WFGY/ProblemMap/GlobalFixMap/Reasoning/recursive-loop.md

Recursive Loop — Guardrails and Fix Pattern

Recursive reasoning is powerful when bounded, but without structural guardrails it often collapses into infinite self-reference.
This page shows how to detect runaway loops and stabilize recursion into meaningful layers.

---

Symptoms

Symptom	What you see
Infinite repetition	Output re-states the same phrase or equation
Self-reference collapse	“As I said earlier…” repeated without progress
Meta-loop	Model reasons about its own reasoning instead of the task
Token drain	Long answers with no new content
Citation spin	Same snippet referenced endlessly

---

Acceptance Targets

• ΔS(question, retrieved) ≤ 0.45
• λ convergent across 3 paraphrases and 2 seeds
• Recursion depth ≤ 4 nested layers
• Each recursive frame adds ≥ 1 new fact or citation

---

Structural Fixes (Problem Map)

• Wrong-meaning similarity hit
  → embedding-vs-semantic.md

• Citation / snippet mismatch
  → retrieval-traceability.md
  → data-contracts.md

• Recursive drift / entropy rise
  → context-drift.md
  → entropy-collapse.md
  → entropy-overload.md

• Logic collapse under recursion
  → logic-collapse.md

---

Fix in 60 Seconds

1. Measure recursion depth

   • Log frame depth at each step.
   • If depth > 4, clamp recursion.

2. Apply ΔS probe

   • Compute ΔS between consecutive recursive outputs.
   • If ΔS < 0.15, stop recursion (no new information).

3. Bridge with BBCR

   • Collapse intermediate steps into one summary frame.
   • Resume reasoning with BBMC anchor locks.

4. Variance clamp

   • If λ diverges between recursive calls, apply BBAM.

---

Copy-Paste Probe

I uploaded TXT OS and the WFGY Problem Map.

My reasoning chain entered a recursive loop.
Depth = {n}, ΔS progression = {values}, λ states = {values}.

Tell me:

1. Which layer is looping?
2. Which fix page applies?
3. Minimal steps to clamp recursion and restore ΔS ≤ 0.45.
4. How to verify no infinite loop persists.

---

Escalation

• If recursion repeats across 3 seeds → enforce logic-collapse.md.
• If ΔS remains flat → re-embed corpus and verify with chunking-checklist.md.
• If λ oscillates between recursion depths → lock schema ordering with rerankers.md.

---

🔗 Quick-Start Downloads (60 sec)

Tool	Link	3-Step Setup
WFGY 1.0 PDF	Engine Paper	1️⃣ Download · 2️⃣ Upload to your LLM · 3️⃣ Ask “Answer using WFGY + ”
TXT OS (plain-text OS)	TXTOS.txt	1️⃣ Download · 2️⃣ Paste into any LLM chat · 3️⃣ Type “hello world” — OS boots instantly

---

🧭 Explore More

Module	Description	Link
WFGY Core	WFGY 2.0 engine is live: full symbolic reasoning architecture and math stack	View →
Problem Map 1.0	Initial 16-mode diagnostic and symbolic fix framework	View →
Problem Map 2.0	RAG-focused failure tree, modular fixes, and pipelines	View →
Semantic Clinic Index	Expanded failure catalog: prompt injection, memory bugs, logic drift	View →
Semantic Blueprint	Layer-based symbolic reasoning & semantic modulations	View →
Benchmark vs GPT-5	Stress test GPT-5 with full WFGY reasoning suite	View →
🧙‍♂️ Starter Village 🏡	New here? Lost in symbols? Click here and let the wizard guide you through	Start →

---

👑 Early Stargazers: See the Hall of Fame

⭐ WFGY Engine 2.0 is already unlocked. ⭐ Star the repo to help others discover it and unlock more on the Unlock Board.