TL;DR — A loop is only as trustworthy as its stop condition. "Done" has to be checkable by a different model — tests pass, lint clean, schema validates — never the worker's own claim. Below: why self-grading fails, the four rungs of verification, a checker-agent template you can copy, and the three caps that stop a loop running forever.
Part 3 of the Loop Engineering series on ShipWithAI. Read the full article →
Part 2 gave you the parts list. Part 1 promised this installment would be entirely about designing stop conditions, "because they are the hardest part to get right." Here it is.
The thesis, in one line:
A loop that grades its own work will tell you it is done before it is.
