Context
A recent RLCR session ran 43 rounds against a 42-round target. The plan had 12 acceptance criteria across 6 dependency-ordered gates and 19 numbered tasks. The loop converged (12/12 ACs met, code review passed) but consumed roughly 1.7× the planned round budget. A sanitized methodology audit of the round summaries and review results surfaced 10 improvement suggestions.
Top three findings
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Goal-alignment review was blind to correctness defects. The implementation phase ended at 12/12 ACs accepted, then the review phase produced 11 more rounds of P2/P3 correctness fixes (silent fallbacks, missing canonicalization, mismatched contracts, dropped state on overwrite, bypassed validators). Implementation-phase review systematically missed runtime-correctness defects.
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Isolated-subsystem-without-wiring rejections. At least 4 gates required 2 rounds: round N delivered a helper / data class / manager, round N+1 wired it into the production path. Grepping for production call sites was a recurring reviewer probe.
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Lateral drift on the same blocker. "ADVANCED / REQUEST_CHANGES" appeared 31 times in 32 implementation rounds. Several stretches of 3-4 consecutive rounds had the AC counter unchanged while rejection reasons drifted laterally.
Suggestions
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Run two parallel reviewer passes per round. Implementation reviewer asks "is the AC met?"; code reviewer asks adversarially "what could be wrong on plausible inputs?" Either's REQUEST_CHANGES blocks acceptance.
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Mandate a production-wiring proof in every round contract for any AC that names a production entry point: a search probe showing the new symbol has a production call site, plus a regression test driving the production entry (not the helper directly).
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Pre-flight a "definition of done" against the plan, not just the round contract. Round contracts must include a "Plan clauses in scope" section quoting the plan; reviewers audit against the plan, not the contract.
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Replace binary STALLED/ADVANCED with a 0–4 throughput score per round. Trip a stagnation alert when the rolling sum stalls.
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Stagnation trigger after 2 stagnant rounds: implementer must run every reviewer probe from the previous 2 rejections and commit outputs before writing new code. Escalate after 3 stagnant rounds (different reviewer model or written counter-argument).
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Cap the review phase by triage, not round count. Exit when 2 consecutive rounds yield zero P2+ findings AND no new defects introduced.
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Constrain round scope to limit defect introduction. Each review-phase round bounds modified files; reviewer rejects out-of-scope diffs without justification.
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Front-load infrastructure rounds for multi-gate plans: terminology lint, canonical identity scheme, fixture/replay regen scripts checked in early.
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Reviewer-write-only goal tracker. Implementer marks `claude-completed-pending-review`; only the reviewer transitions to `completed-and-verified`.
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5-line blocker delta header on every round summary. Closed / open / new blockers. Reviewer anchors audit on this delta first.
Estimated impact
Suggestion 1 (decouple structural from correctness review) alone would have caught most of the 11 review-phase rounds inline, eliminating ~25% of total round count. Suggestions 2 and 4 together address the bulk of the lateral-drift cost.
The full sanitized analysis report is local to the originating session and is not attached here per the methodology audit's sanitization rules. The 10 patterns above are project-agnostic and reflect general RLCR loop dynamics for multi-gate plans.
Context
A recent RLCR session ran 43 rounds against a 42-round target. The plan had 12 acceptance criteria across 6 dependency-ordered gates and 19 numbered tasks. The loop converged (12/12 ACs met, code review passed) but consumed roughly 1.7× the planned round budget. A sanitized methodology audit of the round summaries and review results surfaced 10 improvement suggestions.
Top three findings
Goal-alignment review was blind to correctness defects. The implementation phase ended at 12/12 ACs accepted, then the review phase produced 11 more rounds of P2/P3 correctness fixes (silent fallbacks, missing canonicalization, mismatched contracts, dropped state on overwrite, bypassed validators). Implementation-phase review systematically missed runtime-correctness defects.
Isolated-subsystem-without-wiring rejections. At least 4 gates required 2 rounds: round N delivered a helper / data class / manager, round N+1 wired it into the production path. Grepping for production call sites was a recurring reviewer probe.
Lateral drift on the same blocker. "ADVANCED / REQUEST_CHANGES" appeared 31 times in 32 implementation rounds. Several stretches of 3-4 consecutive rounds had the AC counter unchanged while rejection reasons drifted laterally.
Suggestions
Run two parallel reviewer passes per round. Implementation reviewer asks "is the AC met?"; code reviewer asks adversarially "what could be wrong on plausible inputs?" Either's REQUEST_CHANGES blocks acceptance.
Mandate a production-wiring proof in every round contract for any AC that names a production entry point: a search probe showing the new symbol has a production call site, plus a regression test driving the production entry (not the helper directly).
Pre-flight a "definition of done" against the plan, not just the round contract. Round contracts must include a "Plan clauses in scope" section quoting the plan; reviewers audit against the plan, not the contract.
Replace binary STALLED/ADVANCED with a 0–4 throughput score per round. Trip a stagnation alert when the rolling sum stalls.
Stagnation trigger after 2 stagnant rounds: implementer must run every reviewer probe from the previous 2 rejections and commit outputs before writing new code. Escalate after 3 stagnant rounds (different reviewer model or written counter-argument).
Cap the review phase by triage, not round count. Exit when 2 consecutive rounds yield zero P2+ findings AND no new defects introduced.
Constrain round scope to limit defect introduction. Each review-phase round bounds modified files; reviewer rejects out-of-scope diffs without justification.
Front-load infrastructure rounds for multi-gate plans: terminology lint, canonical identity scheme, fixture/replay regen scripts checked in early.
Reviewer-write-only goal tracker. Implementer marks `claude-completed-pending-review`; only the reviewer transitions to `completed-and-verified`.
5-line blocker delta header on every round summary. Closed / open / new blockers. Reviewer anchors audit on this delta first.
Estimated impact
Suggestion 1 (decouple structural from correctness review) alone would have caught most of the 11 review-phase rounds inline, eliminating ~25% of total round count. Suggestions 2 and 4 together address the bulk of the lateral-drift cost.
The full sanitized analysis report is local to the originating session and is not attached here per the methodology audit's sanitization rules. The 10 patterns above are project-agnostic and reflect general RLCR loop dynamics for multi-gate plans.