Agent Rigor – Stop your AI coding assistant from doom-looping

Agent Rigor, a new open-source framework, provides a structured multi-layer progressive disclosure system to prevent AI coding agents from entering 'doom loops' and other failure modes. The framework enforces empirical discipline through mandatory protocols, verification gates, and anti-rationalization safeguards, and is platform-agnostic, working with Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, and other tools.

Strict empirical discipline for your AI coding assistant. Stop watching your AI agent code itself into a corner. Give it discipline. Most AI coding agents fail not because they lack intelligence, but because they lack discipline . When left to their own devices, they: - ❌ Skip planning and jump straight to implementation. - ❌ Write plausible-looking code that doesn't actually work. - ❌ Get trapped in "doom loops" fix-forward spirals . - ❌ Forget what they learned between sessions context amnesia . - ❌ Suffer from "context rot" by loading too many instructions at once. Agent Rigor solves this. It provides a structured, multi-layer progressive disclosure framework: a set of mandatory protocols, verification gates, and anti-rationalization safeguards that force empirical discipline at every step. Actionable Protocols : Every instruction is a verifiable step with exit criteria, not an essay. Empirical Sovereignty : Claims require evidence. "Seems right" is never sufficient. Atomic State Transitions : The codebase moves between known-good states. Broken states are never committed. Anti-Rationalization : Every skill actively anticipates and rebuts the excuses agents use to skip discipline. Progressive Disclosure : The agent reads only the files it needs for the current phase, saving tokens and preventing instruction neglect. The system is organized into a robust 3-tier hierarchy using Progressive Disclosure to prevent context window collapse. L1: Apex Kernel : Always-on routing and non-negotiable laws. SYSTEM CORE.md L2: Phase Directors : Just-in-time orchestration loaded only when entering a phase. 00 PHASE DIRECTOR.md L3: Skill Protocols : Deep execution guidelines loaded skills/ .md only when requested by the Director. php graph TD A Phase 1: Mission Synthesis -- |PLAN.md| B Phase 2: Execution Engine B -- |Committed Code| C{Phase 3: Verification Matrix} C -- |CRITICAL Findings| B C -- |Zero Findings| D Phase 4: Cognitive Persistence D -- |Context Snapshot| A subgraph Phase 6: Adaptive Protocols Z Self-Correction / Scope Defense / Consolidation end B -.- |3-Strike Failure| Z Z -.- |Recovery| B | Phase | Purpose | Key Skills | |---|---|---| 01. Mission Synthesis | Requirements & Planning | Requirement Distillation, Strategic Decomposition | 02. Execution Engine | Implementation & Testing | Convergent Iteration, State Checkpointing | 03. Verification Matrix | Quality & Review Gates | Pentagonal Audit, Entropy Reduction | 04. Cognitive Persistence | Memory & Knowledge | Context Lifecycle, Structural Cartography | 05. Interface Protocols | Safe Environment Interaction | Bounded Observation, Semantic Navigation | 06. Adaptive Protocols | The Immune System | Recursive Self-Correction, Scope Containment | Get Agent Rigor working in your project in under 2 minutes. Run the installation script in your project root: curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MeherBhaskar/agent-rigor/main/install.sh | bash Alternatively, clone this repo into an .agents/ directory . Simply prompt your agent with: "I need to build feature . Read .agents/SYSTEM CORE.md and begin Phase 1 Mission Synthesis ." The agent will automatically read the Phase 1 Director, create a PLAN.md , and orchestrate its own work through implementation, review, and context saving. Agent Rigor is pure markdown and platform-agnostic . It works natively with: | Agent / IDE | Integration Method | |---|---| Cursor | Point to .agents/SYSTEM CORE.md in your .cursorrules or .mdc files. | Claude Code | Include a reference in your CLAUDE.md . | GitHub Copilot | Reference in .github/copilot-instructions.md . | Gemini CLI / Antigravity | Include in .agents/AGENTS.md . | Aider | Pass via --read .agents/SYSTEM CORE.md . | See the examples/ folder for ready-to-use configuration templates.We welcome contributions to make agents smarter and more disciplined Please see our Contributing Guidelines /MeherBhaskar/agent-rigor/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md to understand how to design skills that agents actually follow.