A remote hop without a local checkpoint is a dropped loop. The agent should write state to disk first. Only then may a remote path see a sanitized slice.
The pattern is older than current language models. Databases flush a write-ahead log before replicas. An agent loop needs that same habit on every exit.
Industry talk still paints agents as deep planners. Many production loops are tool calls wrapped around hope. Hope is not a recovery plan for hops.
This article stays local-first on every hop. It uses a checkpoint, a probe, and a short lease. The remote side is optional overflow, not the source of truth.
Cafe networks punish chat-shaped agents without local state. The first tool call stays local and cheap. The next call wants a model the laptop does not host.
