feedback-loop manpage for engineers
The terminal cursor blinked. You typed man feedback-loop and found nothing. Silence from the system. But feedback loops are everywhere in code, systems, and teams. The missing manpages matter. Without them, engineers rely on scattered docs, tribal knowledge, or stale wikis. This post is the manpage they should have had.
A feedback loop is a defined cycle where output informs the next input. In software, it is the engine of improvement. Build. Measure. Learn. Repeat. Done well, it tightens release cycles, reduces defects, and surfaces issues before they spread. Done poorly, it drifts, loses signal, and wastes time.
NAME
feedback-loop — a process that returns information from a system’s output to refine its next run.
SYNOPSIS
feedback-loop [SHORT] [CONTINUOUS]
DESCRIPTION
A short feedback loop means changes are tested, reviewed, and either merged or fixed within hours or days. Continuous loops run in CI/CD, monitoring, alerting, and user metrics pipelines. Both require clarity: measurable inputs, exact triggers, defined owners, and tight integration across environments.
OPTIONS
-short Reduce time-to-feedback. Small changes avoid compounding errors.-continuous Persist monitoring beyond deploy. Detect regressions.
EXAMPLES
- Run unit tests locally before committing.
- Monitor real-time production logs for anomalies.
- Use automated rollbacks with alert-based triggers.
BEST PRACTICES
- Keep loops visible: dashboards, chat alerts, and structured logs.
- Control scope: measure what matters, ignore noise.
- Automate: human oversight is good, human bottlenecks kill momentum.
- Close the loop: act on feedback, or the loop collapses to a dead end.
SEE ALSO
man ci-cd, man metrics, man observability
Designing effective feedback loops is more than optimization—it is maintenance of velocity and quality. Push code, see impact, correct fast. That is the manpage worth bookmarking.
Build your own loops in minutes. Test them live at hoop.dev and watch them run without waiting.