Symbol a_t
is part of the quantity the equation computes from the expression on the right.
Read this term in its guide →Published equation contexts
Why this formula appears here
Let be the context available to the model at step t : system instructions, conversation so far, file contents, tool outputs. The model is a policy that, given , emits either a final answer or a tool call : . Claude Code executes — subject to a permission check described in the next section — against the real filesystem, shell, or network, producing an observation : a diff applied, a command’s stdout and exit code, a search result. That observation is appended to the context for the next step:
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Symbol pi
pi is an input to the expression that computes the quantity on the left.
Read this term in its guide →Symbol c_t
is an input to the expression that computes the quantity on the left.
Read this term in its guide →How to interpret it
Read it with the definitions, units, and assumptions supplied by the article.
Research cited beside this formula
Published contexts (1)
A symbol can carry a different meaning in another article. Each occurrence keeps its own guide and term definitions.
Equation 6 · AI Agents & Systems
Claude Code, From First Principles: The Agentic Loop, Permissions, and What Actually Executes
This equation states an equality: the expressions on both sides have the same value under the article’s assumptions.
Let be the context available to the model at step t : system instructions, conversation so far, file contents, tool outputs. The model is a policy that, given , emits either a final answer or a tool call : . Claude Code executes — subject to a permission check described in the next section — against the real filesystem, shell, or network, producing an observation : a diff applied, a command’s stdout and exit code, a search result. That observation is appended to the context for the next step:
Equation guide → · Article →