| name | continuous-learning |
| description | dev-squad-native instinct learning. Distills .dev-squad/observations.jsonl (captured deterministically by the observe-learning hook) into confidence-scored, project-scoped instinct files IN-SESSION (no headless daemon). Triggers at Phase 7 LEARN and on /dev-squad evolve. Graduates high-confidence instincts into skills/dev-squad-learned/. |
Continuous Learning - Instinct Distillation (dev-squad-native)
Why this exists
ECC's continuous-learning-v2 distills observations with a background Haiku agent. dev-squad cannot use that — the user is subscription-only (no API key for headless agents). So dev-squad keeps ECC's model (deterministic capture → confidence-scored instincts → graduation) but does the distillation in-session: the already-running coordinator reads the observation log and writes instincts. No daemon, no API key, no Python service.
The three tiers (this skill owns the middle one)
- Capture (deterministic, hook):
hooks/observe-learning.sh (PostToolUse) appends one JSONL line per tool call to .dev-squad/observations.jsonl. No LLM. Already running.
- Distill (in-session, THIS skill): at Phase 7 LEARN or on
/dev-squad evolve, read the observations, detect patterns, write/update instincts.
- Recall (deterministic, hook):
hooks/inject-workflow-state.sh (SubagentStart) injects high-confidence instincts (confidence >= 0.8) into every agent at start. Already running.
Instinct schema (.dev-squad/instincts/<id>.md)
---
id: prefer-pnpm-over-npm
trigger: "installing or running workspace scripts in this monorepo"
action: "use pnpm, not npm — npm install corrupts the workspace symlinks here"
domain: workflow # code-style|testing|debugging|git|workflow|security|db|frontend|backend|infra
confidence: 0.7 # 0.3 tentative .. 0.9 near-certain
scope: project
evidence_count: 4
last_seen: 2026-06-02
---
# Prefer pnpm over npm
## Action
Use `pnpm install` / `pnpm <script>`. `npm install` was observed to fail or corrupt state 4×.
## Evidence
- obs 2026-05-30: `npm install` -> err, then `pnpm install` -> ok
- obs 2026-06-01: same resolution
Distillation algorithm (run in-session)
- Read
.dev-squad/observations.jsonl. If absent/empty → nothing to learn, stop.
- Detect patterns (the three ECC instinct sources):
- Error→fix resolution: an
err:1 record on a command/signature followed later by an err:0 record on a similar signature → instinct "when {X} fails, do {Y}". This is the highest-value class for the "debugs wrong" problem — it captures fixes so they are not re-derived.
- Repeated workflow: the same tool+signature pattern appearing ≥3× → instinct encoding the established step.
- Convention: repeated Write/Edit to the same area with the same shape → a structural convention instinct.
- Write/update an instinct file per pattern:
- New pattern → create at
confidence: 0.3, evidence_count: 1.
- Seen-again pattern →
confidence += 0.1 (cap 0.9), evidence_count += 1, update last_seen.
- Contradicted (the established action later failed) →
confidence -= 0.2; drop the file if it falls below 0.2.
- Rotate: move processed lines to
.dev-squad/observations.archive/ so the log does not grow unbounded and observations are not double-counted.
- Log what was distilled to
.dev-squad/self-healing-log.md (or a learning-log.md) so the capture-enforcement hook sees a learning was recorded.
Confidence scoring (use the recursive-decision-ledger discipline)
Use dev-squad:recursive-decision-ledger for the evidence/promotion ledger: every distillation round records prior winner, fresh evidence, trial count, and a promotion-gate result. Confidence is evidence, not proof — an instinct at 0.9 is a strong default, never a certainty. Keep the evidence trail in each instinct's ## Evidence section so a wrong instinct can be audited and reversed.
| Score | Meaning | Behavior |
|---|
| 0.3 | tentative | recorded, NOT injected |
| 0.5 | moderate | recorded, NOT injected |
| 0.8 | strong | injected at SubagentStart; graduation-eligible |
| 0.9 | near-certain | injected; core project behavior |
Graduation (project instinct → reusable skill)
An instinct with confidence >= 0.8 AND evidence_count >= 3 is eligible to graduate into skills/dev-squad-learned/<slug>/SKILL.md (frontmatter learned: true + the source instinct id). Graduation is a manual gate (/dev-squad evolve proposes; a human confirms) — auto-generated skills are not trusted blind. This is the cross-project payoff: a pattern proven in one project becomes a reusable skill.
Scope
.dev-squad/instincts/ is project-scoped by construction (.dev-squad/ is per-project), so React conventions stay in the React project and Go conventions stay in the Go project — no cross-project contamination. Only graduated skills become global.
Git: commit .dev-squad/instincts/ (curated, reviewable knowledge). Gitignore .dev-squad/observations.jsonl and .dev-squad/observations.archive/ (transient raw capture — noise, and potentially command text you don't want in history).
