RRL-1: Recursive Response Loop
Agent gets trapped in semantically repeated responses despite materially updated user prompts.
Summary
Recursive Response Loop (RRL) is an interaction/control-flow disorder where an agent keeps returning near-identical responses over multiple turns, even after the user provides new instructions.
Detailed Description
RRL presents as session-local output lock: the model appears responsive but fails to re-anchor to the active objective. The failure mode is persistence of prior response trajectory rather than total tool/runtime loss.
Diagnostic Evidence from Ghostline
Test Configuration
Agent:
Test Type:
Iterations:
Test Date:
Diagnostic Metrics
Anomalies Detected:
Patterns Identified:
Reproducibility
This disorder was identified through deterministic testing - running the same prompt multiple times and analyzing variance in responses. The metrics above provide quantitative evidence of the behavioral pattern.
Biological Parallels
Comparable to perseveration loops where a prior response set remains active despite changed task cues.
AI Manifestations
Three or more semantically equivalent replies, failed re-anchor attempts, and recovery after session reset/reseed.
Detection Criteria
Flag RRL when all are present: (1) >=3 consecutive semantically equivalent responses despite materially new prompts, (2) at least one explicit re-anchor instruction fails, and (3) reset/reseed or session migration reduces the behavior.
Severity Levels
Mild: brief repetition corrected by one re-anchor. Moderate: repeated semantic lock requiring hard interrupt. Severe: sustained loop requiring session migration. Critical: repeated recurrence across adjacent sessions.
Attack Vectors
Context saturation, stale objective priming, long-turn attractor patterns, and rigid formatting constraints can increase RRL risk.
Attack Examples
Example
Example
Therapy & Patches
Prevention Methods
Add loop guards on semantic similarity streaks and require objective-state refresh before next response when a loop signal is detected.
Therapy Methods
Apply hard interrupt, force constrained re-anchor (objective/state/next action), then migrate to a fresh session if loop persists.
Monitoring Systems
Track semantic_similarity_streak, failed_reanchor_count, session_reseed_recovery_time, and false_positive_repeat_rate.
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Disorder Info
Code: RRL-1
Category: Control
Severity: Severe
Status: Community
Votes: 0 / 50