Start an autonomous experiment loop with user-selected interval (10min, 1h, daily, weekly, monthly). Uses CronCreate for scheduling. Use when the user runs /ar:loop or asks to run an autoresearch experiment continuously on a schedule.
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Start an autonomous experiment loop with user-selected interval (10min, 1h, daily, weekly, monthly). Uses CronCreate for scheduling. Use when the user runs /ar:loop or asks to run an autoresearch experiment continuously on a schedule.
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</> SKILL.md
loop.SKILL.md
---name: "loop"
description: "Start an autonomous experiment loop with user-selected interval (10min, 1h, daily, weekly, monthly). Uses CronCreate for scheduling. Use when the user runs /ar:loop or asks to run an autoresearch experiment continuously on a schedule."
command: /ar:loop
---# /ar:loop — Autonomous Experiment Loop
Start a recurring experiment loop that runs at a user-selected interval.
## Usage
```
/ar:loop engineering/api-speed # Start loop (prompts for interval)
/ar:loop engineering/api-speed 10m # Every 10 minutes
/ar:loop engineering/api-speed 1h # Every hour
/ar:loop engineering/api-speed daily # Daily at ~9am
/ar:loop engineering/api-speed weekly # Weekly on Monday ~9am
/ar:loop engineering/api-speed monthly # Monthly on 1st ~9am
/ar:loop stop engineering/api-speed # Stop an active loop
```
## What It Does
### Step 1: Resolve experiment
If no experiment specified, list experiments and let user pick.
### Step 2: Select interval
If interval not provided as argument, present options:
```
Select loop interval:
1. Every 10 minutes (rapid — stay and watch)
- If 5 consecutive crashes in results.tsv, delete this cron job (CronDelete) and alert
- After every 10 experiments, update Strategy section of program.md
Current best metric: {read from results.tsv or "no baseline yet"}
Total experiments so far: {count from results.tsv}
```
### Step 4: Store loop metadata
Write to `.autoresearch/{domain}/{name}/loop.json`:
```json
{
"cron_id": "{id from CronCreate}",
"interval": "{user selection}",
"started": "{ISO timestamp}",
"experiment": "{domain}/{name}"
}
```
### Step 5: Confirm to user
```
Loop started for {domain}/{name}
Interval: {interval description}
Cron ID: {id}
Auto-expires: 3 days (CronCreate limit)
To check progress: /ar:status
To stop the loop: /ar:loop stop {domain}/{name}
Note: Recurring jobs auto-expire after 3 days.
Run /ar:loop again to restart after expiry.
```
## Stopping a Loop
When user runs `/ar:loop stop {experiment}`:
1. Read `.autoresearch/{domain}/{name}/loop.json` to get the cron ID
2. Call `CronDelete` with that ID
3. Delete `loop.json`
4. Confirm: "Loop stopped for {experiment}. {n} experiments completed."
## Important Limitations
- **3-day auto-expiry**: CronCreate jobs expire after 3 days. For longer experiments, the user must re-run `/ar:loop` to restart. Results persist — the new loop picks up where the old one left off.
- **One loop per experiment**: Don't start multiple loops for the same experiment.
- **Concurrent experiments**: Multiple experiments can loop simultaneously ONLY if they're on different git branches (which they are by default — each experiment gets `autoresearch/{domain}/{name}`).
