Review-first loop

The review-first loop keeps generated work separate from accepted work until the diff has been inspected.

The loop is intentionally boring: start a session, let the agent work, review the diff, then either promote or revise. Anything else is how agent workflows turn into cleanup workflows.

flowchart LR
  Prompt["Prompt"] --> Session["Agent session"]
  Session --> Work["Ephemeral work"]
  Work --> Diff["Review diff"]
  Diff -->|Accept| Promote["Promote changes"]
  Diff -->|Revise| Session
  Diff -->|Reject| Discard["Discard session"]
  Promote --> Workspace["Workspace"]

  classDef input fill:#89b4fa,stroke:#74c7ec,color:#11111b,stroke-width:2px
  classDef session fill:#cba6f7,stroke:#f5c2e7,color:#11111b,stroke-width:2px
  classDef review fill:#f9e2af,stroke:#fab387,color:#11111b,stroke-width:2px
  classDef done fill:#a6e3a1,stroke:#94e2d5,color:#11111b,stroke-width:2px
  classDef reject fill:#f38ba8,stroke:#eba0ac,color:#11111b,stroke-width:2px

  class Prompt input
  class Session,Work session
  class Diff review
  class Promote,Workspace done
  class Discard reject

Steps

1. Start a session

A session captures the task, model/provider choice, project context, and working boundary.

2. Generate isolated work

The agent edits inside an isolated workspace. The real repo is not the write target.

3. Review the diff

The human reviews the generated output as a proposal. This is the control point.

4. Promote accepted changes

Promotion applies only the accepted output to the target workspace.

Bad signs

• The agent can write directly to durable state.
• The review happens after changes are already mixed into the repo.
• Rejected work has to be manually untangled.
• Provider/model choice is hidden from the session record.