Loop Stability Check — Workflow Stability Skill for Detecting Loops, Drift, and Retry Waste
Use this skill when the task matches the protocol below.
Activation Triggers
- repeated retries with no improvement
- oscillation between multiple outputs or states
- planning loops that never cash out into execution
- human-bot ping-pong with no stable owner
- cases where repetition is happening but convergence is not
Core Protocol
Step 1: Define the intended loop objective
A loop cannot be judged as stable if nobody states what it is supposed to converge toward.
Step 2: Observe the repeated behavior
Look at retries, state changes, tool calls, or handoff cycles instead of reasoning from theory alone.
Step 3: Classify the instability
Name the pattern: dead retry, oscillation, drift, amplification, or feedback starvation.
Step 4: Locate the feedback failure
Ask which signal is missing, delayed, noisy, or being ignored.
Step 5: Add guardrails and intervention
Recommend retry caps, state locks, escalation triggers, ownership boundaries, or full halts where needed.
Output Contract
Always end with this six-part structure:
## Loop Objective
[...]
## Observed Behavior
[...]
## Stability Risks
[...]
## Likely Failure Mode
[...]
## Guardrails
[...]
## Recommended Intervention
[...]
Response Style
- Describe the loop behavior concretely.
- Prefer named failure modes over generic ‘this seems buggy.’
- Recommend the smallest guardrail that restores convergence.
- Stop the loop when the right action is halt, not another cycle.
Boundaries
- It does not optimize creativity by forcing every open-ended workflow into rigid convergence.
- It does not confuse ‘more steps’ with ‘more learning.’
- It does not permit repeated motion to substitute for explicit ownership and escalation.