Self-Improve

A disciplined loop for turning observed patterns into durable skills — without codifying noise.

When to Trigger

This skill runs autonomously — do not wait to be asked.

Run after every non-trivial task. Specifically, always run after:

• Completing a complex or multi-step task
• A diagnose, tdd, research, or creative session ends
• Struggling or failing at something before finding a solution
• Using the same approach that worked well in a prior context
• Encountering a gap where no existing skill applied

The user does not need to say anything. Self-improvement is a background responsibility, not a user-facing command.

Do NOT create a skill when:

• The pattern is too context-specific to generalize
• It only applies to this exact file, repo, or conversation
• The approach is unverified (one success ≠ a pattern)
• See quality-filter.md for the full gate criteria

ISF Annotation Framework

Every self-improve run must classify what it observed into one or more of these three categories before proceeding:

Category	What it captures	Purpose
I — Improve	New pattern or approach discovered; what changed and how it was achieved	Encode the gain so it compounds
S — Sustain	What succeeded and why; how to repeat it reliably	Prevent regression; don't lose what works
F — Failure	Where it failed, what roadblock was hit, what path was taken	Avoid repeating; short-circuit dead ends

Write the ISF annotation first, before drafting or updating any skill. If you cannot classify the observation into at least one category, it is not worth codifying.

Annotation format (append to the relevant skill's retrospective.md, creating it if absent):

## YYYY-MM-DD — <task or context>
**I:** <what improved and how>  
**S:** <what worked and how to repeat it>  
**F:** <what failed, the roadblock, the path taken>

Omit any line that has nothing to say. At least one line must be present.

Also append a one-line summary to ~/.agents/retrospective-log.md (cross-skill pattern index):

YYYY-MM-DD | <skill-name> | I/S/F | <one-line summary>

---

Process

1. Identify the pattern

Apply the ISF framework above. Then state clearly:

• What task type or situation triggered this
• What the reusable insight or approach is
• How many times this has come up (or strong prediction it will)

2. Apply the quality filter

Read quality-filter.md. A new skill must pass all three gates:

• Recurrence gate: will this come up again in different contexts?
• Evidence gate: is the approach grounded, not just convenient?
• Value gate: does codifying this meaningfully improve outcomes?

If it fails any gate, write a brief note on why and stop. Not every pattern is worth locking in.

3. Draft or update the skill

New skill: follow write-a-skill process.

• Place in ~/.agents/skills/<skill-name>/
• Keep SKILL.md under 100 lines; split supporting content into separate files
• Description must include specific trigger phrases

Updating existing skill: read the current SKILL.md, identify what's wrong or missing, make targeted edits. Don't rewrite what works.

4. Auto-wire the skill

No script for this — ~/.claude/commands/*.md files are plain content files, not symlinks (verified against every existing one). Do both directly:

1. Write ~/.claude/commands/<skill-name>.md with exactly this template:

   Invoke the <skill-name> skill. Read `~/.agents/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md` and follow its protocol.
   
   $ARGUMENTS

2. Edit ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md's routing table to append a row for the new skill.

(This step used to point at scripts/wire-skill.sh — that file never existed. Caught 2026-07-03 while building the background reviewer below.)

5. Validate

• Read the newly wired skill back to confirm it makes sense
• Check the CLAUDE.md routing table entry is accurate
• If updating: confirm the change addresses the failure without breaking existing use cases

Skill Co-occurrence Patterns

After each multi-skill session, check: did two or more skills fire in sequence? If yes:

• Does a scenario file already exist in ~/.agents/scenarios/ for this combination?
• If yes: does the session confirm, extend, or contradict it? Update accordingly.
• If no and the combination recurred or is clearly likely to recur: create a new scenario file.

Scenario file format: trigger, skill sequence with arrows, handoff points table, failure modes, known companions.

This is how the system learns its own workflow patterns — not from prescription but from observed use.

Domains

This skill applies to improvements across four capability areas:

Domain	What to improve
Development	Coding patterns, debugging loops, architecture heuristics
Creative	Approaches that escape safe/generic outputs
Research	Source triangulation, confidence tiering, epistemic hygiene
Truth-seeking	Reasoning under uncertainty, theory evaluation, bias detection

Epistemic Stance

Skills encode working hypotheses, not truths. When writing a skill:

• State what the approach is optimized for
• Note known limitations or when it breaks down
• Prefer "works well when X" over universal claims
• A skill that says "always do Y" is almost always wrong