Tried reproducing MAX_GENERATION_RETRIES (critic rejects -> retry writer
-> re-check -> judge) using ai-agents' states:/transitions: instead of
pipeline:, since pipeline stages can't branch.
Two real blockers found and confirmed against the crate source:
- delegate: states have no per-turn input override (only pipeline:/
concurrent: stages get input: templates), so the critic just echoed
the document back instead of answering yes/no.
- extract: context extractors read the state's incoming user_message,
not its generated/delegated response (runtime.rs:7320), so a guard
meant to gate on "what the critic just said" has nothing real to
read -- the loop-back transition never fires.
Documented as a genuine finding in NOTES.md rather than forcing a
fragile demo: this crate's state machine is built for turn-based intent
routing, not gating on a sub-agent's structured verdict.