nav-loop

Navigator Loop Skill

Execute tasks iteratively until completion with structured signals, stagnation detection, and dual-condition exit gates.

Why This Exists

Traditional AI coding requires manual "keep going" prompts. Navigator Loop provides:

• Structured completion signals (NAVIGATOR_STATUS block)
• Dual-condition exit gate (heuristics + explicit signal)
• Stagnation detection (circuit breaker for stuck loops)
• Progress visibility (phases: INIT → RESEARCH → IMPL → VERIFY → COMPLETE)

Based on Ralph's autonomous loop innovations, adapted for Navigator's context-efficient architecture.

When to Invoke

Auto-invoke when:

• User says "run until done", "keep going until complete"
• User says "iterate until finished", "autonomous mode"
• User says "loop mode", "don't stop until done"
• Task document has loop_mode: true

DO NOT invoke if:

• Single-step task (no iteration needed)
• User says "just do this once"
• Already in loop mode (prevent nested loops)
• User explicitly disabled loop mode

Configuration

Loop mode settings in .agent/.nav-config.json:

{
  "loop_mode": {
    "enabled": false,
    "max_iterations": 5,
    "stagnation_threshold": 3,
    "exit_requires_explicit_signal": true,
    "show_status_block": true,
    "iteration_approval": "none",
    "periodic_interval": 3,
    "never_pause_on_stagnation": false,
    "stagnation_diversify_strategy": "combine"
  }
}

Core options:

• enabled: Default state for new tasks
• max_iterations: Hard cap to prevent infinite loops (1-20)
• stagnation_threshold: Same-state count before pause (2-5)
• exit_requires_explicit_signal: Require EXIT_SIGNAL alongside heuristics
• show_status_block: Render NAVIGATOR_STATUS each iteration

Autonomous / overnight options (v6.2.2+):

• iteration_approval: When to prompt the user for accept/reject between iterations.
  • "none" (default) — never prompt; loop runs uninterrupted
  • "strict" — prompt after every iteration
  • "periodic" — prompt every N iterations (where N = periodic_interval, default 3)
• periodic_interval: When iteration_approval == "periodic", the cadence of prompts. Default 3 (every 3rd iteration). Set higher for less frequent check-ins on long overnight runs (e.g., 5 or 10).
• never_pause_on_stagnation: If true, stagnation triggers auto-diversification instead of an AskUserQuestion pause. Required for true overnight runs. Inspired by karpathy/autoresearch's NEVER STOP directive.
• stagnation_diversify_strategy: Which recovery to attempt when never_pause_on_stagnation fires.
  • "combine" — combine previous near-misses / partially-met indicators
  • "radical" — try a substantially different approach (re-architect, swap library)
  • "reread" — re-read the in-scope task/system docs for missed signals