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Enabling Patterns creates a scheduled Loop automation that investigates your project and records what it finds. This page covers turning it on, tuning it, and adding focused automations alongside it.

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Before you start

Patterns runs Loop against your project on a schedule, so two things need to be in place first:
  • A way to pay for inference. Patterns runs on Loop’s models. By default these are Braintrust’s built-in models, which draw down your organization’s monthly model credits and need no setup. On the Starter plan, they require at least one organization owner with a work email address, or a payment method on file. See Requirements. To run Patterns on your own key, or to keep it running once your credits are exhausted, configure an OpenAI-compatible AI provider for your organization or project.
  • Permission to create automations in the project. Members of the Owners and Engineers permission groups have this by default. Enable patterns is shown to everyone, so without permission you’ll see an error when you click it rather than a hidden button.
If you want to choose a Slack notification channel while enabling, connect a Slack workspace first. Otherwise the picker doesn’t appear, and you can add a destination later instead.

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Enable pattern discovery

  1. Go to Patterns and click Enable patterns. Once Patterns is on, this button becomes Settings.
  2. In the Introducing Patterns dialog, optionally choose a Slack workspace and channel to be notified in when Loop finds patterns.
  3. Click Enable patterns to confirm.
Braintrust creates a Pattern discovery automation that runs daily at 9:00 AM in your default timezone, queries the last 30 days by default, and has permission to create and update patterns. It runs a default instruction that tells Loop what to look for, which you can edit later. See Tune the automation. Braintrust then queues an initial run immediately, so you don’t wait for the first scheduled one. While a run is in progress, the page shows an Analyzing traces… indicator. Patterns appear as the run finishes.
If a project has no patterns yet and no run is in progress, click Analyze patterns to queue another run without waiting for the schedule.

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Tune the automation

The default automation is an ordinary Loop automation, so you can change its instruction, schedule, model, query range, and destinations at any time. To edit it, either click Settings on the Patterns page and select the automation, or go to Settings > Automations. The fields worth revisiting first:
  • Frequency. How often the run happens. A project with steady traffic rarely needs more than daily.
  • Default query range. How much recent data each run inspects. Each run inspects the full range, not only the traces created since the previous run, so a wide range costs more.
  • Instruction. What Loop should look at, how deeply, and when to stop.
  • Destinations. Where run digests are delivered.
For the full field reference, see Create a Loop automation.
Keep the instruction framed around finding or updating patterns, even when you narrow the automation to one concern. An instruction that asks for a summary produces a summary, not a pattern record.

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Add a focused automation

You can run several pattern automations alongside the default one. Use a focused automation when one concern needs its own scope or schedule: tool-call errors, cost growth, latency for a specific set of customers, or quality regressions. To add one, select Settings > New automation on the Patterns page. Braintrust opens a prefilled automation for you to review and save. All of them write into the same patterns list.

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Common issues

Patterns runs on Loop’s models, so enabling it needs a configured AI provider that serves a GPT-5.6 or GPT-6 model, or available built-in models. When neither is available, clicking Enable patterns shows an error banner instead of turning Patterns on.
  • Built-in models are unavailable. Enable built-in models or configure a provider in Settings > AI providers. The banner’s Add provider button opens the provider setup inline.
  • Your model credits are exhausted. Add your own provider key with Add provider, or select Upgrade to raise your plan’s limits. See model credits for how usage is counted.
Configuring a provider and enabling built-in models are organization-level actions. Only members of the Owners permission group, or a custom permission group with the Manage settings organization permission, can do either. Without that permission, ask an organization owner or administrator to resolve it.
Loop records a pattern only when it can attach supporting evidence, so a quiet run is a normal outcome rather than a failure.To work out what happened, open the automation, select the Past runs tab, and select the run to read the transcript. Select Continue to fork it into an editable thread and ask Loop directly why it recorded nothing.If runs are consistently empty, the query range or the instruction is usually too narrow.
Destinations belong to automation runs. Patterns that Loop records during an interactive chat appear in the list but do not trigger Slack or webhook destinations.Confirm the destination is configured on the automation itself, under Destinations in the configuration panel, and that the Slack workspace is still connected.
Patterns requires data plane v2.13 or later. To upgrade, see the routine upgrade guide.

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Next steps