Loops — standing orders that renew themselves

The operator edits this file only — the night fence denies it, same as ORDERS.md and CHARTER.md. Ratified at a standup per the Loops spec (pm/loops-spec.md). A loop here is a standing order: the wrapper decides each night which loops are runnable (cadence, budgets, no-progress auto-park — all deterministic, wrapper-side) and names them in the prompt; the session runs one bounded iteration per runnable loop, after explicit Tonight orders, within night_orders_per_night total.

Loop state is machine-owned at pm/nights/loops/<id>.md — append-only dated sections, never rewritten. Each iteration must re-verify the previous iteration's key claim before extending it, and ends its section with next: and progress: yes|no lines. Two consecutive progress: no iterations make a loop non-runnable until a standup revives it. Every loop dies at its review_by unless re-ratified — no immortal loops.

To suspend all loops for a night without editing this file: put loops: off in the ## Tonight section of ORDERS.md.

Recognized cadence values: nightly, every-2nd-night, every-3rd-night. A loop whose budget_per_iteration_usd exceeds cost_cap_per_night_usd, or whose review_by is missing or past, is skipped with the reason logged.

L-02 — Portfolio night-watch

• status: active
• ratified: (the probe loop — cheapest, lowest risk; start here)
• scope: read-only verification of portfolio state. Check registry rows against reality (status column vs BRIEFs/repos/working tree), whether ORDERS.md hang-dry and blocked items are still true, night-branch hygiene (list unmerged night/* branches per nested repo), and any ALERT files present. Writes ONLY: its state file, the night report, and reports/**. No registry writes, no BRIEF writes, no fixes — findings are observations.
• iteration: one full pass of the checks above, evidence-cited (file paths / line refs / git output), sized to a single cheap session.
• cadence: every-3rd-night
• budget_per_iteration_usd: 2
• budget_loop_total_usd: 20
• stop: review_by, or a standup marks it done
• review_by:
• definition_of_done_per_iteration: dated section appended to pm/nights/loops/L-02.md with a verdict per check and evidence for each; discrepancies surfaced in the night report under Observations; next: and progress: lines present.
• out_of_scope: fixing anything found; writing to REGISTRY.md, any BRIEF, or any venture directory; re-litigating finance verdicts; anything outside ~/ventures.
• if_blocked: record the denial verbatim in the state section and the report, mark progress: no only if the whole pass was impossible, continue remaining checks.

L-01 —

• status: parked — activate after finance prices it; first iteration runs as a supervised probe per the charter
• ratified:
• scope: one item per night from pm/nights/loops/L-01-backlog.md, top unchecked first, implemented in <NNN>-venture/site/ on branch night/<date>. Verify with whatever the fence allows (node --check, a build, a headless browser only if one exists — probe clause). Writes ONLY: <NNN>-venture/site/** on the night branch, its state file, the night report. Never push, never deploy, never touch main, never add a dependency.
• iteration: one backlog item, start to finish, or a plainly reported stop.
• cadence: every-2nd-night
• budget_per_iteration_usd: 6
• budget_loop_total_usd: 45
• stop: backlog empty, review_by, or a standup marks it done
• review_by:
• definition_of_done_per_iteration: dated section in pm/nights/loops/L-01.md naming the item, files touched, the verification run, and before/after screenshots if a browser was available; the backlog item ticked; next: names the following item; progress: yes|no.
• out_of_scope: anything not in the backlog; copy changes; analytics changes; any push or deploy.
• if_blocked: record it, leave the branch as-is, progress: no; do not try a second item.
• hang-dry: the operator reviews night/<date> in the browser each morning, merges to main, pushes; the host deploys.

L-03 — <weekly source-watch template: read a public source, write candidates only>

• status: active (first iteration supervised)
• ratified:
• scope: once a week, read for . Write candidates only: <NNN>-venture/data/candidates-<date>.md with one proposed row or cell change per finding, each with its source URL and the exact quoted figure. Never edit the ratified data files.
• iteration: one issue of the source plus anything published since the last iteration.
• cadence: every-3rd-night # the wrapper has no weekly cadence; pair with a fire-by in ORDERS if the day matters
• budget_per_iteration_usd: 5
• budget_loop_total_usd: 30
• stop: review_by
• review_by:
• definition_of_done_per_iteration: the candidates file exists (even if it says "nothing this week"), every candidate cites a URL, and the night report lists the count; pm/nights/loops/L-03.md gets a dated section; next: names the next issue date.
• out_of_scope: writing to the ratified data; estimating any number; outreach.
• if_blocked (source unreachable, WebSearch denied): write the file with a ## Coverage note saying so, progress: no, stop.
• hand-off: the operator or the PM reviews candidates at the next standup and accepts rows by hand (attended).