Autonomous Loop Patterns

Core Principle: Reviewer Never Authored

The agent that reviews work must never be the agent that authored it.

This is the single most important principle for autonomous quality. Self-review is unreliable -- the same blind spots that caused the error will miss it during review.

Implementation:

• Use a separate agent instance (different subagent_type or name) for review
• The reviewer receives only the output + acceptance criteria, not the generation prompt
• Reviewer can request changes but never edits directly -- sends feedback to the author

Pattern 1: Generate -> Validate -> Fix

The most common autonomous loop. Generate output, validate against criteria, fix if needed.