Bounded Agent Loop Contract

Use this pattern when one agent can complete the job through repeated action and verification. It keeps the control flow explicit without introducing a workflow framework.

The runnable companion is bounded-loop-example.py.

Contract

Field	Required decision
Goal	What outcome is requested?
Action	What may change on each attempt?
Observation	What evidence did execution produce?
Verifier	Which independent check accepts or rejects the evidence?
Budget	How many attempts or how much cost may the loop consume?
Stop rule	What exact condition returns an accepted result?
Escalation	What happens when the budget expires?

The example records every transition. A rejected attempt returns to act; a verified attempt moves to accepted; budget exhaustion moves to escalated.

act -> verify -> accepted
 ^        |
 |        v
 +----- rejected

act or verify -> escalated  when the attempt budget is exhausted

Run

python3 examples/workflows/bounded-loop-example.py

Expected result:

accepted after 2 attempts

When to move to a graph

Keep the loop while every rejected result returns to one next action. Introduce an explicit graph when the workflow needs several branches, parallel work, joins, persistent checkpoints, or different authorities for different transitions.

See Loop & Graph Engineering for the design rules and Agent Harness Engineering for the runtime boundary around the loop.