Convergence Monitoring

Convergence monitoring answers the most important question in iterative AI development: when should you stop iterating? The answer is not a fixed number of iterations or a time limit -- it is convergence. Convergence means the agent's output is stabilizing; each iteration produces fewer and smaller changes than the last.

Core insight: You don't need a zero-diff -- you need the remaining modifications to be inconsequential.

1. What Is Convergence?

Convergence appears as a rapid, consistent decline in the volume of changes from one iteration to the next:

Iteration 1:  ████████████████████████████████████████  300 lines changed
Iteration 2:  ████████████████                          120 lines changed
Iteration 3:  ██████                                     40 lines changed
Iteration 4:  ██                                         10 lines changed (cosmetic only)
              ^--- Convergence reached: the diff shrinks each pass until only cosmetic changes remain