/ratchet:loop — recursive advancement

One pass rarely finishes anything. This command repeats the core cycle until the artifact actually holds under attack. It is the closest thing Ratchet has to a software-quality agent: discover the missing thing, build it, try to break it, fix what broke, serialize.

Step 0 — Load state

ratchet status
ratchet score confidence

The cycle (repeat until the stop condition holds)

Each iteration:

1. Discover the missing thing. The highest-leverage gap right now — an untested assumption, an open defect, a missing piece of the artifact. (Borrow /ratchet:cut and /ratchet:auction logic to pick it.)
2. Build the artifact or the fix (/ratchet:build).
3. Attack it with the five-voice board (/ratchet:attack); record defects.
4. Patch only what failed (/ratchet:patch); resolve the original defect with evidence.
5. Verify bound to the artifact (/ratchet:verify); on green, ratchet artifact close <id>.
6. Compile the advance (/ratchet:compile); recompute confidence.

The cycle is build → attack → patch → verify → compile. Compiling before verifying records an unproven state as if it were an advance.

Report each iteration compactly:

ITERATION n: discovered <gap> → built <thing> → attack <c crit / h high> → patched <delta> → confidence <score>

Stop condition (all must hold)

Run ratchet score confidence and read BOTH loopClear and the workflow-closure layer (closure.closed). Stop only when:

• loopClear holds — no unresolved critical/high defect, no untested core assumption, no missing next action.
• workflowClosed.closed is true — the active artifact carries a closure certificate and no open defect is unattached.
• The artifact is genuinely usable (passes its 5-point test).

If either read is false, run another iteration. Do not stop because the output "looks good" — the CLI reads are the arbiter, not your impression.

There is no convergence escape. If two iterations find nothing new while workflowClosed.closed is false, you are not converged — you are blocked. Stop with STOP REASON: blocked-needs-human, name the blocker the closure read printed, and hand it over. "Nothing left to try" and "finished" are different states, and only one of them is an ending.

Output contract

ITERATION LOG:
- ITERATION 1: ...
- ITERATION 2: ...
STOP REASON: closed | blocked-needs-human
WORKFLOW: CLOSED | NOT CLOSED — <blockers, if any>
FINAL CONFIDENCE: <score>/100 (<band>)
REMAINING RISK: <what a human should still watch>
NEXT: <action> → /ratchet:<command>

Then confirm serialization with ratchet export markdown.