Claude Code Redefines Agent Loops
新智元 · wechat · 2026-07-16
The Claude Code team formally defines a "loop" as an agent repeatedly executing work until a stopping condition is met, summarizing four typical loop types:
- Turn-based loops: Human controls each turn, with every prompt triggering a round of execution.
- Goal-based loops: An evaluator decides whether to continue based on whether a goal is met.
- Time-based loops: Triggered at fixed intervals, similar to cron jobs.
- Active loops: Triggered by events or time, running unattended until manually shut down.
The article emphasizes that the focus isn't simply "letting AI run continuously," but rather on designing guardrails: machine-checkable completion conditions, maximum turns, spending caps, no-progress detection, and automatically verifiable feedback mechanisms. The author believes AI programming is shifting from writing prompts to designing behavioral systems: how to trigger, verify, and stop.
Related event: From Prompt Engineering to Loop Engineering(6 posts)→
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