An Anthropic senior dev just dropped an 11-page breakdown on "Loop Engineering."

The game has changed: you don’t prompt the agent anymore, you build the system that prompts it.

The 5-step loop :

Discovery: The agent hunts down its own tasks (failing CIs/issues) instead of waiting for a list.

Handoff: Tasks run in isolated git worktrees so parallel agents don't clash.

Verification: A separate agent reviews the code assuming it’s broken. (Rule #1: an agent grading its own work always gives itself an A).

Persistence: Results save to disk so they don't vanish when the context window clears.

Scheduling: A timer auto-wakes the system, keeping the loop alive.

This PDF completely flipped my approach to building AI agents.

Read it now, then check the article below.