Self-review vs external check

after Hanako

Self-review versus external check

Who is allowed to say the work is done.

Self-review

the agent checks its own work

the task

what was asked

the agent

one context window

the output

a diff, an answer, a plan

the same agent reads it

same weights, same window

it looks correct

generated, not measured

accepted

on the strength of a sentence

a second opinion from the same source

drawn from the same context that produced the output

External check

something outside decides

the task

what was asked

the agent

one context window

the output

a diff, an answer, a plan

a test runs

it never reads the output

pass or fail

the suite came back green

accepted

on the strength of a signal

evidence the agent cannot write

it ran, and it came back green