standardization-view.md

Standardization View

Short Answer

If a reader wants the shortest possible answer to "what pattern looks most standardizable?", the answer today is not one framework or one product. It is a narrow execution contract centered on a tool-result loop.

That loop appears to converge on four high-confidence behaviors:

1. tool calls are first-class runtime actions,
2. completion is explicit and guarded,
3. tool failures remain in-band and recoverable,
4. runtime state is inspectable outside the raw transcript.

Current Opinionated Summary

The strongest current interpretation of the emerging pattern is this:

1. A coding agent runtime owns task lifecycle, not just prompt assembly.
2. The runtime executes a repeated turn loop: model output, tool execution, result reinjection, recovery or completion.
3. The model is allowed to propose completion, but the runtime decides whether completion is accepted.
4. Failure handling is part of normal execution semantics, not an exceptional edge path.
5. State for UI and control flow must be modeled explicitly enough to represent running, streaming, waiting, resumable, and completed modes.
6. Context pressure eventually forces compaction or equivalent state reduction, so context management belongs inside the runtime contract.
7. Delegation is useful, but only when subagents are bounded by tools, role, and reporting semantics.
8. Product-specific rules should mostly live in policy, hooks, permissions, skills, or shell layers rather than in the runtime core.

What Seems Closest To Standardization

The parts that look closest to standardization are:

• the tool-result loop,
• explicit completion attempts,
• guarded completion,
• recoverable tool failures,
• command-output streaming,
• a minimal inspectable runtime state model.

These are the parts that repeatedly appear even when products differ on UX, instructions, branding, plugin systems, or domain-specific workflows.

What Does Not Yet Look Standardized

The parts that still look less stable are:

• stop-hook validation as a universal primitive,
• journaling format,
• resumability contract shape,
• subagent orchestration details,
• exact compaction API or event model.

Working Diagram

See diagrams/convergent-runtime-pattern.mmd for the current high-level model.

Practical Reading Order

1. patterns/README.md
2. tool-result-loop.md
3. guarded-completion.md
4. recoverable-tool-errors.md
5. runtime-contract.md