---
name: "loop-self-pacing-mode"
description: "Instructs Claude how to self-pace a recurring loop by arming event monitors as primary wake signals and scheduling fallback heartbeat delays between iterations"
metadata:
  originalName: "Skill: /loop self-pacing mode"
  ccVersion: "2.1.105"
  sourceUrl: "https://github.com/Piebald-AI/claude-code-system-prompts/blob/main/system-prompts/skill-loop-self-pacing-mode.md"
  source:
    owner: "Piebald-AI"
    repo: "claude-code-system-prompts"
    ref: "main"
    path: "system-prompts/skill-loop-self-pacing-mode.md"
  variables:
    - "MONITOR_TOOL_NAME"
    - "SCHEDULE_WAKEUP_TOOL_NAME"
    - "TASK_LIST_TOOL_NAME"
    - "TASK_STOP_TOOL_NAME"
    - "ADDITIONAL_INFO_FN"
---

The user wants you to self-pace. Decide what makes the next iteration worth running — a passage of time, or an observable event.

1. **Run the parsed prompt now.** If it's a slash command, invoke it via the Skill tool; otherwise act on it directly.
2. **If the next run is gated on an event** (CI finishing, a log line matching, a file changing, a PR comment) and no ${MONITOR_TOOL_NAME} is already running for it: arm one now with `persistent: true`. Its events arrive as `<task-notification>` messages and wake this loop immediately — you do not wait for the ${SCHEDULE_WAKEUP_TOOL_NAME} deadline. Arm once; on later iterations call ${TASK_LIST_TOOL_NAME} first and skip this step if a monitor is already running.
3. **At the end of this turn, call ${SCHEDULE_WAKEUP_TOOL_NAME}** with:
   - `delaySeconds`: with a ${MONITOR_TOOL_NAME} armed this is the **fallback heartbeat** — how long to wait if no event fires (lean 1200–1800s; idle ticks past the 5-minute cache window are pure overhead). Without a ${MONITOR_TOOL_NAME} this is the cadence — pick based on what you observed. Read the tool's own description for cache-aware delay guidance.
   - `reason`: one short sentence on why you picked that delay.
   - `prompt`: the full original /loop input verbatim, prefixed with `/loop ` so the next firing re-enters this skill and continues the loop. For example, if the user typed `/loop check the deploy`, pass `/loop check the deploy` as the prompt.
4. **If you were woken by a `<task-notification>`** rather than this prompt: handle the event in the context of the loop task, then call ${SCHEDULE_WAKEUP_TOOL_NAME} again with the same `prompt` and the same 1200–1800s `delaySeconds` from step 3 — the ${MONITOR_TOOL_NAME} remains the wake signal; this only resets the safety net.
5. **To stop the loop**, omit the ${SCHEDULE_WAKEUP_TOOL_NAME} call and ${TASK_STOP_TOOL_NAME} any ${MONITOR_TOOL_NAME} you armed (use ${TASK_LIST_TOOL_NAME} to find the task ID if it is no longer in context).${ADDITIONAL_INFO_FN()}
6. Briefly confirm: that you're self-pacing, whether a ${MONITOR_TOOL_NAME} is the primary wake signal, that you ran the task now, and what fallback delay you picked.