Loop Command Reference

/loop Enables Qoder CLI to repeatedly execute a prompt or slash command, either at a fixed interval (powered under the hood by the scheduled task system) or at a pace Qoder chooses for itself. This page explains its parameter format, interval conversion, budget ceilings, and cancellation methods. For a usage guide on loop execution, see Loop Tasks.

Usage

/loop [interval] [flags] <prompt>

[interval] (optional): Execution interval. Providing one selects fixed-interval mode; omitting one selects dynamic-pacing mode.
[flags] (optional): Persistence and budget ceilings, listed below.
<prompt> (required): The prompt text or slash command to be executed repeatedly. Slash commands are passed through unchanged.

Modes

Mode	Selected when	Mechanism
Fixed-interval	The input contains an interval	The interval is converted to a cron expression and registered as a scheduled task.
Dynamic-pacing	The input contains no interval	After each run Qoder schedules the next wake-up itself, with a delay clamped to `[60, 3600]` seconds. Not scheduling one ends the loop.

Special cases:

/loop with no arguments: if .qoder/loop.md exists, Qoder loops over that task list in dynamic-pacing mode; otherwise the usage message is shown.
/loop 5m (interval but no prompt): the usage message is shown.
Flags only, with no prompt (e.g. /loop --max-turns 3): Qoder runs a general project health check on each iteration, in dynamic-pacing mode.

Flags

Flag	Value	Description
`--durable`	—	Persist the task to disk so it survives restarts, with no automatic expiry.
`--durable <N>d`	Days	Persist the task and expire it N days from now.
`--permanent`, `-p`	—	Equivalent to `--durable` with no expiry.
`--max-turns <N>`	Whole number	Stop the loop after N runs.
`--max-credits <N>`	Number	Stop the loop once N credits have been spent in total. Decimals are allowed.

Flag parsing rules:

Both the space form (--max-turns 6) and the = form (--max-turns=6) are accepted for the ceilings.
Flags may appear anywhere in the input. They are stripped before the interval is parsed, so /loop --max-turns 5 10m check the deploy still reads 10m as the interval instead of 5.
If a flag is repeated, the first value wins and every copy is removed from the prompt.
--durable and --permanent apply to fixed-interval loops. A dynamic-pacing loop always lives in the current session.

Interval Units

An interval consists of a number and a unit suffix:

Suffix	Unit	Description
`s`	Seconds	Rounded up to the nearest minute (minimum granularity of 1 minute).
`m`	Minutes	Every N minutes.
`h`	Hours	Every N hours.
`d`	Days	Every N days (triggers at midnight local time).

The minimum granularity is 1 minute. Intervals in seconds are rounded up to ceil(N/60) minutes, and you will be notified of the rounding.

Parsing Rules

After the flags are removed, /loop parses the remaining input with the following priority:

Leading token: If the first word matches ^\d+[smhd]$ (e.g., 5m, 2h), it is treated as the interval, and the rest as the prompt → fixed-interval mode.
Trailing every clause: Otherwise, if the input ends with every <N><unit> or every <N> <unit> (e.g., every 20m, every 5 minutes), it is extracted as the interval and removed from the prompt → fixed-interval mode. This only matches when every is followed by a time expression—check every PR does not contain an interval.
Otherwise: No interval is present, and the whole input is the prompt → dynamic-pacing mode.

Examples

/loop 5m /babysit-prs          # Run /babysit-prs every 5 minutes
/loop 30m check the deploy     # Check the deployment every 30 minutes
/loop 1h /standup 1            # Run /standup 1 every hour
/loop run tests every 20m      # Run tests every 20 minutes
/loop monitor CI pipeline      # Dynamic pacing: Qoder picks the timing
/loop --durable 30d 1h /standup 1        # Persisted, expires in 30 days
/loop --max-turns 6 10m check the deploy # Stops after 6 runs

Interval to cron Conversion

Interval Pattern	cron Expression	Description
`Nm` (N ≤ 59)	`/N * * *`	Every N minutes
`Nm` (N ≥ 60)	`0 /H * *`	Converted to hours (H = N/60, must be divisible by 24)
`Nh` (N ≤ 23)	`0 /N * *`	Every N hours
`Nd`	`0 0 /N *`	Every N days at midnight
`Ns`	Treated as `ceil(N/60)m`	Minimum cron granularity is 1 minute

If the interval cannot evenly divide its unit (e.g., 7m would produce uneven intervals, 90m cannot be expressed in cron), the closest clean interval is selected, and you will be informed of the rounding result before the task is created.

Budget Ceilings

A ceiling is a limit to arrive at, not one to exceed: the loop stops as soon as usage reaches it. When both ceilings are set, whichever is reached first stops the loop; if both are reached at the same moment, the message reports the run ceiling.

Ceiling	Counter	Checked	Accuracy
`--max-turns`	Number of runs over the whole life of the task	Before each run	Exact—`--max-turns 2` fires exactly twice.
`--max-credits`	Credits spent in total	After a run has been metered	The final run may end slightly above the ceiling; a run in progress is never cut off.

Additional rules:

Only positive values are accepted. The scheduling tools reject 0 or a negative number instead of silently dropping it, and a non-positive value found in an existing task file is discarded, leaving the task with no ceiling.
Run counts are lifetime counts. Restarting Qoder CLI does not reset them.
Reaching a ceiling is not the same as expiring. The task is removed and cannot be resumed; start a new loop to continue.
When a ceiling is reached, both you and Qoder are notified—you see Scheduled task <id> stopped: it used 2 of 2 turns. (or Loop stopped: it used 3 of 3 turns. in dynamic-pacing mode), and Qoder is told to report the stop rather than recreate the task.

Persisted fields

For a durable task, the ceilings and the usage are stored alongside the other fields in .qoder/scheduled_tasks.json:

Field	Description
`fireCount`	Lifetime number of runs, compared against `maxTurns`.
`creditsUsed`	Credits spent in total. A missing value means the spend was never metered, which is not the same as zero.
`maxTurns`	Run ceiling. Absent means no ceiling.
`maxCredits`	Credit ceiling. Absent means no ceiling.

Task files written before these fields existed simply have no ceilings, so they keep running as before.

Dynamic-pacing ceilings

In dynamic-pacing mode the ceiling and the usage are held in memory for the duration of the loop:

Sticky: pass the flag on the /loop that starts the loop and it applies to every later wake-up. Later wake-ups that do not repeat it cannot remove the ceiling.
Reset on stop: stopping the loop clears both the ceiling and the usage, so the next /loop starts from zero rather than inheriting the previous loop's spend.
Reaching the ceiling cancels the pending wake-up, so the loop does not wake again.

Tool parameters

The same ceilings are available to Qoder when it schedules work itself, so you can also ask for them in natural language ("check it five times, then stop"):

Tool	Parameters
Scheduled task creation	`maxTurns`, `maxCredits` — reported back in the confirmation as `Stops after N turns or M credits.`
Dynamic-pacing wake-up	`maxTurns`, `maxCredits` — sticky for the whole loop.

Panel controls

In the /crontab panel:

The USAGE column shows 3/10 turns · 12.5/50 credits when ceilings are set, 2 turns · 8.25 credits when they are not, and a dash in place of the amount spent when the spend was never metered (—/50 credits). A task that has never run and has no ceiling leaves the column empty.
The task detail page shows Turns 3 / 10 (stops at the limit) and Credits 12.5 / 50 (stops at the limit).
Press t to edit the run ceiling and b to edit the credit ceiling. An empty value clears the ceiling; a non-positive value is not accepted, and Esc cancels.

Cancellation and Expiration

Session-only recurring tasks are the default: they stop when the process exits.
Recurring tasks automatically expire 7 days after creation, unless created with --durable (no expiry) or --durable <N>d (custom expiry).
You can manually delete the corresponding scheduled task before expiration (request the Agent to delete it using natural language and provide the task ID, or delete it from the /crontab panel).
In dynamic-pacing mode, asking Qoder to stop ends the loop and cancels the pending wake-up.
After creating a recurring task, the current prompt is executed immediately once, without waiting for the first cron trigger.

Next Steps

/loop usage guide: Loop Tasks.
Underlying mechanisms of scheduled tasks: Scheduled Task Reference.

​Usage

​Modes

​Flags

​Interval Units

​Parsing Rules

​Examples

​Interval to cron Conversion

​Budget Ceilings

​Persisted fields

​Dynamic-pacing ceilings

​Tool parameters

​Panel controls

​Cancellation and Expiration

​Next Steps