feedback-loop

/feedback-loop

Construct a fast, sharp, deterministic, agent-runnable pass/fail signal for the behavior under question. Pick from a catalog of ten patterns, harden the loop against flakes, and hand it off to whatever skill called this one.

This skill is advisory. It writes test files, scripts, harnesses, and fixtures — never tracker labels.

Why a deterministic loop is load-bearing

Two things in the Valesco chain depend on the loop existing and behaving predictably:

1. /diagnose Phase 1. Without a loop, hypothesis-testing degrades to hand-waving. Phase 1 is the entire skill — the rest is mechanical once the signal exists.
2. /tdd red→green. A test that takes 30 seconds to fail breaks the tracer-bullet rhythm; the agent stops listening to its own feedback.

The loop also tends to graduate into a regression test that lives in the repo permanently, so the next person hitting the same bug — including Claude Code running inside runway — has a deterministic check available.

If you don't have a loop, you don't have engineering — you have storytelling. Build the loop.

When to run

• Inside /diagnose Phase 1, when you've reproduced the bug by hand but need an automatable signal.
• Inside /tdd, when picking the seam for the first failing test in a new feature slice.
• Standalone, when the user says "the dev loop is too slow" — the iteration ladder applies even when no specific bug is on the table.

When NOT to run

• The loop already exists and runs in CI — use it; don't rebuild.
• The "loop" the user wants is a manual checklist for stakeholders. That's a runbook, not a feedback loop.
• The bug only matters in production with real customer data. First run /triage to determine whether you have legitimate access to a reproducer; this skill cannot manufacture one out of nothing.

Three properties of a good loop

Every loop, regardless of pattern, is judged on three axes. A 30-second flaky loop is barely better than no loop at all; a 2-second deterministic loop is a debugging superpower.

Fast

• Target: under 5 seconds wall-clock per iteration.
• Superpower threshold: under 2 seconds. At this speed the agent (or human) iterates without losing context between cycles.
• Disqualifying: over 30 seconds per iteration — the iteration rhythm collapses.

How to get fast: cache setup steps (don't re-bootstrap the DB on every iteration), narrow the scope (run one test, not the whole file), skip unrelated init, swap heavy deps for thin fakes only at the outer boundary.

Sharp

A sharp loop asserts on the specific symptom, not "didn't crash". If the bug is "wrong total when cart contains a 0-priced item", the assertion is assert total == 0, not assert order.completed_ok.

Sharp loops survive refactors because they describe behavior, not structure. A loop that fails when you rename an internal function was testing implementation, not behavior — see /tdd.

Deterministic

Same input, same output, every run, on every machine. The four sources of non-determinism to neutralize:

• Time — pin the clock (vi.useFakeTimers(), freezegun, or inject a clock dependency).
• Randomness — seed RNG (Math.random is rarely the issue; UUIDs and test data factories are).
• Filesystem — isolate per-test (tmp.mkdtempSync(), ephemeral Supabase branch via mcp__a80053c7…__create_branch).
• Network — freeze with a recorded fixture (MSW, VCR, nock) or run inside a container with no egress.

If you cannot neutralize one of the four, document which and why in a comment alongside the loop.

Pattern catalog

Pick the cheapest pattern that produces a sharp signal. The patterns are ordered by general preference — when in doubt, try them in this order.

1. Failing test

A test at the seam closest to the bug — unit when behavior is local, integration when the bug only appears across module boundaries, e2e when the bug is in wiring.

• When it fits: the codebase has a test framework, the behavior is callable from test code, the bug reproduces with a small input.
• Pitfalls: mocking too aggressively (the bug lives in the collaboration); writing the test at the wrong seam (unit test for a bug that needs three callers to trigger).
• Skeleton:

  test("reproduces <symptom>", () => {
    setup();
    const result = systemUnderTest(triggeringInput);
    expect(result).toBe(expectedSymptom); // initially the bug, then the fix
  });
  

• Iteration ladder: narrow scope to one test (vitest <file> -t <name>), skip unrelated setup hooks, switch from full DB to in-memory adapter only if the bug isn't in the DB layer.

2. Curl / HTTP harness

A shell script that hits a running dev server with a recorded request and asserts on the response shape, status, or specific field.

• When it fits: the bug is reachable via the public API; you have a dev server you can keep running.
• Pitfalls: auth tokens that expire mid-iteration; non-deterministic IDs in the response (compare shape with jq, not full body diff); forgetting to seed the DB to a known state between runs.
• Skeleton:

  #!/usr/bin/env bash
  set -euo pipefail
  RESPONSE=$(curl -sS -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/orders \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d @fixtures/order.json)
  echo "$RESPONSE" | jq -e '.total == 0' > /dev/null
  

• Iteration ladder: keep the server warm between runs; pre-seed the DB with a snapshot; pin the auth token to a long-lived test JWT.

3. CLI fixture diff

Invoke the CLI with a fixture input file and diff stdout against a recorded snapshot.

• When it fits: the system is a CLI, code generator, or text transformer; output is text.
• Pitfalls: newline / trailing-whitespace drift across platforms; timestamps in output (filter or normalize before diffing); ANSI color codes (strip with sed -r 's/\x1b\[[0-9;]*m//g').
• Skeleton:

  ./bin/mytool < fixtures/input.txt > /tmp/actual.txt
  diff -u fixtures/expected.txt /tmp/actual.txt
  

• Iteration ladder: snapshot tooling (vitest -u, insta) instead of hand-maintained expected files; canonicalize output (sort lines if order doesn't matter).

4. Headless browser script

Playwright or Puppeteer drives the real UI; the script asserts on DOM state, console messages, or network calls.

• When it fits: the bug is in client-side behavior, layout, or browser-only APIs (IndexedDB, service workers, scroll behavior).
• Pitfalls: real network calls (mock at the route level, not the fetch level — closer to the network seam); racy waits (waitForSelector, not setTimeout); zombie browser processes between runs.
• Skeleton:

  test("cart total updates", async ({ page }) => {
    await page.goto("/cart");
    await page.getByRole("button", { name: /add/i }).click();
    await expect(page.getByTestId("total")).toHaveText("$0.00");
  });
  

• Iteration ladder: use Playwright's --ui mode for first-build, drop to headless for the production loop; record video on failure only; pin viewport size to make selectors stable.

5. Replay a captured trace

Save a real network request / payload / event log to disk; replay it through the code path in isolation.

• When it fits: the bug only appears with production-shaped data, but the data itself is reproducible (no PII, or PII can be scrubbed); race conditions captured by a time-stamped event log.
• Pitfalls: PII or secrets in the captured trace (sanitize before committing); trace from a deployed version that no longer exists in code (note the version in the fixture filename); replays that hit external services (stub them).
• Skeleton:

  test("processes captured webhook payload", async () => {
    const payload = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync("fixtures/webhook-2026-04-30.json"));
    const result = await processWebhook(payload);
    expect(result.status).toBe("rejected");
  });
  

• Iteration ladder: trim the trace to the minimal subset that still reproduces; canonicalize timestamps; commit one fixture per shape, not one per occurrence.

6. Throwaway harness

A minimal subset of the system — one service, faked deps — that exercises the bug code path with a single function call. Lives in scripts/debug/, not in the test suite.

• When it fits: the system is too tangled to test in place; the bug spans a refactor that hasn't landed; you need to call into private internals.
• Pitfalls: the harness diverges from production wiring and "fixes" bugs that production still has; harness becomes load-bearing infrastructure (it shouldn't — Phase 6 of /diagnose deletes it).
• Skeleton:

  // scripts/debug/repro-VA-142.ts
  import { internalFunction } from "../../src/feature/private";
  const result = internalFunction(buildInput());
  if (result !== "expected") process.exit(1);
  

• Iteration ladder: keep the import surface minimal (you're not rebuilding the system); add console.time blocks to find the slow part; delete the harness as soon as a real test seam exists.

7. Property / fuzz loop

Run 1000+ random inputs through the system and look for the failure mode.

• When it fits: "sometimes wrong output" bugs; serializers, parsers, state machines, anything with a large input space; no obvious triggering input.
• Pitfalls: unbounded test time (cap with numRuns); shrinking failures the framework can't simplify (write a custom shrinker); flakes from network or time inside the property (don't — keep the property pure).
• Skeleton:

  fc.assert(fc.property(fc.array(fc.integer()), arr => {
    const sorted = mySort(arr);
    return isAscending(sorted);
  }), { numRuns: 1000, seed: 42 });
  

• Iteration ladder: seed the PRNG (seed: 42); save the smallest counterexample as a regression test; raise numRuns only after the shrinker is reliable.

8. Bisection harness

git bisect run over a script that boots state X, checks the bug, exits 0 (good) or 1 (bad).

• When it fits: the bug appeared between two known states (commits, package versions, dataset versions); the bug is reproducible at every commit in the range.
• Pitfalls: broken intermediate commits (mark with git bisect skip); the bug requires a re-install of dependencies (script must run pnpm i); bisecting through a refactor that renamed everything (history-aware bisection — --first-parent).
• Skeleton:

  #!/usr/bin/env bash
  set -e
  pnpm install --frozen-lockfile > /dev/null
  ./bin/repro || exit 1   # bug present
  exit 0                   # bug absent
  

• Iteration ladder: cache node_modules per commit hash to skip the reinstall; pre-build once if the build is deterministic; bisect over a package-lock range, not source range, when the suspect is a dep.

9. Differential loop

Run the same input through two configurations — old version vs new, two deployments, two implementations — and diff outputs.

• When it fits: "this used to work" bugs where you can run the working version side-by-side; comparing two implementations during a migration; validating a refactor preserves behavior.
• Pitfalls: incidental differences swamp the real one (canonicalize before diffing); the two configurations don't actually receive the same input (log the input on both sides and verify); diff size makes the signal unreadable (semantic diff with jq -S).
• Skeleton:

  ./bin/old-tool < input.json | jq -S . > /tmp/old.json
  ./bin/new-tool < input.json | jq -S . > /tmp/new.json
  diff -u /tmp/old.json /tmp/new.json
  

• Iteration ladder: strip fields known to differ (timestamps, IDs) before diffing; iterate on a curated input corpus, not random inputs; pin both versions to specific hashes so the comparison is reproducible.

10. HITL bash

A bash script that prompts a human for the action, captures the result, and feeds it back to the agent. Last resort — humans aren't part of an autonomous run, so this disqualifies the loop as a regression test that runway / CI can re-run later.

• When it fits: the bug is in a closed system (vendor app, hardware, external service) where no programmatic loop exists; the human can give reliable yes/no per iteration.
• Pitfalls: human fatigue (cap iterations); ambiguous answers (force yes/no — no free text); using HITL when one of patterns 1–9 would actually have worked.
• Skeleton:

  #!/usr/bin/env bash
  read -p "Click the buy button. Did the modal close? (y/n) " ok
  [[ "$ok" == "y" ]] && exit 0 || exit 1
  

• Iteration ladder: capture what the human did so the next iteration can suggest a programmatic alternative; never use HITL twice in a row without re-evaluating patterns 1–9.

Which pattern do I pick?

Walk this tree top-to-bottom. Stop at the first "yes."

1. Is there an existing test seam that exercises the behavior end-to-end? → Pattern 1 (failing test).
2. Is the surface an HTTP API and you have a dev server? → Pattern 2 (curl harness).
3. Is the surface a CLI or text transformer? → Pattern 3 (CLI fixture diff).
4. Is the bug only visible in the rendered UI? → Pattern 4 (headless browser).
5. Can you replay a captured production trace? → Pattern 5 (replay trace).
6. Is the system too tangled or mid-refactor to test in place? → Pattern 6 (throwaway harness).
7. Is the bug "sometimes" — non-deterministic on input? → Pattern 7 (property / fuzz).
8. Did the bug appear between two known commits / versions? → Pattern 8 (bisection).
9. Are there two configurations or versions you can compare? → Pattern 9 (differential).
10. Final fallback — and only after honestly trying 1–9: Pattern 10 (HITL bash). The loop will not be replayable by an autonomous run, so the issue probably needs needs-human rather than ready-for-agent.

If you fall off the bottom of the tree without a fit, the bug isn't loopable yet — return to /triage and request reproducer access, trace capture, or production instrumentation as needs-info.

Iteration ladder

Apply across every pattern. Climb until the loop is fast, sharp, and deterministic enough to defend.

Step	Cheap	Expensive
Cache setup	Memoize fixture loads, keep dev server warm.	Snapshot the entire DB and restore between runs.
Narrow scope	Filter to one test (-t name).	Compile a per-test bundle that excludes unrelated code.
Pin time	Inject a clock; freeze in the test.	Run inside a container with the system clock pinned.
Seed RNG	Pass an explicit seed to test data factories.	Replace global RNG with a deterministic-by-default wrapper.
Isolate filesystem	tmp.mkdtempSync() per test.	Per-test ephemeral Supabase branch.
Freeze network	MSW / VCR / nock at the route level.	Container with no egress; recorded HAR replay.
Raise repro rate	Loop the trigger 100×; tighten timing windows.	Inject targeted sleeps to widen the race window; run under TSAN.

For non-deterministic bugs the goal is not a clean repro but a higher reproduction rate. A 50%-flake bug is debuggable; 1% is not. Climb the ladder until the rate is workable, then build the loop on top of that.

Hand-off — how the loop becomes downstream input

The loop you build here usually doesn't stay in scripts/debug/. It graduates into the project's permanent infrastructure:

Caller	What the loop becomes
/diagnose Phase 1	The active feedback loop for hypothesis testing. The Phase 5 regression test typically condenses it into a permanent test.
/tdd	The first failing test in the red→green cycle. Each subsequent slice extends or copies it.
Issue body for runway pickup	Once a loop graduates into a permanent test, reference it by path in the issue body so Claude Code (running inside runway) sees both the spec and a deterministic check.

Self-validation before declaring done

• The loop exits 0 on pass, non-zero on fail. No "look for the right string in the output."
• Wall-clock time measured and recorded. (Ideally < 5s, < 2s if you want it to be a daily-driver loop.)
• The loop has been run three times in a row and produced the same result each time.
• Every source of non-determinism (time / randomness / filesystem / network) is either neutralized or explicitly documented in a comment.
• No human input required mid-loop (or, if HITL, the limitation is noted in the hand-off).

If any check fails, fix the loop before returning. A loop that "mostly works" is the same as no loop — it pollutes downstream skills with noise.

Non-goals

• No test framework prescription. Use what the project uses. If the project doesn't have one, surface that to the user and let them choose before continuing — picking a framework is a project-level decision, not a per-loop one.
• No performance budget setting. "Loop should be fast" is the discipline here. "API should respond in < 100ms" is acceptance-criteria territory in the issue body, not a property of this skill.
• No fix authoring. This skill ends when the loop reliably observes the bug. The fix is /diagnose Phase 5 or /tdd green.
• No production instrumentation. Loops live in test code or scripts/debug/, never in src/. Production probes need explicit user approval.
• No CI integration. Hooking the loop into CI is a project-level decision after the loop is proven locally.

References

• ../diagnose/SKILL.md — the primary caller; Phase 1 is "build a loop using this skill."
• Matt Pocock's /tdd — the red→green caller; this skill is the "build the red" half.
• Matt Pocock's /diagnose — Phase 1 of his version is the doctrinal source for the ten-pattern catalog; this skill is the expanded reference.