Use this skill when extracting session patterns into reusable learnings. Three modes: analyze (extract from session history), review (edit/manage existing learnings), list (display active learnings). Manages .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl.
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[{"flag":"--apply","description":"Apply dialectic-derived diff to USER.md + AGENT.md"},{"flag":"--dry-run","description":"Show diff without writing (default)"},{"flag":"--model <name>","description":"Override single-pass LLM (haiku|sonnet|opus)"},{"flag":"--budget-tokens <N>","description":"Token budget for derivation prompt (default 8000)"}]
description
Use this skill when extracting session patterns into reusable learnings. Three modes: analyze (extract from session history), review (edit/manage existing learnings), list (display active learnings). Manages .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl.
Platform Note: State files use the platform's native directory: .claude/ (Claude Code), .codex/ (Codex CLI), or .cursor/ (Cursor IDE). Shared metrics live in .orchestrator/metrics/ (v2) with fallback to <state-dir>/metrics/ for pre-v2.0 legacy data. See skills/_shared/platform-tools.md.
Evolve Skill
Phase 0: Bootstrap Gate
Read skills/_shared/bootstrap-gate.md and execute the gate check. If the gate is CLOSED, invoke skills/bootstrap/SKILL.md and wait for completion before proceeding. If the gate is OPEN, continue to Phase 1.
Do NOT proceed past Phase 0 if GATE_CLOSED. There is no bypass. Refer to `skills/_shared/bootstrap-gate.md` for the full HARD-GATE constraints.
Phase 1: Config & Data Loading
1.1 Read Session Config
Read and parse Session Config per skills/_shared/config-reading.md. Store result as $CONFIG.
1.2 Check Persistence
Extract persistence from $CONFIG. If persistence is false, abort with message:
"Learnings require persistence to be enabled in Session Config. Add persistence: true to your Session Config block (CLAUDE.md for Claude Code, AGENTS.md for Codex CLI)."
1.3 Determine Mode
Read mode from $ARGUMENTS:
If empty or not provided, default to analyze
Valid modes: analyze, review, list, dialectic
If invalid mode provided, report error and list valid modes
1.4 Load Data
Lazy-create defensive (#185): If .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl does not exist (pre-#185 repo or bootstrap skipped), create an empty file and emit an info log — do NOT hard-fail:
This defensive step is idempotent and cheap — it ensures /evolve analyze|review|list never fails because of a missing artifact file.
Read .orchestrator/metrics/sessions.jsonl (session history). If it does not exist, check <state-dir>/metrics/sessions.jsonl as a legacy fallback (where <state-dir> is .claude/, .codex/, or .cursor/ per platform). If neither exists, warn: "No session history found. Run at least one session first."
Read .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl if it exists. If not found, check <state-dir>/metrics/learnings.jsonl as a legacy fallback.
Count existing learnings, note any where expires_at < current date (expired)
Phase 2: Mode Dispatch
Route based on mode:
analyze → Phase 3
review → Phase 4
list → Phase 5
dialectic → Phase 6
Phase 3: Analyze Mode (default)
Extract learnings from session history.
Vault Integration: If vault-integration.enabled is true in Session Config, confirmed learnings are mirrored to the configured Obsidian vault after the atomic write (Step 3.5, step 9). See docs/session-config-reference.md for the vault-integration config block.
Step 3.1: Read Session Data
Read all entries from .orchestrator/metrics/sessions.jsonl (or <state-dir>/metrics/sessions.jsonl if the v2 path does not exist — see Phase 1.4 fallback)
Parse each JSONL line as JSON
Sort by completed_at descending (most recent first)
If no sessions found, abort: "No session data available. Complete at least one session before running evolve."
Step 3.2: Pattern Extraction
For each of the 8 learning types, apply these heuristics:
1. fragile-file (type: fragile-file)
Look at wave data: if the same file appears in 3+ waves' files_changed within a session, it is fragile
Cross-session: if a file appears in 3+ different sessions' files_changed, flag it
Subject = file path (relative to project root)
2. effective-sizing (type: effective-sizing)
Compare total_agents and total_waves across session types
Calculate average agents per wave for each session type
Subject = canonical identifier like deep-session-sizing or feature-session-sizing
Insight = "Deep sessions average X agents across Y waves" or "Feature sessions work well with X agents/wave"
3. recurring-issue (type: recurring-issue)
Look at agent_summary — if failed or partial > 0 across multiple sessions, flag
Insight = "File has <error_class> stagnation in recent sessions — candidate for pre-edit grounding (#85)."
Evidence = " sessions with stagnation_events for this file/class"
These learnings feed #85 (pre-edit grounding injection) when it ships — high-frequency pairs trigger grounding.
7. hardware-pattern (type: hardware-pattern)
v3.1.0 / Sub-Epic #160 (C2, issue #171). Keyed on host_class rather than project — surfaces hardware-bound problems that affect the user across every repo on the same machine. Complements the project-keyed types above.
Read .orchestrator/metrics/events.jsonl (session + wave events) and the registry sweep.log at ~/.config/session-orchestrator/sessions/sweep.log. Both are optional — missing files produce no candidates.
Invoke scripts/lib/hardware-pattern-detector.mjs → detectHardwarePatterns({events, sweepLogEntries, thresholds}). Thresholds come from Session Config resource-thresholds when present, falling back to DEFAULT_THRESHOLDS.
Five detection signals (aggregated per (signal, host_class) pair, ≥2 occurrences required):
oom-kill — orchestrator.session.stopped with exit_code: 137 or OOM-marker in error
heartbeat-gap — registry sweep-log entries with gap_minutes above resource-thresholds.zombie-threshold-min
concurrent-session-pressure — session-start events with peer_count ≥ concurrent-sessions-warn
disk-full — events whose error matches ENOSPC / "no space left"
Each candidate is piped through candidateToLearning() → validateLearning(). Default scope is private (in-repo only). To promote to public, the user runs npm run share:hw-learnings -- --promote (C3 export). This anonymizes each private hardware-pattern entry, validates via the privacy contract, and appends a public twin to learnings.jsonl (original preserved). Use --dry-run to preview without writing.
Subject convention: <signal>::<host_class> (e.g., oom-kill::macos-arm64-m3pro). The :: separator avoids colliding with project-keyed subjects.
Confidence starts at 0.5 like other learning types, but decay is slower in practice: hardware stays the same longer than code. This is an emergent property of the existing expire-after-N-days policy applied to a mostly-stable host_class — no special-casing needed.
Presentation in step 3.5 (see below): render hardware-patterns in a dedicated section titled ## Hardware Patterns (keyed on host_class) after the project-keyed patterns. This makes the source of the learning obvious to the user at confirmation time.
v3.2 Autopilot / Sub-Epic #271 (issue #298). Compares manual vs. autopilot session outcomes per mode (housekeeping, feature, deep) so the loop can learn whether walk-away runs preserve quality. Complements the project-keyed and hardware-keyed types above.
Read .orchestrator/metrics/autopilot.jsonl (one record per autopilot loop run) and.orchestrator/metrics/sessions.jsonl (manual + autopilot session outcomes). Both are optional — missing files produce no candidates.
Invoke scripts/lib/evolve/autopilot-effectiveness.mjs → analyze(autopilotRuns, sessions). The module pairs records by mode and compares completion-rate, carryover-rate, kill-switch frequency, and quality-gate pass-rate between the two populations.
Data-gating contract: the analyzer requires ≥20 paired manual+autopilot runs per mode before emitting any candidates. Below that threshold the function returns [] (empty input contract) — evolve simply skips this type for that mode and reports nothing. This prevents premature conclusions from small samples (#297 calibration depends on the same threshold).
Subject convention: <mode>-manual-vs-autopilot (e.g., housekeeping-manual-vs-autopilot, feature-manual-vs-autopilot, deep-manual-vs-autopilot). One subject per mode that crosses threshold.
Insight = "Autopilot sessions complete at % vs. manual % (Δ pp across N pairs)" or analogous carryover/kill-switch framing when those signals dominate.
Confidence starts at 0.5 like other learning types; lifecycle ±0.15 / -0.20 via the existing dedupe-and-update infrastructure in Step 3.3 — no special-casing.
Each candidate is piped through candidateToLearning() → validateLearning() exactly like the other types. Default scope is private (autopilot RUN data is per-host until the user opts in to share). (refs #298)
Step 3.2b: Zero Patterns Check
If no patterns were extracted across all 8 types, report: "No patterns found in session history. This can happen with very few sessions or sessions that lack detailed wave/agent data." and skip to end (do not proceed to AskUserQuestion).
Step 3.3: Deduplicate Against Existing Learnings
For each extracted pattern, check if a learning with same type + subject already exists in learnings.jsonl:
If exists: propose confidence update (+0.15 if confirmed by new evidence, -0.2 if contradicted)
If new: propose as new learning with confidence 0.5
Step 3.4: Present Findings via AskUserQuestion
Present extracted patterns to the user for confirmation. Use AskUserQuestion with multiSelect: true:
On Codex CLI where AskUserQuestion is unavailable, present as a numbered Markdown list.
AskUserQuestion({
questions: [{
question: "Which learnings should be saved?\n\nExtracted patterns from session history:",
header: "Evolve — Confirm Learnings",
options: [
{
label: "[type] subject",
description: "insight | evidence: ... | confidence: 0.5 (new) or +0.15 (update)"
},
...
{
label: "Skip all",
description: "Do not save any learnings this time"
}
],
multiSelect: true
}]
})
If user selects "Skip all" or selects nothing, abort gracefully: "No learnings saved."
Step 3.5: Write Confirmed Learnings
For confirmed learnings, use atomic rewrite strategy:
Read ALL existing lines from .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl (if exists) into memory. If not found, check <state-dir>/metrics/learnings.jsonl as a legacy fallback. If legacy data is found, it will be migrated to the v2 path on write (step 8).
Apply confidence updates for confirmed existing learnings:
Increment confidence by +0.15
Cap at 1.0
Reset expires_at to current date + learning-expiry-days (default: 30)
Apply confidence decrements for contradicted learnings (-0.2) — do NOT reset expires_at for contradicted learnings (let them decay naturally)
Append new learnings with the canonical schema_version:1 shape — every field is required (#303):
schema_version: 1 (integer, ALWAYS — never omit)
id: UUID v4 string generated via node -e "const {randomUUID}=require('crypto');process.stdout.write(randomUUID())" or uuidgen | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'. MUST be a non-empty UUID string. Never omit — missing id causes 100% mirror-skip (#303).
type: one of fragile-file, effective-sizing, recurring-issue, scope-guidance, deviation-pattern, stagnation-class-frequency, hardware-pattern, autopilot-effectiveness
subject: the pattern subject
insight: human-readable description of the pattern. MUST be insight — do NOT use description or recommendation (legacy alias keys that vault-mirror cannot read; see #303).
evidence: specific data points that support the pattern
confidence: 0.5 for new learnings
source_session: non-empty kebab-slug string identifying the session from which the pattern was extracted (e.g. main-2026-04-27-1942). MUST be a string — never an object, array, number, or null. If multiple sessions contributed, use the earliest. If unknown, use "unknown" (the string). Never pass String(<object>) — that yields "[object Object]" and breaks the YAML mirror downstream (#307). Optional pre-write validation: jq -e 'select(.source_session | type == "string" and length > 2)'.
created_at: current ISO 8601 date
expires_at: current date + learning-expiry-days (default: 30) (ISO 8601)
Verify write: Read back the first line of the written file to confirm valid JSON. If read-back fails or is not valid JSON, report error to user.
Prune: remove entries where expires_at < current date OR confidence <= 0.0
Consolidate duplicates (NULL-SUBJECT SAFE): if same type + subject appears more than once
AND subject is a non-empty string, keep the entry with highest confidence.
Entries with null/empty/missing subject are NEVER collapsed — each is keyed by its unique id
and always preserved. (Fix for issue #284: empty-subject dedupe collapse.)
Write entire result back to .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl with > (atomic rewrite, NOT append >>)
Vault mirror (conditional): Check $CONFIG."vault-integration".enabled via jq. If the field is missing or false, skip this step entirely — skill behavior is unchanged.
If enabled is true:
a. Check $CONFIG."vault-integration".mode. If mode is off, skip the mirror invocation (treat as disabled). If mode is absent, default to warn.
b. Resolve the vault directory: use $CONFIG."vault-integration"."vault-dir" if non-null, otherwise fall back to the $VAULT_DIR environment variable. If neither is set, emit a warning and skip.
c. Invoke the mirror script. Derive a synthetic EVOLVE_SESSION_ID so the vault-mirror auto-commit phase (#31) produces a traceable commit subject (chore(vault): mirror evolve-<date> — N learnings + 0 sessions):
warn (default): on non-zero exit, surface a warning in evolve output (e.g. "Warning: vault mirror failed — learnings saved locally but not mirrored.") but do NOT fail the skill.
strict: on non-zero exit, fail the skill immediately and report the error to the user.
e. On success (exit 0), report: "Mirrored N learnings to <vault-dir>/40-learnings/."
Report: "Saved N new learnings, updated M existing. Total active: K."
Phase 4: Review Mode
Interactive management of existing learnings.
Step 4.1: Load Learnings
Read .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl. If not found, check <state-dir>/metrics/learnings.jsonl as a legacy fallback.
If neither exists or both are empty: "No learnings found. Run /evolve analyze first."
Parse each line as JSON
Step 4.2: Display Learnings
Present a formatted table grouped by type:
## Active Learnings
| # | Type | Subject | Confidence | Expires | Insight |
|---|------|---------|------------|---------|---------|
| 1 | fragile-file | src/lib/auth.ts | 0.80 | 2026-07-05 | Changed in 4 of last 5 sessions |
| 2 | effective-sizing | feature-session-sizing | 0.65 | 2026-06-20 | Feature sessions work well with 3 agents/wave |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
Summary: N active learnings (M high confidence, K expiring soon)
Step 4.3: Interactive Management
Use AskUserQuestion with options:
On Codex CLI where AskUserQuestion is unavailable, present as a numbered Markdown list.
AskUserQuestion({
questions: [{
question: "What would you like to do with your learnings?",
header: "Evolve — Review",
options: [
{ label: "Boost confidence", description: "Select learnings to boost (+0.15)" },
{ label: "Reduce confidence", description: "Select learnings to reduce (-0.2)" },
{ label: "Delete specific learnings", description: "Select learnings to remove" },
{ label: "Extend expiry", description: "Reset expires_at by learning-expiry-days from now" },
{ label: "Done — no changes", description: "Exit without changes" }
]
}]
})
If user selects "Boost confidence", "Reduce confidence", "Delete specific learnings", or "Extend expiry", present a follow-up AskUserQuestion with multiSelect: true listing all learnings by # | type | subject so the user can select which ones to modify.
On Codex CLI where AskUserQuestion is unavailable, present as a numbered Markdown list.
Step 4.4: Apply Changes
Use the same atomic rewrite strategy as Phase 3, Step 3.5:
Read all lines from learnings.jsonl
Apply the selected operation to selected learnings:
Boost: +0.15 confidence (cap 1.0), reset expires_at to +learning-expiry-days
Reduce: -0.2 confidence
Delete: remove selected entries
Extend: reset expires_at to current date + learning-expiry-days
Prune entries where expires_at < current date OR confidence <= 0.0
Consolidate duplicates (same type + non-empty subject): keep highest confidence.
Null-subject entries are preserved individually (keyed by id). See SKILL.md #284 fix note.
Write entire result back with > (atomic rewrite)
Report: "Updated N learnings. Total active: K."
Phase 5: List Mode
Simple read-only display.
Step 5.1: Load and Display
Read .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl. If not found, check <state-dir>/metrics/learnings.jsonl as a legacy fallback.
If neither exists: "No learnings yet. Run /evolve analyze to extract patterns from session history."
Parse each line as JSON
Step 5.2: Formatted Output
Display a formatted table grouped by type:
## Active Learnings
### fragile-file
| Subject | Confidence | Expires | Insight |
|---------|------------|---------|---------|
| ... | ... | ... | ... |
### effective-sizing
| Subject | Confidence | Expires | Insight |
|---------|------------|---------|---------|
| ... | ... | ... | ... |
(repeat for each type that has entries)
Step 5.3: Summary
Display summary line:
N active learnings (M high confidence, K expiring soon)
High confidence = confidence > 0.7
Expiring soon = expires_at within 14 days of current date
Phase 6: Dialectic Mode
Single-pass LLM derivation of USER.md + AGENT.md (peer cards from #503) updates from current learnings + sessions + steering files. Dry-run-default per #506 EARS contract.
Step 6.0: Argument Parsing
Parse $ARGUMENTS for trailing flags after the dialectic keyword:
Flag
Default
Behavior
--apply
false
Write diff to USER.md/AGENT.md via merger.mjs; without it = dry-run
--dry-run
true
Explicit dry-run (default); mutually exclusive with --apply
--model <name>
from Session Config dialectic.model (default haiku)
Override LLM
--budget-tokens <N>
from Session Config dialectic.budget-tokens (default 8000)
Cadence check: if invoked via session-end Phase 3.6.7 auto-trigger, the trigger has already pre-checked cadence. For manual invocation, skip cadence — manual always runs.
Step 6.2: Data Load
Read all 4 input sources via runDialecticDeriver() from scripts/dialectic-deriver.mjs (see W2 I1):
Top-N learnings from .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl (default 50, sorted by confidence DESC)
Last-K sessions from .orchestrator/metrics/sessions.jsonl (default 10, sorted by completed_at DESC)
Peer cards via readPeerCards(repoRoot) from scripts/lib/peer-cards/reader.mjs — returns {user, agent} or null
Graceful degradation: any null/empty source is acceptable. If ALL inputs empty → return {status: 'empty-input'}.
Step 6.3: Dispatch the Deriver Agent
Construct a dispatchAgent function that uses the harness Agent tool to invoke the dialectic-deriver agent (see agents/dialectic-deriver.md):
constdispatchAgent = async ({ model, prompt, maxTokens }) => {
// Coordinator uses Agent tool with subagent_type: "session-orchestrator:dialectic-deriver"// and the model parameter to invoke the right tierconst result = awaitAgent({
description: "Dialectic-deriver LLM pass",
subagent_type: "session-orchestrator:dialectic-deriver",
model,
prompt,
});
return { text: result.text, usage: result.usage ?? { input_tokens: 0, output_tokens: 0 } };
};
> **Why`maxTokens` is not passed to Agent():** the ClaudeCode harness `Agent()` tool does not currently accept a `max_tokens` parameter. Output-token budget is therefore enforced via prompt text (see line 414in`skills/session-end/SKILL.md`: "with budget ${budget-tokens} input + 4000 output tokens"). The dispatchAgent contract declares `maxTokens`as the canonical interface; the evolve skill destructures it for forward-compat but routes enforcement through the prompt body. When the harness adds a max_tokens hint, this dispatchAgent becomes the single update point.
const result = awaitrunDialecticDeriver({
dispatchAgent,
repoRoot: process.cwd(),
model: argv.model ?? config.dialectic?.model ?? 'haiku',
budget: { input: argv['budget-tokens'] ?? config.dialectic?.['budget-tokens'] ?? 8000, output: 4000 },
dryRun: !argv.apply,
allowEmptying: argv['allow-emptying'] ?? false,
});
Step 6.4: Diff Output & Apply Gate
If dry-run (default): present diff inline; write to .orchestrator/dialectic-pending.md (atomic tmp+rename); EXIT. Suggestion: "Re-run with /evolve --dialectic --apply to apply."
If --apply: call mergePeerCard(existingBody, managedUpdates) from scripts/lib/peer-cards/merger.mjs for each card target, then writePeerCard(repoRoot, 'user', mergedUserCard) and writePeerCard(repoRoot, 'agent', mergedAgentCard) from scripts/lib/peer-cards/writer.mjs. Update the updated: frontmatter.
Report: Dialectic-derived: M deltas to USER.md, N deltas to AGENT.md. Dry-run | Applied. Tokens: in=<X> out=<Y>.
Step 6.5: Error Handling
status: 'unknown-model' → fail with clear error (already thrown by validateModel)
status: 'budget-exceeded' → emit {status:'budget-exceeded', used:N, budget:M}, do NOT truncate
status: 'would-empty-card' → warn + require --allow-emptying flag
status: 'empty-input' → exit clean with message "dialectic: skipped (no input)"
subagent crash → log ⚠, exit cleanly (do NOT write to .orchestrator/dialectic-pending.md)
Cross-reference: PRD #506 AC1-AC4 + EARS gates. Vault Integration: dialectic does NOT mirror to vault (#506 scope — peer cards are repo-local by design; vault mirror is for cross-repo sessions/learnings).
Critical Rules
NEVER modify learnings.jsonl without reading it first — race condition prevention
NEVER skip the deduplication check — duplicates degrade the intelligence system
NEVER write learnings without user confirmation — always present via AskUserQuestion first (on Codex CLI where AskUserQuestion is unavailable, present as a numbered Markdown list)
ALWAYS use uuid-v4 for new learning IDs (generate via uuidgen or equivalent bash command)
ALWAYS set expires_at to current date + learning-expiry-days from config (default: 30) for new learnings
ALWAYS present findings to user before writing — no silent writes
ALWAYS use atomic rewrite (read all, modify, write all with >) — never append with >>
ALWAYS cap confidence at 1.0 — never exceed
Anti-Patterns
DO NOT write learnings without user confirmation — always present via AskUserQuestion first (on Codex CLI where AskUserQuestion is unavailable, present as a numbered Markdown list)
DO NOT append to learnings.jsonl — always use atomic rewrite (read all, modify, write all)
DO NOT create duplicate learnings — always check type + subject match first
DO NOT set confidence above 1.0 or forget to cap it
DO NOT fabricate patterns — only extract from actual session data with verifiable evidence
DO NOT skip the pruning step — expired and zero-confidence entries must be removed on every write
