deepseek-harness/packages/core/agent-loop/README.md

# dsh-agent-loop

Concrete `ReactLoopAgent` implementation and loop driver.

This is the only package in the harness that contains concrete loop logic. Everything else is an abstract service or a plugin against extension seams — new behavior goes into plugins, not here.

## Service: `AgentLoop` (ctx key: `agentLoop`)

### Public API

Creation and resume use one caller-owned transaction: compose while unpublished, enter both registries, announce lifecycle edges, then start the driver. Failure rolls back private resources; caller, handle, and provider teardown share one quiescence boundary. The interface contract and ownership order live in [`dsh-agent`](../agent/README.md) and the [agent-scope runtime RFC](../../../docs/rfc/implemented/architecture/2026-07-12-agent-scope-runtime-design.md).

Caller-chosen ids arbitrate only at final registry entry, so concurrent contenders may prepare but every loser rolls back. Entry-bound detach capabilities cannot remove a later same-id replacement. Teardown stops and drains—including idle-injection flushes—before detaching agent, session, and scope; ids become reusable at detach.

- `ctx.agentLoop.create(id, options?, meta?)` synchronously creates a caller-fiber-owned agent with a fresh generated session id and optional cwd. Each call starts a new session rather than applying resume-or-create policy.

`AgentLoop` also implements the `AgentFactory` seam and registers itself via `ctx.agents.setFactory(this)`, so plugins create/resume agents through `ctx.agents` (the interface):

- `ctx.agents.create({ agentId, sessionId, meta?, seed?, agentOptions?, setup?, signal? })` validates and snapshots durable seed and metadata, awaits optional composition while unpublished, creates on the supplied session id, and returns an owned [`AgentHandle`](../agent/README.md). Its signal applies only until publication.
- `ctx.agents.resume({ agentId, resumeSessionId, agentOptions?, setup?, signal? })` loads through optional [session persistence](../../../docs/rfc/implemented/architecture/2026-06-14-session-persistence.md), continues stored history and turn numbering under the resumed session id, and follows the same unpublished setup and creation-only cancellation boundary. It rejects when no persistence backend is mounted.

The config-driven `ctx.agentLoop.create()` path keeps its agent owned by the loop fiber (it discards the handle). For a programmatic agent, the handle holder is the only consumer-facing teardown capability; AgentLoop provider unload is the independent structural teardown edge, not another handle exposed to application code.

### Injected services

`agents`, `agentExecution`, `sessions`, `llm`, `tools`, `systemPrompt` — all six interface services. The loop cannot activate without `agentExecution`; the default bundle loads its provider before the loop.

### Configuration (schemastery)

```ts
interface Config {
  agents: Array<{
    id: string                 // required
    model?: string
    resumeSessionId?: string   // load this persisted session instead of creating one
    cwd?: string               // optional workspace cwd for the fresh session
  }>
}
```

Configured agents start automatically. `cwd` applies only to fresh sessions; `resumeSessionId` retains persisted metadata. They use the deployment persona. Programmatic setup can shadow it per agent. This plugin supplies the per-agent `model` and `cwd` prompt variables; harness identity and deployment persona belong to `dsh-system-prompt`.

### Exported concrete class

- `ReactLoopAgent` — the concrete `Agent` implementation. Its inbox is a JavaScript native-private field, and one prepared session can be claimed by only one concrete driver. Everything observable happens through session events and the `agent/*` event taxonomy.

`Inbox`, `runLoop`, and the instance-bound publication/start controls are package-internal. The package root does not export them, and the package exports map exposes no `./src/*` escape hatch; lifecycle owners create agents through `ctx.agents` rather than constructing or starting the driver internals. `ReactLoopAgent.send()` and running `steer()` materialize content plus resolved source once as detached, deeply frozen lossless JSON, then share that accepted record between `agent/queued` and the inbox; malformed data throws before either boundary.

### Loop lifecycle (`loop.ts`)

The driver owns one agent for its lifetime and runs inside `ctx.agentExecution.run({ agent }, ...)`, so process-local asynchronous continuations can recover the initiating Agent. The ALS frame contains only `{ agent }`: creation, persistence load, and unpublished setup stay outside the child boundary, while turn, step, signal, and other control state remain explicit at every seam. The [execution-context package](../agent-execution/README.md) owns propagation and detached-work rules.

The loop records turn, step, request, stream, and tool boundaries in the session log; live extension events coordinate policy around those durable facts. The [architecture turn flow](../../../docs/architecture.md#turn-flow) and generated [event catalog](../../../docs/cordis-catalog/events.md) are the authoritative sequence and signatures.

Plugin failure ends the current turn, not the loop. The loop creates one private turn cancellation holder before announcing `running`, passes its single signal through prompt handling, prompt assembly, every step, model and tool execution, continuation, terminal stop, turn end, and durability flush, then discards it. A replacement prompt accepted after cancellation receives a fresh holder, while all work in the cancelled turn observes the first typed runtime cause. The durable turn outcome is only `aborted`; disposal is a separate runtime interrupt and wins classification even if cancellation reached the signal first.

Cancellation is cooperative: the loop checks for interruption between awaited boundaries but does not abandon an in-process listener, adapter, or tool Promise with `Promise.race`. `whenIdle()` and handle disposal therefore observe real quiescence. See the [explicit turn cancellation RFC](../../../docs/rfc/implemented/architecture/2026-07-16-explicit-turn-cancellation.md).

### What belongs to plugins

Everything that goes beyond "call the model, run the tools, repeat" belongs to plugins listening on the event taxonomy:
- Hooks and policy: the relevant `agent/*` checkpoints plus the guarded `tools/pre-execute` → `tools/execute` → `tools/post-execute` → `tools/result` pipeline; exact signatures and modes live in the [generated event catalog](../../../docs/cordis-catalog/events.md)
- Compaction: `agent/pre-step`
- Sandbox, permission, plan mode: `tools/pre-execute` for extensible deny/ask, `tools.guard()` for monotonic owner policy, `tools/post-execute` for result decisions, and `tools/result` for final observation
- Sub-agents: implemented outside the loop as `ctx.subagents` providers; in-process providers use `ctx.agents.create()` and owned `AgentHandle` teardown, while generic [`ctx.tasks`](../../tasks/tasks/) plus [`dsh-tool-subagent`](../../subagent/tool-subagent/) own background collection.
- Persistence: `session/event` + `session/flush`
- UI: `session/event` (assistant token stream, boundaries, tool activity) + `agent/*` control events (`agent/status`, `agent/created`/`agent/disposed`)

## Model Experience

### Complete conversation request

**What the model sees**: For each step, the loop sends the rendered per-agent system prompt, visible tool schemas, the frozen session prefix, and the session's derived messages. It supplies `model` and `cwd` variable values but no additional fixed prose.

**Token effect**: System text, schemas, and prefix are paid again on every step. Per-agent scoping chooses the initial contributions, while the authoritative assembly waterfall can alter the final request and makes its listener responsible for protocol coherence.

### Retained message history

**What the model sees**: Accepted user messages, assistant messages, tool calls and results, injected context, and steering are logged and sent on later steps. Raw stream chunks, lifecycle boundaries, and other log-only events are excluded.

**Token effect**: Input grows with every surface message until a compaction replacement shadows older nodes; a multi-step tool turn resends the accumulated prefix and history each step.

## Known Limitations and Deferred Work

- **Tool calls within a step execute sequentially** — parallel execution waits on concurrency-safety metadata in the tool contract (see `dsh-tools`).
- **No resume-or-create policy on the config path** — config-driven `create()` starts a fresh `${id}-session-<uuid>` every run (`TODO(demo)`), and a config `resumeSessionId` whose resume fails logs a warning and creates no agent.
- **Config agents have no per-agent persona field or setup hook** — they use the deployment persona; scoped persona/tool composition is available only through the programmatic `ctx.agents.create()` / `resume()` factory options.
- **No built-in turn budget** — the default continuation is `continue` whenever a step had tool calls or steering; bounding a runaway turn requires an `agent/turn-continuation` force-stop plugin.