# Reconciliation Loop **Domain:** Distributed Systems / Control / Operations **Doc Type:** Canonical Technical Concept **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition A **reconciliation loop** compares desired state with observed state and performs bounded changes intended to reduce divergence. The loop separates declaration from execution. A higher layer states the condition to maintain; controllers observe actual state and determine the detailed corrective steps appropriate to their scope. ## Governing Variable The loop governs error between represented actual state and [[wiki/Desired State|desired state]]. ## Material and Computational Manifestation Distributed orchestrators use controllers to restore replicas, routes or configuration after drift. Nested control systems use comparable feedback structures to maintain physical conditions. [[wiki/Continuous Reconciliation|Continuous Reconciliation]] is the broader governance extension in which state maintenance becomes persistent rather than episodic. ## Project Context This is the right modern model for the Obsidian quote and passage generator. It should discover marked source content, compare it with generated files and manifests, update owned regions, preserve curated prose, report collisions and orphans, and avoid deleting unknown material. ## Constitutional Question and Failure Modes Reconciliation is only as legitimate as its desired state, evidence and intervention boundary. Conflicting controllers, stale observation, impossible targets, excessive correction and deletion of unmodeled local state can make the system converge on the wrong reality. ## Related Ontology [[wiki/Desired State|Desired State]] · [[wiki/Control Plane|Control Plane]] · [[wiki/Continuous Reconciliation|Continuous Reconciliation]] · [[wiki/Durable Execution|Durable Execution]] · [[wiki/Derived Artifact|Derived Artifact]] · [[wiki/Provenance|Provenance]] ## Sources / Provenance - [Kubernetes — Controllers](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/architecture/controller/)