Practical patterns, starters & CLI tools for loop engineering with AI coding agents. Design systems that prompt and orchestrate agents (inspired by Addy Osmani and Boris Cherny). Includes loop-audit, loop-init, loop-cost.
Loop Engineering
Stop prompting. Design the loop. Get a score.
Start in 5 minutes · Quickstart · What do you want to do? · Refactor path · 中文 · Pattern picker
npx @cobusgreyling/loop init . --pattern daily-triage --tool claude
npx @cobusgreyling/loop doctor .
--tool defaults to claude if you omit it. Swap for grok, codex, or opencode. Week one is report-only.
You design a system that discovers work, hands it to agents, verifies results, and persists state — instead of typing the next prompt yourself.
New here? Quickstart · Refactor a project · Thin GitHub Action loop (no STATE.md required)
What do you want to do?
This is a pattern library for operating agents around a codebase. It is not a “rewrite the module” button.
| I want to… | Start here |
|---|---|
| Keep the repo healthy (issues, CI, deps) | Quickstart → daily-triage |
| Land and babysit PRs | PR Babysitter |
| Run a loop in GitHub Actions with almost no files | Thin loop |
| Ship a feature or refactor (todos → small PRs) | Refactor / change path |
Full jobs table: docs/jobs.md.
Patterns
| Pattern | Cadence | Week 1 | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Triage | 1d–2h | L1 report | Low |
| Thin loop | event + 1d | L1 snapshot | Very low |
| PR Babysitter | 5–15m | L1 watch | High |
| CI Sweeper | 5–15m | L2 cautious | Very high |
| Dependency Sweeper | 6h–1d | L2 patch-only | Medium |
| Changelog Drafter | 1d or tag | L1 draft | Low |
| Post-Merge Cleanup | 1d–6h | L1 off-peak | Low |
| Issue Triage | 2h–1d | L1 propose-only | Low |
Interactive picker: showcase. Index: patterns/registry.yaml.
Getting started
npx @cobusgreyling/loop init . --pattern daily-triage --tool claude
npx @cobusgreyling/loop doctor .
npx @cobusgreyling/loop cost --pattern daily-triage --level L1
Empty repo → first STATE.md walkthrough: scripts/empty-to-state-demo.sh.
Roll out L1 report → L2 assisted → L3 unattended only after the verifier has been right for a week. See loop-design-checklist.
Loop Ready now weights recent runs harder than files on disk. A 30-day-old STATE.md is not L3.
Examples by tool
Claude Code (including the plugin) · Grok · Codex · OpenClaw · Opencode · GitHub Actions
Operating & safety
Failure modes · Anti-patterns · Safety · Operating loops · Stories (wins and failures)
Loop engineering amplifies judgment. Token costs can explode. Unattended loops make unattended mistakes. Read what the loop ships.
Help wanted
Docs and small PRs: first response within 48 hours.
- Add your project to adopters
- Share a story (failures first-class)
- Live
good first issuelist - Show your loop · Ask anything
See CONTRIBUTING.md.
CLI packages and companion repos (optional — not required for week one)
Unified front door: npx @cobusgreyling/loop (init · doctor · status · audit · cost). Older packages (loop-init, loop-audit, …) stay supported.
Companions exist for later: memory-engineering, harness-foundry, outerloop, fleet-engineering, goal-engineering. Do not add them until a loop has actually run.
Sources
- Cobus Greyling — Loop Engineering
- Addy Osmani — Loop Engineering
- Lulla et al. 2026 — Building Blocks, Adoption, and Impact (this repo is the community reference they reviewed)
- Attribution
License
MIT