Loop Specification

Loop Specification — Engineering Autonomous Loops

Adapts the loop engineering methodology from arXiv:2607.00038 ("Stop Hand-Holding Your Coding Agent: Engineering the Loops that Replace Step-by-Step Prompting") for SAP development pipelines (ABAP, CPI, BTP, SAP GUI).

Instead of prompting the agent at every step, design a bounded, reusable Loop Specification that allows the agent to pursue a goal autonomously while ensuring correctness and preventing runaway execution.

The Loop Specification Anatomy

Every loop specification must compile five core pieces and a persistent memory structure:

                  ┌────────────────────────┐
                  │        TRIGGER         │
                  └───────────┬────────────┘
                              ▼
                  ┌────────────────────────┐
                  │    GOAL & MEMORY       │◄────────┐
                  └───────────┬────────────┘         │
                              ▼                      │
                  ┌────────────────────────┐         │
                  │   EXECUTION (SKILLS)   │         │
                  └───────────┬────────────┘         │
                              ▼                      │
                  ┌────────────────────────┐         │ Iteration
                  │      VERIFICATION      │         │
                  └───────────┬────────────┘         │
                              ├──────────────────────┘
                              ▼
                  ┌────────────────────────┐
                  │   STOPPING RULE        │
                  │ (Named Terminal State) │
                  └────────────────────────┘

1. Trigger: When the loop starts (Manual, Scheduled, or Event-driven like a PR).
2. Goal: The desired target condition (must be verifiable).
3. Execution: The action phase. The agent must execute named, tested skills (e.g. sap-crew-analysis, sap-transport-gate, abap-unit-testing) rather than raw unbounded generation.
4. Verification: A strict check that validates the turn output.
5. Stopping Rule: Conditions that force loop exit into a named terminal state (Success, No-Op, Blocked, Stalled, Exhausted).
6. Memory: Durable state stored on disk (e.g. in MEMORY.md or a JSON file) to persist plan and decisions across turns without bloating the prompt context.

The 5-Level Verification Ladder

Align your verification checks strictly against the ladder. Be honest about the level of verification.

[!IMPORTANT] The Golden Rule: A loop is only as autonomous as its verification level. Avoid using Level 4 verification as if it were Level 1.

Design Principles for SAP Loops

1. Maker-Checker Separation

Never let the same agent session or prompt generate code and also judge its correctness.

• Action: Use a separate checker agent, or use deterministic checks (Level 1/2/3) for validation. If using a model-as-judge (Level 4), break the prompt context between the maker and the checker.

2. Surgical Turn Scope (One Change per Turn)

Do not let the agent rewrite multiple objects or methods in a single loop step.

• Action: Prohibit the agent from touching adjacent code. Ensure a single modification, execute checks, record state, and verify.

3. Proven Verifier (Red-Before, Green-After)

Ensure tests or checks can fail. A test that always passes is a silent failure.

• Action: Write the test/linter check first, verify it fails, then execute the fix and verify it passes.

4. Cost Per Accepted Change

Measure efficiency. Keep track of token spend divided by the number of changes that survived verification.

• Action: Track execution costs and log stagnation if token budget is burning without approved changes.

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

• While-True Around a Stranger: Wrapping a raw LLM call in a retry loop with no real verifier or named skills. The model will just repeat its errors or agree with itself.
• Self-Approving Loop (Reward Hacking): Generator model grades its own work. The grade drifts to 100% while actual quality decreases.
• Specification Gaming: The agent changes the test or linter configuration to pass instead of resolving the bug in the code.
• Unattended Runaway: A loop with no token/iteration limit or stagnation detector, executing loops endlessly.

Loop Specification Template (<name>-loop.md)

Use this skeleton when authoring loop specifications:

# [Name] Loop Specification

## 1. Metadata
- **Trigger:** [Manual | Schedule | Event]
- **Goal:** [Verifiable description]
- **Verification Level:** Level [1-5]

## 2. Anatomy
### Execution (Skills called)
- Skill 1
- Skill 2

### Verification Command
- `[Command to execute for verification]`

### Stopping Rules & Terminal States
- **Success:** [Criteria]
- **No-Op:** [Criteria]
- **Blocked:** [Criteria]
- **Exhausted:** [Iteration/budget cap]

### Durable Memory
- State stored in: `[Path to file]`
- Schema/Format: `[Format details]`

## 3. Surgical Run Turn Steps
1. Read current state from memory.
2. Verify baseline (Red-before check).
3. Execute modification (surgical scope).
4. Run verification command.
5. Record outcome to memory.

## 4. Guardrails & Human Approvals
- Require human gate before executing: `[Irreversible action]`

Actuation Patterns

1. Context-Bounded Loop (/goal command)

If the task context fits in a single window, pass the Loop Specification markdown document to the agent harness with a /goal prefix.

2. Context-Refreshed Loop (Ralph Pattern)

For long-horizon tasks (e.g. multi-object SAP refactoring):

• Write a runner shell script that calls the agent harness.
• Each turn runs in a fresh process with a clean context.
• All state (plan, file changes, test outputs) is read from and written to files on disk.

Verification Checklist for new loops

• Loop specification triage completed (iteration changes next action)
• Goal is verifiable (Levels 1-3 preferred)
• Maker role separated from Checker role
• Named terminal states defined (Success, Blocked, Stalled, Exhausted)
• Maximum iteration and budget limit defined
• Durable memory located on disk, not in context history
• Human gate added to any destructive actions (e.g. releasing transport requests)