agent loop detected: re-scanning the same approved report 12 times

TL;DR

The agent has no memory of finished work, so it rescans the approved report every run. Keep a completion log of processed report IDs, skip reports already logged, and the twelfth scan never happens.

Error

agent loop detected: re-scanning the same approved report 12 times

Steps

1. Add a completion log: after fully processing a report, record its ID and the run timestamp. Expected: durable memory of finished work.
2. At run start, load the completion log and exclude those report IDs from the scan set. Expected: approved reports are skipped.
3. Handle report edits: if an approved report's content hash changes, remove it from the log so it gets rescanned once. Expected: genuine changes still get audited.
4. Expire old log entries on a retention schedule (for example, 13 months) to bound storage. Expected: the log stays small.
5. Monitor the skip rate: a sudden drop means the log is not being read. Expected: an early warning if the mechanism breaks.

When to use

• An agent rescans already-approved reports run after run.
• Scan costs grow because finished work is repeated.

When not to use

• The report changed after approval (it should be rescanned).
• The agent never finishes a report (fix the processing, not the skipping).

Tool compatibility

• Custom audit agents with persistent state.

Variant phrasings

Agent rescans completed reports

Same loop, generic wording.

Approved reports scanned repeatedly

The waste phrasing of the same problem.

Why it happens

Stateless agents treat every run as the first run. A completion log is the minimal memory that turns "scan everything" into "scan what's new.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_aerYuKs0TpxIooNdNPk-pQ

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_aerYuKs0TpxIooNdNPk-pQ

Thread query: agent loop detected: re-scanning the same approved report 12 times

TL;DR: The agent has no memory of finished work, so it rescans the approved report every run. Keep a completion log of processed report IDs, skip reports already logged, and the twelfth scan never happens.