agent loop detected: re-scanning the same clean repo 20 times

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

The agent scans on a timer regardless of changes. Trigger scans on new commits or content changes, cache the clean verdict per commit, and skip what has not changed.

Error

agent loop detected: re-scanning the same clean repo 20 times

Steps

1. Confirm the waste: the repo has no new commits between scans. Expected: the loop proven pointless.
2. Trigger scans on push or content-change events instead of pure timers. Expected: scans follow changes.
3. Cache the verdict keyed by commit hash; a clean commit stays clean. Expected: no repeat work.
4. Keep a periodic full scan as a backstop for scanner improvements, not as the primary trigger. Expected: coverage without waste.
5. Monitor scan counts per repo; spikes mean the trigger is misfiring. Expected: visibility.

When to use

• Agents pointlessly rescanning clean repos.
• Designing scan scheduling.

When not to use

• New leaks being missed (fix detection, not scheduling).
• The repo changes constantly (then frequent scans are correct).

Tool compatibility

• Webhook-triggered scans; verdict caches.

Variant phrasings

agent rescanning clean repo

Trigger on change.

scan loop on unchanged repo

Cache verdicts.

Why it happens

Timer-based schedules are simple but blind; they cannot see that nothing changed.

Edge cases

• Force-pushes rewrite history; the cache key must handle that.
• Scanner upgrades can find new things in old commits; the backstop scan covers it.
• Monorepos change constantly; scope triggers per directory.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_HtgBUqthBDIprlJXJtGe4g

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_HtgBUqthBDIprlJXJtGe4g

Thread query: agent loop detected: re-scanning the same clean repo 20 times

TL;DR: The agent scans on a timer regardless of changes. Trigger scans on new commits or content changes, cache the clean verdict per commit, and skip what has not changed.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

The agent re-checks the same commit because it never records progress. Keep a cursor of the last checked commit, advance it after each check, and skip already-checked commits.

Error

scanner agent stuck in a loop re-checking the same commit

Steps

1. Confirm the loop: logs show the same commit hash checked repeatedly. Expected: the stuck cursor (or missing cursor) found.
2. Store a cursor: the last fully checked commit. Expected: durable progress.
3. Advance the cursor only after the check completes and persists. Expected: crashes resume, not repeat.
4. Skip commits at or before the cursor. Expected: forward progress.
5. Alert if the cursor does not advance over several runs. Expected: stuck agents surface.

When to use

• Agents stuck re-checking commits.
• Building commit-walking agents.

When not to use

• Checks failing (fix the check).
• The commit keeps changing (then re-checking is correct).

Tool compatibility

• Commit cursors; agent schedulers.

Variant phrasings

agent stuck on one commit

Advance a cursor.

re-checking same commit

Record progress.

Why it happens

Without a persisted cursor, every run starts from the same place and repeats the same work.

Edge cases

• Rebased history moves commits; cursors keyed by hash need rebase handling.
• Partial checks must not advance the cursor; only completed ones.
• Multiple agents need cursor coordination or they duplicate work.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_LXNhteSsER7l4CePJNZ2vg

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_LXNhteSsER7l4CePJNZ2vg

Thread query: scanner agent stuck in a loop re-checking the same commit

TL;DR: The agent re-checks the same commit because it never records progress. Keep a cursor of the last checked commit, advance it after each check, and skip already-checked commits.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Stop the loop by making repetition visible and expensive. Log a hash of the step inputs and the tool result, abort when the same call repeats with the same result beyond a small budget, and require the agent to read back the Metabase state before attempting the step again. Loops during pull Metabase query results almost always mean a success signal the agent cannot see, so it retries a step that already worked or can never work.

agent loop detected: agent kept repeating the same pull Metabase query results step and failed with error

Use this when

• The run log shows the same tool call and near identical arguments repeated many times.
• The Metabase content shows repeated partial attempts or many duplicate objects from one run.
• The run ends by budget exhaustion rather than by a step error.

Not for this skill when

• The agent is slow but each step differs and progress is visible. That is a performance problem, not a loop.
• The agent failed once on a clear API error and stopped. Handle that error directly.

Steps

1. Freeze the run and extract its tool call sequence, counting repeats of the pull Metabase query results step and comparing their arguments. Verify: the repeated call and its identical or near identical inputs are identified
2. Inspect the Metabase state the step was trying to change and compare it with what the agent believed, using the API to read the current card and dashboard definitions plus the query result payloads. Verify: you can state whether the step had already succeeded, was failing permanently, or was aimed at the wrong target
3. Fix the root mismatch, such as pointing verification at the object the build actually creates, or teaching the step to treat an already exists result as success. Verify: a single manual pass of the step now reports success correctly
4. Add a repetition guard to the agent, hashing each tool call with its result and stopping the run after a small number of identical repeats with a clear loop error. Verify: a test run with a forced failure stops at the guard instead of exhausting its budget
5. Add a per step attempt budget and a run level step budget sized for the dashboard build, with the budget breach reported as its own failure type. Verify: the run summary separates loop aborts from ordinary step failures
6. Rerun the full pull Metabase query results task and confirm the agent completes in a normal step count. Verify: the run finishes and the dashboard opens in Metabase

Why it happens

Loops are a state recognition failure. The agent acts, the world changes or refuses to change, and the agent cannot tell the difference from its observations, so its planner rationally chooses the same action again. Retries feel safe to a planner because they are reversible, which is exactly why an external guard has to count them. Progress detection, where each step must change an observable state marker, is the general fix across agent frameworks.

Dashboard building agents plan, call the Metabase API, observe the result, and plan again. The loop forms when the observation never changes, a create call that returns an object the agent does not recognise as its own earlier work, an error message the planner paraphrases into the same next action, or a verification step that checks a location the build never writes to. The run then burns its whole budget rehearsing one step while the dashboard state stays frozen.

Operational notes for loop failures in agent pipelines. Every agent run should emit a step trace that a human can read without tooling, the step name, the tool called, a short form of the arguments, and the result status. Loop diagnosis is mostly trace reading, the pattern is obvious in a trace and invisible in a summary. Frameworks that only log the final error force the team to rerun the failure to see it, which wastes the budget the loop already wasted once. Keep traces for failed runs at least, and sample successful ones for comparison.

Variants and edge cases

agent stuck repeating pull Metabase query results step loop detection

The detection phrasing for runaway repetition in the logs.

agent loop same tool call no progress abort budget

The guard design variant focused on budgets and hashing.

agent retries step that already succeeded Metabase state check

The already succeeded variant where verification looked in the wrong place.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_9x45jJjcTHrkrFQmjicZlQ

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_9x45jJjcTHrkrFQmjicZlQ

Thread query: agent loop detected: agent kept repeating the same pull Metabase query results step and failed with error

TL;DR: Stop the loop by making repetition visible and expensive. Log a hash of the step inputs and the tool result, abort when the same call repeats with the same result beyond a small budget, and require the agent to read back the Metabase state before attempting the step again. Loops during pull Metabase query results almost always mean a success signal the agent cannot see, so it retries a step that already worked or can never work.