Five Minute Maintainer Loop
Every few minutes while you work, makes one small verified repository improvement — a flaky test, a stale comment, a missing type — one change, one commit.
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Five-Minute Maintainer Loop
Loop Engineering — the /loop verb repeats a task *while you are present*. This one does continuous, low-risk upkeep on a tight timer while you focus on the real work. Inspired by Peter Steinberger's five-minute maintainer.🎯 Goal
Every few minutes, make exactly one small, verified improvement to the repo — and let the agent decide *what* to clean. That judgment is the whole point; nothing is hardcoded.
⏱️ Schedule
Suggested interval: 5m (runs while your session is open).
▶️ Run it
/loop 5m "Make one small, verified repository improvement: a flaky test, a stale comment, a missing type, a dead import. One change, one commit, tests green. Never touch anything risky or architectural. If nothing safe remains, say so and wait."
🔁 Iteration steps
scope-guard hook blocks risky/out-of-scope edits.test-runner; only proceed if green./commit; one change, one commit. Wait for the next tick.🛑 Stopping condition
You end the session, or there is no safe improvement left this pass (the loop idles rather than inventing risky work).
💰 Budget & guardrails
One change per tick; never refactors or touches production-critical paths. Set a per-session token budget before walking away.
🧩 Referenced components
agent:development-team/test-runner — verifies each change is green.command:git-workflow/commit — one clean commit per improvement.hook:quality-gates/scope-guard — blocks risky / out-of-scope edits.💡 Example
While you build a feature, the loop quietly fixes a flaky timer test, removes a dead import, and adds a missing return type — three tiny green commits — without ever touching the feature you're working on.
How to Use & Getting Started
# Step 1: Initialize skill agent setup
npx skills add Five Minute Maintainer Loop --install-production
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
codex plugin install Five Minute Maintainer Loop@latest
export API_KEY=secret_token_key_here
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More in loop
View all loop skills →Build Test Fix Loop
Builds the next item on the plan, then runs tests, typecheck and lint, feeding every failure back as the next instruction until the build is green.
Completion Contract Loop
Writes a contract of what "done" means and what evidence proves each requirement before any work starts, then refuses to claim success without that evidence.
Adversarial Review Loop
Has a second, independent model review every change before merge so two different reviewers must agree - code only lands when both clear the bar.