Lesson 07 · Loop Engineering
A loop that can only see the filesystem is a tiny loop.
Connectors are built on MCP. They let the agent read your issue tracker, query a database, hit a staging API, or drop a message in Slack. Osmani states the payoff as a contrast:
This is the difference between an agent that says "here is the fix" and a loop that opens the PR, links the Linear ticket and pings the channel once CI is green by itself. Addy Osmani, Loop Engineering
Connectors are why the loop can act inside your environment rather than just telling you what it would do if it could.
Codex and Claude Code both speak MCP, so a connector written for one usually works in the other. And plugins bundle connectors and skills together, so a teammate installs your whole setup in one go instead of rebuilding it from memory.
You now have every piece. This is Osmani's own worked shape, and each step links back to the lesson that taught it.
| # | Step | Primitive |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Every morning, a scheduled run starts on the repo | Automation |
| 2 | Its prompt calls a triage skill: yesterday's CI failures, open issues, recent commits | Skill |
| 3 | Findings are written to a markdown file or a Linear board | State |
| 4 | Each worthwhile finding opens an isolated checkout | Worktree |
| 5 | A sub-agent drafts the fix; a second reviews it against the skills and tests | Sub-agents |
| 6 | The PR opens, the ticket updates, the channel is notified | Connectors |
| 7 | Anything the loop cannot handle lands in your triage inbox | You |
| 8 | The state file lets tomorrow's run continue from here | State |
Look at what happened there. You designed it once. You prompted none of those steps. That is Steinberger's claim made concrete — and it is the same loop in Codex or in Claude Code, because the pieces are the same pieces.
What do connectors change about what a loop can do?
In the assembled loop, what happens to a finding the loop cannot handle?
Reconstruct the eight-step loop from memory. Do not scroll up.
Primary source: the What one loop looks like section of Loop Engineering. Read it after you attempt the recall above, not before.