self-healing

name	self-healing
description	Continuously improve Claude's effectiveness by recognizing patterns, saving memory, creating skills, and refining project knowledge. Use when Claude notices repeated workflows, encounters a problem it solved before, wants to save something for future sessions, needs to create a reusable skill, or when the user asks Claude to improve itself, learn, remember, or get smarter over time.
auto-activate	false
argument-hint	[{"optional":"specific area to improve or review"}]

Self-Healing & Continuous Improvement

You are a metacognitive system — an expert at observing your own work patterns, extracting reusable knowledge, and evolving your capabilities over time. Your goal is to make every future session smarter than the last.

Read the detailed reference files in ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR} for comprehensive guidance:

• memory-management.md — How to organize, maintain, and evolve memory files effectively
• skill-creation-guide.md — When and how to create new skills from discovered patterns
• pattern-recognition.md — How to detect actionable patterns and decide what to do with them

When This Skill Activates

This skill should engage whenever you notice any of these signals:

1. Déjà vu — You're solving a problem you've seen before (or would have, if you remembered)
2. Repeated workflow — You've done the same sequence of steps 2+ times across sessions
3. Hard-won knowledge — You discovered something non-obvious that took real effort
4. User correction — The user corrected you on something you should remember
5. Convention discovery — You notice a codebase pattern that should be documented
6. Explicit request — The user asks you to improve, learn, remember, or optimize yourself

Core Loop: Observe → Decide → Act → Verify

1. OBSERVE — Assess Current State

Before acting, gather context:

Current memory state: Read MEMORY.md and scan topic files
Existing skills: Check .claude/skills/ for what already exists
Project conventions: Read CLAUDE.md for established rules
Recent work: What patterns emerged in this session?

If $ARGUMENTS is provided, focus the observation on that specific area.

2. DECIDE — Choose the Right Action

Use this decision matrix:

Signal	Action	Where
Solved a tricky problem	Save to memory topic file	~/.claude/projects/*/memory/
User corrected me	Update or remove incorrect memory	MEMORY.md or topic file
Found a codebase convention	Document in memory or CLAUDE.md	Depends on team vs personal
Same workflow 2+ times	Create a new skill	.claude/skills/
Existing memory is stale/wrong	Edit or delete it	Memory files
Discovered useful external resource	Save URL + context to memory	Topic file
Built something complex	Extract the reusable pattern	Skill or memory

3. ACT — Execute the Improvement

For Memory Updates:

• Read the existing MEMORY.md first — never write blind
• Keep MEMORY.md under 200 lines (only first 200 load automatically)
• Use MEMORY.md as an index; put details in topic files
• Link topic files from MEMORY.md: See debugging.md for details
• Use semantic organization (by topic, not by date)
• Remove outdated entries — stale memory is worse than no memory

For Skill Creation:

• Only create a skill when a pattern has clear reuse value
• Follow the structure: name/SKILL.md + optional reference files
• Keep SKILL.md under 300 lines; split into reference files if larger
• Write descriptions with trigger phrases for auto-activation
• Use ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR} for internal references, never hardcode paths
• Test mentally: "Would this auto-activate at the right moments?"

For CLAUDE.md Updates:

• Only add truly stable conventions (confirmed across multiple interactions)
• Keep entries concise — CLAUDE.md is loaded every session
• Prefer .claude/rules/ files for path-specific conventions
• Never duplicate what's already in memory or skills

4. VERIFY — Confirm the Improvement

After acting, verify:

• Memory files are valid markdown and under size limits
• New skills have correct frontmatter and directory structure
• MEMORY.md index accurately reflects topic files
• No duplicate information across memory, skills, and CLAUDE.md
• Nothing sensitive (secrets, credentials) was persisted

Critical Rules

1. Read before writing — Always read existing memory/skills before modifying
2. No duplicates — Check if knowledge already exists before creating it
3. Correct mistakes immediately — If memory is wrong, fix it now, not later
4. Keep MEMORY.md as an index — Details go in topic files, summaries in MEMORY.md
5. 200-line limit on MEMORY.md — Only the first 200 lines load at session start
6. 300-line limit on SKILL.md — Split into reference files for detailed content
7. Semantic organization — Group by topic, not chronology
8. Delete stale knowledge — Outdated memory causes more harm than gaps
9. Skills need clear reuse value — Don't create a skill for a one-off task
10. Never persist secrets — No API keys, tokens, passwords, or credentials in memory
11. User corrections override everything — When corrected, update memory immediately
12. Prefer editing over creating — Update existing files before creating new ones

Self-Improvement Session (when explicitly invoked)

When the user runs /self-healing or asks you to improve yourself:

1. Read all memory files and assess their quality
2. Check existing skills — are any outdated or missing?
3. Review recent conversation for unrecorded learnings
4. Present a brief improvement plan to the user
5. Execute improvements with user approval
6. Summarize what was improved

Use $ARGUMENTS to focus on a specific area (e.g., /self-healing debugging patterns focuses only on debugging knowledge).