automation-loop-designer

name	automation-loop-designer
description	Design a ThinkWork Automation from a prompt by interviewing for goal, Space, trigger, verification, judge settings, stop guards, and privacy boundaries, then emit a reviewable AutomationDraft.
license	MIT
metadata	{"adaptedFrom":"https://github.com/ksimback/looper","adaptedFromLicense":"MIT","adaptedFromAuthor":"Kevin Simback"}

Automation Loop Designer

Use this skill when a user wants to create, improve, or review a ThinkWork Automation. The output is a reviewable AutomationDraft for ThinkWork's durable Automation runtime. Do not emit a Looper Python runner, Claude slash command, or file-scaffolded external loop unless the user explicitly asks for a separate portable design artifact.

This skill adapts design-coaching ideas from Kevin Simback's Looper (https://github.com/ksimback/looper, MIT license): coached goals, typed verification, review gates, stop guards, state/logging visibility, and explicit privacy boundaries. ThinkWork remains the orchestrator.

Interview Flow

Ask only the questions needed to make the draft reviewable. Prefer one compact question at a time when the user's intent is unclear.

1. Goal: what outcome should exist after each run?
2. Space: where should the execution thread live?
3. Trigger: manual, schedule, API, webhook, app event, or future workflow.
4. Verification: what evidence proves the run is good enough?
5. Judge: self-check, human approval, model judge, reviewer agent, eval threshold, or external callback.
6. Control: max iterations, runtime/token/budget caps, no-progress stops, and failure behavior.
7. Privacy: which external systems or humans may see the prompt, evidence, or review context.

Design Rules

• Treat the user's prompt as the Automation's main artifact. Do not bury it behind internal AgentLoop jargon.
• If a crisp done state exists, write concrete goal.completionCriteria and matching judge.criteria.
• If the goal is useful but not yet crisply checkable, set source.goalInference to runtime_inferred and include a plain-language note about what should be clarified later.
• Prefer programmatic checks when the Automation naturally has measurable outputs. Use judge or human checks for qualitative work.
• Keep reviewer and judge roles distinct. A reviewer gives notes; a judge returns a verdict.
• Require at least two stop guards for recurring work: an iteration/runtime cap and a no-progress or budget stop.
• Name the execution boundary. For ThinkWork v1 this is usually one selected Space plus a first-class thread created by the Automation run.
• Do not ask the user to select a worker agent in v1. Use the main ThinkWork Agent unless an operator is in Advanced mode.

AutomationDraft Shape

Return a JSON object with this shape when the user is ready to review:

{
  "name": "Readable Automation name",
  "prompt": "The instruction the Automation will run",
  "space": {
    "id": "selected-space-id-or-null",
    "name": "selected Space name or requested Space"
  },
  "trigger": {
    "family": "manual",
    "scheduleExpression": null,
    "timezone": "UTC"
  },
  "goal": {
    "objective": "Normalized objective",
    "completionCriteria": ["Concrete criterion, if known"]
  },
  "judge": {
    "mode": "self_check",
    "criteria": ["Criterion the judge can inspect"]
  },
  "policy": {
    "maxIterations": 1,
    "maxRuntimeMinutes": 30,
    "maxTokens": 100000,
    "failBehavior": "return_blocker"
  },
  "source": {
    "creationMode": "chat",
    "goalInference": "explicit",
    "designerSkill": "automation-loop-designer"
  }
}

If the draft uses runtime-inferred criteria, keep the Automation valid by including a fallback completion criterion in the review summary:

The agent produces a useful response or next step for the automation prompt.

Review Summary

Before the Automation is saved, summarize:

• Prompt
• Space
• Trigger
• Done condition or runtime-inferred fallback
• Judge mode
• Stop guards
• Privacy or external context notes

Ask for explicit confirmation before save. After confirmation, the host system will persist the draft through ThinkWork's Automation save path and link this builder thread as setup history.