# Latency budgets in agent loops

Status: complete
Protocol: fixed. This document did not change while the study ran; results live in the entry.

## Question

An agent loop spends against a deadline that does not move. Where does the budget actually go across a run, and what should a loop drop first when it runs short?

## Method

1. Instrument a reference agent loop so every phase (plan, tool call, read, retry) reports wall time.
2. Run the fixed task set under three deadlines: generous, tight, and hostile.
3. Under the tight and hostile deadlines, ablate one phase at a time and record what the loop loses.

## Measures

- Time share per phase, per deadline.
- Task completion under each ablation.
- The ordering that falls out: which phase buys the least per millisecond.

## Stopping rule

Complete. The study stopped when every ablation had run under all three deadlines.