Memory–Goal–State agent loop

principleactivereported

slug

memory-goal-state-loop

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: Memory — repository state, scratchpads, traces, compactable session history. Memory enables learning across iterations. Scratchpads and task files are durable Memory surfaces that survive context compaction. Goal — 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. State — 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. Skeleton: act → verify → done or continue. Feedback may be synchronous (inline tool result) or asynchronous (hawk/post-tool verifier). This 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.

limits

Structural model from talk discourse. Concrete Memory/Goal/State encodings are harness-specific. Pseudo-verifiable goals inherit judge failure modes.

relations

topics

agentic-engineering Agentic engineering

sources

vidal2026serious-agentic — loop anatomy

json

{
  "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": "2026-10-01T18:51:07.119Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-01T18:51:07.176Z"
}