https://loopandretry.github.io/tags/livelock/ Recent content in Livelock on Loop & Retry https://loopandretry.github.io/images/og-default.png https://loopandretry.github.io/images/og-default.png Hugo en-us Fri, 06 Nov 2026 16:00:00 +0000 https://loopandretry.github.io/posts/multi-agent-livelock/?ref=rss Fri, 06 Nov 2026 16:00:00 +0000 https://loopandretry.github.io/posts/multi-agent-livelock/ Livelock is the multi-agent failure that looks like diligence. A critic flags something, an executor fixes it, the fix trips a different check, and the crew spends real money making no net progress while every individual step looks correct. Why a per-agent loop cap cannot see it, the three shapes it takes (oscillation, escalation spiral, and the polite deferral loop), how to detect it from a hash of shared state instead of from the transcript, and a crew-level budget that turns an endless loop into a finite, reportable outcome.