Agent Loop

Understanding the agent processing cycle.

Overview

The agent loop is the core processing cycle that handles each message:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Agent Loop                        │
│                                                      │
│  ┌─────────┐   ┌─────────┐   ┌─────────┐           │
│  │ Receive │ → │ Process │ → │ Respond │           │
│  └─────────┘   └─────────┘   └─────────┘           │
│       ↑                            │                │
│       └────────────────────────────┘                │
│                   (loop)                            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Loop Stages

1. Receive

• Message arrives from channel
• Session identified or created
• Context loaded

2. Process

• System prompt constructed
• Memory retrieved
• Message sent to model
• Tool calls executed (if any)

3. Respond

• Response generated
• Formatted for channel
• Sent to user
• Session updated

Detailed Flow

Message In
    │
    ▼
┌───────────────┐
│ Load Session  │
└───────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌───────────────┐
│ Retrieve      │
│ Memory        │
└───────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌───────────────┐
│ Build Context │
│ (system +     │
│  history +    │
│  memory)      │
└───────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌───────────────┐
│ Call Model    │
└───────────────┘
    │
    ├──── Tool Call? ───┐
    │                    ▼
    │              ┌───────────────┐
    │              │ Execute Tool  │
    │              └───────────────┘
    │                    │
    │◄───────────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌───────────────┐
│ Send Response │
└───────────────┘
    │
    ▼
┌───────────────┐
│ Update        │
│ Session &     │
│ Memory        │
└───────────────┘

Tool Execution

When the model requests a tool:

1. Tool call identified
2. Tool executed
3. Result returned to model
4. Model continues processing

This can loop multiple times for complex tasks.

Configuration

{
  agent: {
    maxToolCalls: 10,      // Max tool calls per message
    timeout: 60000,         // Processing timeout (ms)
    streaming: true         // Stream responses
  }
}

See Also

• Agent
• Streaming