Repair loop

A repair loop is an automated cycle that takes a verification failure, feeds the actual error back into generation, and re-runs the checks, repeating until the software passes or the attempt is abandoned.

The input is the real failure output — the type error, the failing assertion, the build log — rather than a description of it. Feeding back the specific error is what makes repair tractable, because the model is correcting a known defect instead of guessing at what displeased the system.

A repair loop is what turns a verification chain into a delivery mechanism instead of a filter. Without one, a failed check produces an error message for the customer to interpret. With one, it produces another attempt, and the customer sees only the result.

Two properties matter in practice: the loop must terminate, and it must not loosen the checks to succeed. A repair loop that eventually disables a failing test has not repaired anything; it has removed the evidence.

See also verification chain and scaffold.