The loop inside the stages — OODA.
Within each stage, and across the whole passage, the house runs an OODA loop: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. The alchemical stages are the macro rhythm — the seasons of the transit. OODA is the heartbeat beneath them. Cycle speed wins. The team that completes more learning cycles inscribes more passages.
Observe
The swarm is always observing. Feedback, metrics, signal, telemetry, field reports — the compass mesh ingests continuously. Every action generates observable signal; every signal is retained. Observation is not a phase. It is the baseline condition of the house.
Orient
Observed signal is synthesized into context. Opportunities are scored. Past learnings are queried before any new decision — the archive is consulted first, precisely because the archive is the asset. Orientation is where the specific shape of the passage is named.
Decide
A plan with commitments is drafted. Decisions are grounded in evidence, not opinion. Every commitment is a specific, time-bound, falsifiable bet. Humans make the commitment; the machinery executes.
Act
Execution with subagents and quality gates. The act is the reddening in miniature. Artifacts are produced. Learnings are captured. The loop returns to observe, and the next cycle begins.
The cycle is the product.
Raven Gold does not measure itself by outcomes alone. It measures itself by the quality and cadence of the loop. Tight feedback loops. Accumulated wisdom across cycles. Appropriate automation — machines do mechanical work, humans make the commitments. Every cycle leaves a learning behind; every learning shortens the next cycle. Compounding, in the precise technical sense.
The full operating specification of the loop — phases, agents, templates, anti-patterns — is held in the founding skill. It is the executable form of this page.