Impasse Detector
Detects when the agent is stuck in a reasoning loop or unproductive state by analyzing tool usage and sentiment patterns.
Install
$ agentstack add skill-sounder25-foundational-agent-skills-17-impasse-detector ✓ scanned · ✓ verified, works with Claude Code, Cursor, and more.
Security review
✓ PassedNo issues found. Passed automated security review. · v0.1.0 How review works →
- ✓ Prompt-injection patterns
- ✓ Secret / credential exfiltration
- ✓ Dangerous shell & filesystem operations
- ✓ Untrusted network calls
- ✓ Known-malicious package signatures
What it can access
- ✓ Network access No
- ✓ Filesystem access No
- ✓ Shell / process execution No
- ✓ Environment & secrets No
- ✓ Dynamic code execution No
From automated source analysis of v0.1.0. “Used” means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it’s unsafe.
Verified badge
Passed review? Show it. Paste this badge into your README, it links to the public security report.
Links to your public security report.[](https://agentstack.voostack.com/security/report/skill-sounder25-foundational-agent-skills-17-impasse-detector) Reliability & compatibility
Declared compatibility
Compatibility is declared by the source manifest. End-to-end runtime verification is coming, see below.
We're building live execution health for every listing: tool-call success rate, median latency, uptime, and last-checked timestamps, measured, not self-reported. It isn't live yet, so we don't show numbers we can't stand behind.
How agent discovery & health will work →About
SKILL-017: Impasse Detector
Overview
Critical meta-cognitive skill that acts as a circuit breaker for unproductive loops. It analyzes recent conversation history and tool outputs to detect "stuck" states, preventing token wastage on failing paths and forcing escalation or delegation.
Trigger Phrases
check logicam i stuckdetect loopimpasse check
Inputs
| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------| | --TranscriptPath | string | No | $null | Path to conversation log/json | | --Content | string | No | $null | Direct string content to analyze | | --Lookback | int | No | 10 | Number of recent turns to analyze |
Outputs
1. Analysis Result (JSON)
{
"status": "IMPASSE",
"confidence": 0.95,
"reasons": [
"Apology loop detected (4 occurrences)",
"High frequency of file reads (6 in window)"
],
"recommendation": "ESCALATE_TO_USER",
"score": 80
}2. Status Codes
CLEAR: No issues detected.IMPASSE: Significant loop/blockage detected.UNKNOWN: Insufficient data.
Preconditions
- Access to conversation history OR a provided transcript string.
- PowerShell 5.1+ or Core 7+.
Safety/QA Checks
- Read-Only: This skill only analyzes text; it does not modify state.
- Fail-Safe: If input is missing/malformed, defaults to "UNKNOWN" rather than crashing.
Stop Conditions
| Condition | Action | |-----------|--------| | No input provided | Return status "UNKNOWN" (0 confidence) | | File not found | Return error JSON |
Implementation
See scripts/detect_impasse.ps1.
Integration with Other Skills
All agent loops should:
- Call SKILL-017 every 5-10 turns.
- If status is
IMPASSE, trigger SKILL-020 (Failure Postmortem) AND SKILL-010 (Async Feedback). - If score > 90, stop execution and warn user.
Source & license
This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.
- Author: Sounder25
- Source: Sounder25/Foundational-Agent-Skills
- License: Apache-2.0
Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.
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Versions
- v0.1.0 Imported from the upstream source.