Keeping long-running coding agents on track

Long-running coding agents can lose direction as scope expands, context fades, tests become stale, or failed approaches are repeatedly retried, so multi-day autonomous work requires explicit control points. Factory recommends defining a validation contract with bounded outcomes and observable behavioral checks, then dividing work into independently reviewable milestones with clear dependencies, required evidence, and isolated high-risk changes. Separate validators should assess each milestone against the original requirements rather than relying on the implementer’s reasoning. Durable shared state should record plans, decisions, changed files, failed attempts, test results, blockers, and repository conventions so new workers can continue without reconstructing prior conversations. Teams should also establish human intervention and stop conditions for repeated failures, unavailable credentials, scope changes, or unsafe migrations, documenting any resulting adjustments. Final review should compare delivered behavior with the original contract, verify named checks and code changes, preserve evidence, and identify deferred work.

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