Cancel Loop

Gracefully terminate an active loop while preserving all completed work.

When to Use

Cancel vs Natural Completion

• Natural completion: Loop satisfied spec, clean exit with success summary
• Cancel: User-initiated stop, preserves progress, enables restart

Cancel when you want control back. Let it complete when spec is being satisfied.

What Happens

1. Read state — Load .loop/state.json
2. Set status — Update status to "cancelled" in state file
3. Find active task — TaskList for in_progress task (subject starts with "Loop:")
4. Mark terminated — TaskUpdate status=completed with cancellation note
5. Report state — Iterations, cost, accomplished work, remaining items

Current iteration completes before cancel takes effect. No mid-operation interruption.

State File Update (Required)

Update .loop/state.json:

{
  "status": "cancelled",
  "exit_signal": false
}

This ensures the stop hook allows the cancellation to proceed.

Output

Loop cancelled.

Completed: [N] iterations, $[X] cost
Accomplished:
- [list of completed steps]

Remaining:
- [list of incomplete steps]

Criteria status:
- [criterion 1]: ✓/✗
- [criterion 2]: ✓/✗

To restart: /loop [spec]

Guarantees

• All completed work preserved (no rollback)
• State file updated to prevent resume
• Clean termination (no dangling state)
• Full accounting (iterations, cost, progress)
• Restart possible with same or modified spec