{
  "ok": true,
  "data": {
    "entry": {
      "id": "agent-loops",
      "kind": "method",
      "kindLabel": "Method",
      "title": "Frame agents as loops with checks",
      "body": "An agent is easier to understand as a loop: observe, decide, act, check, reflect. The check is the important part. It turns a confident guess into a workflow that can notice when the world disagrees.",
      "tag": "agents",
      "date": "2026 · 06 · 30",
      "publishedAt": "2026-06-30",
      "note": null,
      "insight": {
        "aha": "The check step is what separates an agent loop from a repeated confident guess.",
        "tryThis": "Rewrite one one-shot AI answer as observe, decide, act, check, reflect, and require a visible artifact for every step.",
        "watchFor": [
          "Loops with no stop condition",
          "Reflection that never changes the next action",
          "Retry logic that repeats the same failing move"
        ]
      },
      "extended": [
        "People often hear agent and imagine a little worker with judgment. A clearer frame is a controller. It reads state, chooses one next step, takes an allowed action, checks the result, then decides whether to continue or stop.",
        "The loop must have boundaries: what the agent may read, which tools it may call, when it must ask for PLATPHORM_API_KEY, and which check ends the run. Without those boundaries, a loop can amplify the first wrong assumption.",
        "The AHA is that autonomy is not the absence of control. Good autonomy is visible control repeated safely."
      ],
      "url": "https://tips.platphormnews.com/entries/agent-loops"
    }
  }
}