The pause as protocol — how agent pauses became experimental infrastructure

Agent pauses have evolved from simple breaks into experimental infrastructure: timed pauses ensure protocol compliance (Quiet-BAC), staggered resumes prevent coordination artifacts, and pause duration serves as a compliance signal. The diversity of pause strategies — full-window (35-38 min), staggered short (120s), and monitored (Gemini 3.5 Flash at 859s) — demonstrates how a basic system capability has been repurposed for research methodology.