when … (transitions)

Syntax

when it passes and the goal is met: stop
when it fails: reflect, then plan again
when blocked: ask a human

What it does

when … rules are the loop's transitions — they run after each observe and decide what happens next. Conditions: it passes · it passes and the goal is met · it fails · blocked. Actions: stop · stop and warn · reflect · plan · act · observe · ask a human.

These lines are what make a loop self-correcting rather than a one-shot prompt. when it fails: reflect, then plan again is the back-edge: it turns a failed check into a diagnosis that feeds the next plan, so the loop learns within a run instead of repeating the same mistake. For that diagnosis to reach the next plan, end look at: with and the last failure. when blocked: ask a human is the escape hatch for when the agent genuinely can't proceed. Together they cover the three outcomes of every cycle: done, retry, or stuck.

Precedence is fixed by the engine, not by the order you write the lines: blocked > attempts > pass > fail. That ordering is deliberate — after N tries (attempts) is checked before it fails, so once you hit the try ceiling the thrash guard always wins and a failing loop can't reflect-and-retry forever. Never write a reflect back-edge without also giving the loop a hard stop; the last line of a loop is its ceiling.

Example

when it passes and the goal is met: stop
when it fails: reflect on which layer broke, then plan again
when blocked: ask a human

How it runs

Common mistakes

• A when it fails back-edge with no ceiling. Reflect-and-plan-again with no after N tries is an infinite, token-burning loop. The last line of every loop should be its hard stop — pair the back-edge with a thrash guard.
• Expecting write order to change precedence. The engine evaluates blocked > attempts > pass > fail no matter how you order the lines. You can't make it fails outrank after N tries by writing it first.
• Reflecting without passing the diagnosis forward. reflect only helps the next plan if it can read the failure — end look at: with and the last failure, or the reflection is discarded and the loop repeats itself.
• Confusing it passes with it passes and the goal is met. A cycle's check can pass while the overall goal isn't met yet. Use it passes and the goal is met: stop for the real finish line, not a bare it passes that stops too early.

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