Welcome back to Tech Brief, where today we’re unpacking “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of an LLM Agent Loop with Tool Use.” The core idea is shockingly simple—just nine lines of code:

“def loop(llm):
msg = user_input()
while True:
output, tool_calls = llm(msg)
print(‘Agent: ’, output)
if tool_calls:
msg = [handle_tool_call(tc) for tc in tool_calls]
else:
msg = user_input()”

Here, the LLM has access to tools—like bash—and can adapt on the fly. As the author says, “If you don’t have some tool installed, it’ll install it.” That means complex git operations, merges, or type checker fixes go from manual tedium to one-shot LLM magic. Adding specialized tools—text editors, diff utilities—only sharpens the workflow. We’re on the brink of seeing ad hoc, throw-away agent loops in every developer’s bin directory. So grab your favorite bearer token, spin up Sketch, and experience the future of automated programming.
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