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Build your own agent loop

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The Silan repository’s Examples/agent-loops folder holds three complete phone agents: a model looks at the device through Silan’s tools and acts until the task is done. All three start silan mcp, the same MCP server the one-click apps start, hand the model Silan’s tools exactly as MCP lists them, and use Silan’s public skills as the system prompt. Status: supported, proven on a Mac with no phone attached. The phone run is still owed.

What an agent loop did on an iPhone 11 through the MCP tools: open the app, tap plus and minus on the water row, read the count back (recorded 44 s).

The pieces

Section titled “The pieces”
File Model Needs
claude_loop.py Claude, through the Messages API pip install anthropic, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
openai_loop.py Any OpenAI Responses API model with function calling and image input pip install openai, OPENAI_API_KEY, --model or OPENAI_MODEL
open_model_loop.py Any OpenAI-compatible chat server on your Mac or network, such as Ollama, LM Studio, llama.cpp or vLLM Nothing extra. --model, and --base-url or OPENAI_BASE_URL
silan_mcp.py The helper the three loops share Standard library, Python 3.9 or later

What silan_mcp.py does

Section titled “What silan_mcp.py does”
  • find_silan() looks for the command at SILAN_CLI, on your PATH, at ~/.local/bin/silan, then inside /Applications/Silan.app and ~/Applications/Silan.app. With none it says how to install Silan.
  • SilanTools(profile="core") starts silan mcp --profile core (or testing, or full) and speaks MCP over stdio. tools() returns every tool with its name, description and JSON schema, paging through the list. call(name, arguments) runs a tool. A tool that fails, say a missing element, comes back with isError true rather than an exception. A call may run up to 900 seconds, enough for a long wait_for.
  • instructions() builds the system prompt from the silan and silan-safety skills in Skills/, with their front matter stripped, so the loop follows the same rules as a connected AI app: look before you act, prefer refs to pixels, use wait_for instead of sleeping, never type a password, stop before anything you cannot undo.

How each loop differs

Section titled “How each loop differs”
  • Claude. Adaptive thinking is on, and the skills and tool list are cached across turns. After the newest three screenshots, older ones are replaced by a short note to save tokens, while the element list in each observation stays. --no-fallbacks turns off the server-side refusal fallbacks.
  • OpenAI. The conversation lives on the API side through previous_response_id. Each turn sends only the new tool results and the newest screenshot as a user image.
  • Open models. Standard library only. The default address is Ollama’s, http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1. Without --vision the model works from the element lists alone, which is often enough. Only the silan skill is the system prompt, and the loop stops after 40 turns.

Every loop takes --device (from silan devices), --profile core|testing|full and --max-turns. Without --device the model calls list_devices and picks one.

Setup

Section titled “Setup”
  1. Install Silan and set up a device, or let Silan make a simulator (Install and quickstart).
  2. Get a copy of the Silan repository and open Examples/agent-loops. Keep the Skills folder where it is, two levels up, so the loops find the skills.
  3. Pick a loop and install what it needs, from the table above. Set its key in the environment.
  4. Find your device id: /Applications/Silan.app/Contents/Helpers/silan devices.

The first tool call brings Silan’s Allow sheet, because Python has no Developer ID signature: it names the Python file, says Silan cannot check who made it, and offers Allow this time only. Press it. The grant ends when the loop exits.

Try it

Section titled “Try it”
Terminal window
cd Examples/agent-loops
python3 claude_loop.py "Open Settings and turn on Dark Mode" --device ios:00008120-001A2B3C4D5E6F70
python3 openai_loop.py "Open the Clock app and start the stopwatch" --model <model> --device ios:00008120-001A2B3C4D5E6F70
python3 open_model_loop.py "Open the Clock app" --model <local model> --device android:emulator-5554

Each loop prints one line per step: -> tap {...} for a call, <- ... for the start of the answer, and the final answer at the end. A step that needs your yes answers APPROVAL_REQUIRED and the model is told so.

The offline tests check how the loops find silan and read the skills, with no key and no network:

Terminal window
python3 -B tests/test_loops.py

With SILAN_CLI, SILAN_URL, SILAN_API_KEY and SILAN_TEST_DEVICE set, the last test also drives the real silan mcp against your engine and a device.

Limits

Section titled “Limits”
  • Proven with no phone. A run of these loops on a real device is not yet proved.
  • The loops are examples, not a library. The Python library proper is coming soon.
  • Every call goes through Silan’s safety rules. The agent asks before it pays, sends, posts or deletes, and passwords never reach the model: the loops use fill_credential and request_person_login like any other tool.
  • Python runs with Allow this time only, so you answer the sheet once per run. To skip the question, give SilanTools a key: run with SILAN_API_KEY set and silan mcp uses the HTTP listener.