---
description: "Feedback loop rules — iteration, convergence, circuit breaker"
---

# Feedback Loop Rules

## Convergence

Convergence is mechanical: ALL blocking agents must have their latest verdict in the pass set. No LLM judges convergence.

## Blocking Agents

$blocking_agents

## Iteration Loop

1. Phase 1 (Research): Investigator, Freshness Checker, Dependency Auditor gather evidence
2. Phase 2 (Critique): Skeptic, Champion, Pragmatist, Simplifier, Triage, Impact Assessor critique
3. Mediation: 4 structured debates run
4. Convergence check: if all blocking pass → converge; else identify weakest link and iterate

## Circuit Breaker

- Max iterations per cycle: $max_iterations
- Uses relative counting: `iteration - cycle_start_iteration`
- When fired: cell moves to STALLED → needs_human

## Short-Circuits

- Investigator issues CANNOT_DETERMINE + all others pass → NEEDS_EXPERIMENT
- Triage issues LOW_VALUE_DEFER + all others pass → DEFER_OPEN
