Which Pattern When?

Pick one primary loop per concern. Overlapping loops need coordination — see multi-loop.md.

flowchart TD
    A[What hurts right now?] --> B{CI red?}
    B -->|yes| C[CI Sweeper]
    B -->|no| D{PRs stalling?}
    D -->|yes| E[PR Babysitter]
    D -->|no| F{Morning chaos or noisy issues?}
    F -->|yes| G[Daily Triage + Issue Triage]
    F -->|no| H{Dependabot / CVE noise?}
    H -->|yes| I[Dependency Sweeper]
    H -->|no| J{Merge debt / TODOs piling up?}
    J -->|yes| K[Post-Merge Cleanup]
    J -->|no| L{Release notes / changelog stale?}
    L -->|yes| M[Changelog Drafter]
    L -->|no| N{Tight token budget?}
    N -->|yes| M
    N -->|no| G

Cost-aware picks

Estimate before you schedule:

npx @cobusgreyling/loop-cost --pattern <id> --level L1
npx @cobusgreyling/loop-init . --pattern daily-triage --tool grok   # scaffolds loop-budget.md + loop-run-log.md

Situation	Prefer	Avoid (until budget + early-exit)
Hobby / tight plan	Changelog Drafter, Daily Triage (L1), Post-Merge	CI Sweeper at 5m, PR Babysitter at 5m
Active CI fires	CI Sweeper at 15m+ with early-exit	Full triage every 5m when main is green
Many open PRs	PR Babysitter at 10–15m, L1 watch first	L2 fix loops on every tick
Release week	Changelog Drafter daily	Dependency Sweeper + CI Sweeper unattended

loop-audit caps L3 until loop-budget.md, loop-run-log.md, and a LOOP.md budget section exist.

Quick reference

Symptom	Pattern	Start with
CI failing on main or PRs	CI Sweeper	L2, 15m cadence, max 3 attempts
PRs waiting on review/CI/rebase	PR Babysitter	L1 watch → L2 assisted
"What should I work on?" every morning or noisy GitHub issues	Daily Triage + Issue Triage (new)	L1 report-only week one — low risk, excellent pair
Outdated packages / CVE alerts	Dependency Sweeper	L2 patch-only, denylist majors
TODOs and cleanup after merges	Post-Merge Cleanup	L1 off-peak, small fixes only
Stale or missing release notes	Changelog Drafter	L1 (draft only first), very low risk

Overlap rules

Combination	Rule
CI Sweeper + PR Babysitter	CI Sweeper owns failing checks; PR Babysitter does not re-fix the same branch in the same hour
Daily Triage + anything	Daily Triage reports; action loops execute. Triage does not auto-fix in L1
Dependency Sweeper + CI Sweeper	Pause Dependency Sweeper while CI is red on main
Post-Merge + PR Babysitter	Post-Merge runs off-peak only
Changelog Drafter + anything	Changelog Drafter is read-mostly and safe to run alongside others; it should not auto-publish

First loop recommendation

If unsure, start with Daily Triage at L1. It teaches state discipline without auto-merge risk.

npx @cobusgreyling/loop-init . --pattern daily-triage --tool grok
npx @cobusgreyling/loop-audit . --suggest