Loops and timers

An agent has several loops. Each is a separate chat session (a thread) with its own history, goal and state:

main is the agent itself. It talks to you.
Inner loops (also called side loops) are extra threads declared in the agent’s config. Each works on its own goal, in parallel with main: a consolidator that tidies memory every night, a researcher main hands questions to, a critic that reviews drafts, a reflector that looks back every few hours.

An inner loop runs when a message arrives (from you, from main, or from another loop), when a timer that targets it fires, or when a trigger target with that loop matches. A timer on a loop is how you run it on a schedule.

See and switch loops

The sidebar lists each agent’s loops (→ expands an agent) with running / idle / off state and the next timer wake (in 1h).
In Chat, the loop tabs sit above the transcript. Shift+←/→ switches from anywhere; /loop <name> selects one, /main goes back.
Each loop has its own transcript, prompt draft and history. Wakes show in its transcript (“Woken by timer (every 1h) · run 3”).

One-shot:

adf loops agent-1                                       # main plus its inner loops
adf chat agent-1 --loop consolidator "Consolidate today's notes"
adf interrupt agent-1 --loop consolidator

Create an inner loop

Press 3 for the Loops view, then n, and pick a template:

Template	Goal	Schedule
Memory consolidator	Tidies `mind.md` and notes, reports to main	Daily at 03:00
Researcher	Researches what main or you hand over, writes `research/<topic>.md`	On demand (autonomous)
Critic / reviewer	Reviews drafts main sends before they go out	On demand
Reflector	Writes lessons learned to `reflections.md`	Every 6h
Blank loop	An empty form	None

The form comes prefilled; change anything. ↑/↓ move between fields, ←/→ change a choice, Ctrl+O edits the goal in your editor, Ctrl+S reviews, and y or Enter creates. The result shows the loop, the tools the daemon actually granted, and the timer it scheduled. c there (or Enter on the loop) opens its chat.

From the prompt:

/loop new consolidator                  # template, opens the wizard
/loop new triage Sort new inbox mail    # blank loop with a goal, created directly

Manage loops

On the Loops tab (3), with a loop selected:

Key	Action
`Enter`	Chat with it
`e`	Edit goal, tools, model, flags (diff, then confirm)
`x`	Enable / disable
`s`	Send a one-off message
`t`	Schedule: add a timer that wakes it
`c`	Clear its history (asks)
`d`	Delete (asks; its history is archived to the audit log)
`h`	Its history

The same from the prompt: /loop edit|rm|on|off <name>, /loop send <name> <message>, /loop chat <name>, /loop schedule <name>.

Timers

A timer wakes a loop (main, or an inner loop) with a message. Timers tab (3, then →), or /timers (/timers all: every agent’s upcoming timers):

Key	Action
`n`	New timer
`Enter`, `e`	Edit it, including moving it to another loop
`d`	Delete (asks)
`f`	This agent / all agents

Schedules:

Kind	Value
every N	A duration: `15m`, `1h`, `6h`
daily at	`HH:MM`
cron	A cron expression
once, after a delay	A duration
once, at a time	`HH:MM` or `YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM`

Recurring timers take an optional maximum number of runs. The form previews the next run before you confirm.

/timer add --loop consolidator
/timer edit <id>
/timer rm <id>

One-shot: adf timers agent-1 lists them.

Triggers

The Triggers tab (/triggers) lists the agent’s triggers of every type, whether each is on, and the loop each target wakes. x enables or disables one, Enter edits its targets. /trigger <type> [json] fires an event into the selected loop by hand, bypassing the trigger config.

History

The History tab (/history [loop]) pages through a loop’s persisted entries with tokens per entry. / filters by text or tool, f by role, < and > page, l / L switch loops.

Clear and compact

/clear clears the selected loop’s history (asks).
/compact summarizes it now to free context (not mid-turn).
The compaction threshold per loop: /compaction, see Agent settings. What fills a loop’s context: Context.