Not sure of a good way of explaining this :)

The compact loader sometimes appears to decide whether it will be loading or unloading even when it does not have the necessary context, i.e. the tiles either side are empty. It also happens when I am using a ghost to set up the filtering before cut-pasting it into the final location.

A similar thing sometimes seems to happen when the loader is auto-placed by a construction bot. I guess (but not 100% certain) that's because it ends up being placed before the adjacent belt and assembler are. So, there is a chance that it may fix itself to be loading left->right, as if it is expecting the incoming belt to be on the left, even though the next thing to be pasted is an assembler on the left and a belt on the right. Does that make sense?

Would it be possible for the loader to wait until the neighbouring tile is "occupied" before deciding which side has the belt and which side is connected to a box/machine?