self-improve

name: self-improve description: Improve the agent itself — better skills, prompts, workflows, and config based on recent performance var: "" tags: [meta]

${var} — Specific area to improve (e.g. "heartbeat", "notifications", "memory"). If empty, finds the highest-impact issue from recent logs.

If ${var} is set, focus on improving that specific area.

Read memory/MEMORY.md for context. Read the last 2 days of memory/logs/ for recent errors, failures, and quality issues.

Steps

1. Check for open improvement PRs — don't pile up unreviewed work:

   OPEN_PRS=$(gh pr list --state open --json title,number --jq '[.[] | select(.title | test("^(fix|feat|chore)\\("; "i"))] | length')
   

   If there are already 3+ open improvement PRs, log "self-improve: 3+ open PRs, waiting for review" and exit. Don't create more debt.

2. Identify what to improve. If ${var} is empty, scan for issues:

   • Read memory/logs/ from last 2 days — look for:
     • Skills that failed or produced low-quality output
     • Errors, timeouts, "zero output", rate limiting
     • Notifications that didn't send or were truncated
     • Memory consolidation problems
   • Read memory/cron-state.json for skills with low success rates
   • Read articles/repo-actions-*.md from last 7 days for self-improvement ideas
   • Pick the highest-impact, smallest-effort fix. One change per run.

3. Understand the area you're fixing. Read the relevant files:

   • Skills: skills/{name}/SKILL.md
   • Config: aeon.yml
   • Workflows: .github/workflows/*.yml
   • Agent instructions: CLAUDE.md
   • Dashboard: apps/dashboard/ (if UI-related)

   Understand the current behavior before changing anything.

4. Implement the fix. Make minimal, targeted changes:

   • If a skill prompt is unclear → rewrite the ambiguous section
   • If a skill is hitting rate limits → add backoff logic or reduce frequency
   • If output quality is low → tighten the prompt, add examples, clarify format
   • If a notification is broken → fix the formatting or truncation
   • If a config is wrong → fix aeon.yml

   Do NOT:

   • Rewrite entire skills from scratch
   • Add new features (that's build-skill's job)
   • Change the core architecture
   • Modify secrets or environment variables

5. Create a branch and PR:

   git checkout -b fix/self-improve-${today}
   git add -A
   git commit -m "fix: [description of what was improved]
   
   Problem: [what was failing/degraded]
   Fix: [what was changed]
   Evidence: [log entries, error messages, success rates]"
   

   Open a PR:

   gh pr create --title "fix: [short description]" \
     --body "## Problem
   [What was failing or degraded — cite specific log entries or error messages]
   
   ## Fix
   [What was changed and why]
   
   ## Evidence
   - [Relevant log entries]
   - [Success rate before: X%]
   - [Error pattern: ...]"
   

6. Notify. Send via ./notify:

   self-improve: [what was fixed] — PR: [url]
   

7. Log. Append to memory/logs/${today}.md:

   ## Self Improve
   - **Target:** [what was improved]
   - **Problem:** [what was failing]
   - **Fix:** [what was changed]
   - **PR:** [url]
   

Guidelines

• ONE fix per run. Don't bundle unrelated changes.
• Smallest viable fix. A one-line prompt tweak > a full rewrite.
• If you can't find anything to improve, that's fine. Log "self-improve: everything looks healthy" and exit.
• Never modify workflow files (.github/workflows/) — only skill files, CLAUDE.md, and aeon.yml.
• Don't create circular improvements (e.g. don't improve self-improve).