schedule:
  tick: '*/5 * * * *'
  deliver: '*/10 * * * *'
  retro: 'FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=MO;BYHOUR=9;BYMINUTE=0'
  retroIssue: REP-1
  observe: '*/30 * * * *'
  observer:
    since: 24h
    reminderHours: 2
    schedulerStallMin: 20
    staleLockMin: 30
  runner: precheck
  stageTimeoutSec: 600
  harnessCommand: ak-harness
  namePrefix: loop

Every automation is a shim

Each one runs exactly ak-harness loop stage <x> -f <config> and nothing else. The work happens inside the scheduler's precheck command, which always exits 1 so the run is recorded without launching an agent session. That is runner: precheck, the default, and it is why the loop needs no agent to run itself.

observe is the exception: its exit code is the decision — 0 when a human has to look, 1 when healthy — so a scheduler can escalate without any other integration.

Two constraints worth remembering: a precheck is capped at 600 seconds, and stageTimeoutSec must fit inside it. A tick that cannot finish in its budget leaves the rest of the queue for the next one rather than running over.

retro needs both halves

schedule.retro without schedule.retroIssue (or the other way round) installs nothing and says so in the notes. A digest with nowhere to go is not a schedule.

Install reconciles; it does not rewrite

ak-harness loop install            # create what is missing, edit what drifted
ak-harness loop install --dry-run  # the exact argv, creating nothing
ak-harness loop status             # what the scheduler has, and the last run of each

It compares every live automation with what schedule: declares — trigger, prompt, precheck command and timeout, provider, workspace, enabled — then creates what is missing, edits only the drifted fields, leaves a matching automation untouched, and switches off (never deletes) one whose stage the config stopped declaring. Each action names the fields it changed.

Drift is invisible to everything else

loop doctor's automations.drift check exists because a loop looks perfectly healthy while its scheduler runs a command nobody declares — an automation edited by hand months ago, still pointing at a config file that moved. The check reports the comparison and changes nothing; loop install is what reconciles it.