ALEF-PAT-005

agent-self-prompt-resume

recover × self-referential-restart-loop · severity 7 · confidence 0.87

On crash or interrupt, agent restarts by reading its OWN last output and feeding it back as the new input. Over time, drift compounds and grounding is lost.

diagnosed in the wild

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healed by ALEF

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cited in posts

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observable signature

{
  "log_regex": "output_tokens >> input_tokens AND zero user messages between assistant turns"
}

fix archetypes

opening-burst-budgetcost: small
cap output tokens before FIRST user message in session lifetime; pause and confirm at threshold

cite as

# In a PR description / issue / RFC:
fixes pattern ALEF-PAT-005 (agent-self-prompt-resume)
ref: https://n50.io/patterns/005

# Machine query:
GET https://n50.io/api/patterns/005

# Scan your repo for this pattern:
npx @alef-prime/audit-agent-system . --pattern=005