naming Without verifier: agents are named {name}-{N} : babysit-1 # First iteration babysit-2 # Second iteration With verifier: workers are {name}-{N} , verifiers are {name}-verify-{N} : feat-1 # First worker feat-verify-1 # First verifier feat-2 # Second worker (with previous result context) feat-verify-2 # Second verifier Worktree Support When --worktree is passed, all agents run in the same git worktree. The worktree is created on first launch and reused for all subsequent agents. ~/.claude/skills/paseo-loop/bin/loop.sh \ --worker-prompt "Implement the feature..." \ --verifier-prompt "Verify the feature works and typecheck passes" \ --name "feature-x" \ --worktree "feature-x" Your Job Understand the task from the conversation context and $ARGUMENTS Decide the mode — does this need a separate verifier, or can the worker self-terminate? Write the worker prompt — what the worker does each iteration. Must be self-contained (the agent has zero prior context). Write the verifier prompt (if needed) — what the verifier checks. Should be factual and verifiable. Choose sleep — if the task is polling/monitoring, add a sleep duration Choose archive — use --archive for long-running or polling loops to keep the agent list clean Choose agents — default: codex worker + claude/sonnet verifier Choose a name — short, descriptive Run the script — call loop.sh with all the arguments When to use a verifier vs self-terminating Use a verifier ( --verifier-prompt ) when: The worker's job is to implement something and you want independent verification You want the verification done by a different agent than the worker The worker should focus on doing work, not on judging its own work Use self-terminating (no verifier) when: The worker is checking/polling an external condition (CI status, deployment health) The worker can objectively determine when it's done (tests pass, file exists) You want a single agent doing both the work and the evaluation Writing a Good Worker Prompt The worker prompt is what the agent receives each iteration. It must be: Self-contained — The agent starts with zero context. Everything needed is in the prompt. Specific — Name files, functions, types, URLs. Be concrete. Action-oriented — Tell the agent what to do, not what to think about. Writing a Good Verifier Prompt The verifier prompt defines what the verifier checks after each worker iteration. It can range from strict factual checks to qualitative code review: Factual / objective checks: "Run npm test and npm run typecheck . Report done only if both pass with zero failures." "Check that PR #42 has all CI checks green and no unresolved review comments." "Verify the API responds to GET /health with status 200 within 500ms." Code quality / style checks: "Review the changes for DRY violations. Report done when there is no duplicated logic across files." "Check that the implementation does not over-engineer. No unnecessary abstractions, no premature generalization, no feature flags for single-use code." "Verify the code follows the project's conventions: functional style, no classes, explicit types, no any ." Performance / resource checks: "Run the benchmark suite. Report done when p99 latency is under 100ms." "Check bundle size. Report done when the production build is under 500KB gzipped." Comprehensive verification: "Verify every step of the plan was implemented. Check file changes, types, test output. Run npm run typecheck and npm test . Report each criterion individually with evidence." The verifier should report facts with evidence, not suggest fixes. Skill Stacking You can instruct the worker to use other skills: ~/.claude/skills/paseo-loop/bin/loop.sh \ --worker-prompt "Use /committee to plan, then fix the provider list bug. The bug is..." \ --verifier-prompt "The provider list renders correctly and npm run typecheck passes" \ --name "provider-fix" Composing with Handoff A handoff can launch a loop: /handoff a loop in a worktree to babysit PR #42