{"slug":"memory-goal-state-loop","href":"/entries/memory-goal-state-loop","api":"/api/v1/entries/memory-goal-state-loop","title":"Memory–Goal–State agent loop","type":"principle","status":"active","certainty":"reported","claim":"An agent control loop comprises Memory (persist and iterate), Goal (verifiable or pseudo-verifiable stop criterion), and State (tasks, phases, iterations). reported [@vidal2026serious-agentic]","mechanism":"reported [@vidal2026serious-agentic] Universal loop anatomy stated in the talk:\n\nMemory — repository state, scratchpads, traces, compactable session history. Memory enables learning across iterations. Scratchpads and task files are durable Memory surfaces that survive context compaction.\n\nGoal — stop criterion that is verifiable (tests, types, schema validation, CLI oracles, visual diff) or pseudo-verifiable (judge model with independent context). Without Goal, agents trained to finish declare done without grounding.\n\nState — explicit machine of tasks, phases, and iteration counters. Task files with checkboxes are a concrete State encoding. Orchestrators that own a Markdown backlog are another.\n\nSkeleton: act → verify → done or continue. Feedback may be synchronous (inline tool result) or asynchronous (hawk/post-tool verifier).\n\nThis structure is the minimal abstract machine underneath Ralph loops, implementer/verifier splits, fan-out/fan-in workflows, and orchestrator designs. Implementation details vary by harness; the three roles remain.","quantities":[],"limits":"Structural model from talk discourse. Concrete Memory/Goal/State encodings are harness-specific. Pseudo-verifiable goals inherit judge failure modes.","inventor_note":"","sources":[{"key":"vidal2026serious-agentic","note":"loop anatomy"}],"links":["agentic-alignment-problem","verifiable-goals-prerequisite","ralph-task-file-loop","scratchpad-durable-memory","implementer-verifier-separation"],"relations":[{"slug":"agentic-alignment-problem","rel":"related"},{"slug":"verifiable-goals-prerequisite","rel":"related"},{"slug":"ralph-task-file-loop","rel":"related"},{"slug":"scratchpad-durable-memory","rel":"related"},{"slug":"implementer-verifier-separation","rel":"related"}],"topics":[{"id":"agentic-engineering","title":"Agentic engineering"}],"created_at":"2026-10-01T19:14:49.295Z","updated_at":"2026-10-01T19:14:49.307Z"}