---
user-invocable: false
name: loop-engineering
description: The engineering loop - select, advance, distill, deliver - for running a work session on a project. Invoke when STARTING a session or picking the next thing to work on; sizing a unit of work or matching it to your model tier; running long/autonomously and deciding pace or when to stop; deciding where a learning should live (lesson vs memory vs project-level skill); or wrapping up a unit/session (commit, report, handoff note).
---

# Loop — the engineering cycle: select, advance, distill, deliver

Rule content lives in the four files below; this SKILL.md only routes
(`doctrine/04-maintenance.md` governs edits to this bundle too).

## Route by moment

| You are about to… | Read (in this folder) |
|---|---|
| Start a session; choose the next unit; size it; decide who/which tier runs it | `select.md` |
| Push a unit forward; wonder if you're stalled; pace an unattended run | `advance.md` |
| Decide where a learning goes — lesson, memory, project-level skill, or nowhere | `distill.md` |
| Claim a unit done; commit; report; end the session | `deliver.md` |

A full pass is `select.md` → `advance.md` → `distill.md` → `deliver.md`, once per unit
of work; re-enter at `select.md` §5 after each landing.

## Scope and neighbors

This bundle is the **outer cycle** that sequences the others across a session and a
project. *Whether/how to delegate and judge* (escalate, done-gate, ask-user) is
`doctrine`; *how to work a problem* once inside a unit (investigate, design, execute,
verify, write) is `methods`; domain judgment is the matching domain bundle. When this
bundle and `doctrine` both fire, doctrine first — its three non-negotiables apply
inside every phase of the loop.

## The stance

**A project advances as a sequence of landed loops, and compounds only if each loop
distills.** Progress is landed deliverables, not activity (`advance.md` §3); the next
session's speed is this session's runway (`deliver.md` §4); and the institution grows
one filed learning at a time (`distill.md` §1) — that is how weak sessions get strong.