Evolve

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.

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:

LEARNINGS_FILE=".orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl"
if [[ ! -f "$LEARNINGS_FILE" ]]; then
  mkdir -p "$(dirname "$LEARNINGS_FILE")"
  : > "$LEARNINGS_FILE"
  echo "info(#185): auto-created $LEARNINGS_FILE (was missing)" >&2
fi

This defensive step is idempotent and cheap — it ensures /evolve analyze|review|list never fails because of a missing artifact file.

1. 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."
2. Read .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl if it exists. If not found, check <state-dir>/metrics/learnings.jsonl as a legacy fallback.
3. 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 3.1b: Read Extra Sources (#638)

When evolve.extra-sources is configured in Session Config (default [] ⇒ this step is a no-op), /evolve consumes OUT-OF-BAND domain measurement sidecars to surface domain-regression learnings.

READ-ONLY contract: /evolve NEVER runs the domain measurement. The measurement (e.g. an eval-learn regression harness) runs elsewhere and writes a sidecar JSON; this step only READS that sidecar's output. Never shell out to produce the sidecar from here.

For each configured extra-sources entry {path, kind, learning-type}:

1. Read the sidecar at path (parser-validated as repo-relative, with absolute paths and .. escape segments dropped before this step, then resolved against the repo root). If the file is missing or unreadable, skip with a WARN (evolve: extra-source not found: <path>) — do not abort the whole run.
2. Schema-gate the sidecar against the kind's expected shape. For kind: regression-flags the schema is { flags: [ { metric, baseline, recent, delta } ] }. If the parsed JSON does not match (missing flags array, or a flag missing a required field), skip with a WARN (evolve: extra-source <path> failed regression-flags schema gate) — never guess at a different shape.
3. Emit one domain-regression learning candidate per flag that is PERSISTENT — i.e. the same metric regressed across ≥2 consecutive sessions (cross-reference prior sessions' sidecar reads or the existing learnings store for the same subject). A one-off flag is noise; only a persistent regression earns a candidate.
   • type: learning-type from the entry (registered enum value domain-regression)
   • subject: the flag's metric
   • insight: a human-readable regression statement (e.g. "metric <metric> regressed: baseline → recent (delta ) persisting across ≥2 sessions")
   • evidence: baseline → recent (the concrete data points from the sidecar)
   • confidence / expires_at: derived via the existing confidence + decay infrastructure (Step 3.5), exactly as for the built-in learning types. domain-regression carries a 60-day TTL (LEARNING_TTL_DAYS).
4. Candidates flow into the SAME Step 3.4 AskUserQuestion confirmation + Step 3.5 write path as the built-in learning types — there is no separate write path.

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
• Check wave quality fields — repeated failures indicate recurring issues
• Subject = issue pattern identifier (e.g., "test-failures-in-wave-execution", "lint-regressions")

4. scope-guidance (type: scope-guidance)

• Cross-reference effectiveness.planned_issues vs effectiveness.completion_rate
• Skip sessions that lack the effectiveness field (early sessions may not have it)
• If completion_rate is consistently 1.0 with N issues, note "N issues per session works well"
• If completion_rate < 0.7, note "scope was too large"
• Subject = optimal-scope-per-session-type

5. deviation-pattern (type: deviation-pattern)

Ownership Reference: See skills/_shared/state-ownership.md. evolve has read-only access to STATE.md.

• Read <state-dir>/STATE.md if it exists and check ## Deviations section
• Cross-reference with session duration vs planned waves
• Subject = pattern name (e.g., "scope-creep-in-feature-sessions", "underestimated-complexity")

6. stagnation-class-frequency (type: stagnation-class-frequency)

• Read stagnation_events from the most recent 5 sessions in sessions.jsonl (skip sessions lacking the field — they predate #84).
• For each (file, error_class) pair appearing in ≥2 sessions, extract a candidate:
  • Subject = <file>:<error_class> (e.g., skills/wave-executor/wave-loop.md:edit-format-friction)
  • Insight = "File has 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"
  • thermal-throttle — events whose resource_snapshot.cpu_load_pct crosses cpu-load-max-pct
• 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.

8. autopilot-effectiveness (type: autopilot-effectiveness)

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:

1. 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).

2. 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)

3. Apply confidence decrements for contradicted learnings (-0.2) — do NOT reset expires_at for contradicted learnings (let them decay naturally)

4. 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, domain-regression (#638 — only when sourced from evolve.extra-sources, see Step 3.1b)
   • 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)

5. 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.

6. Prune: remove entries where expires_at < current date OR confidence <= 0.0

7. 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.)

8. Write entire result back to .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl with > (atomic rewrite, NOT append >>)

9. 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). Pass --vault-name when vault-integration.vault-name is set in Session Config:

   EVOLVE_SESSION_ID="evolve-$(date -u +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M)"
   EVOLVE_VAULT_NAME=$(echo "$CONFIG" | jq -r '."vault-integration"."vault-name" // empty')
   node "$PLUGIN_ROOT/scripts/vault-mirror.mjs" \
     --vault-dir "<vault-dir>" \
     --source .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl \
     --kind learning \
     --session-id "$EVOLVE_SESSION_ID" \
     ${EVOLVE_VAULT_NAME:+--vault-name "$EVOLVE_VAULT_NAME"}
   

   d. Handle the exit code according to mode:

   • 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."

Step 3.6: C2 Auto-Repair Feeder (opt-in — #647)

Default OFF (advisory-only). With no skill-evolution: block in Session Config, this step surfaces repair candidates as ADVICE only — it applies nothing and opens no MR. This mirrors the opt-in precedent of slopcheck (#520) and verification-auto-fix (#521): the engine is dark unless explicitly enabled.

After confirmed learnings are written (Step 3.5), the actionable subset can feed the C2 tiered auto-repair engine (Epic #643 / issue #647). This is a pointer section — the modules own the logic; do not duplicate it here.

skill-evolution: is a DISTINCT sibling of the pre-existing evolve: block. evolve: (extra-sources) tunes learning EXTRACTION (Step 3.1b); skill-evolution: tunes repair AUTONOMY. They are parsed by different modules and never share keys — do not conflate them. The skill-evolution: block is parsed by scripts/lib/config/skill-evolution.mjs (_parseSkillEvolution) and surfaced at $CONFIG['skill-evolution'] (wired in scripts/lib/config.mjs). Shape: { autonomy: 'off'|'advisory'|'autonomous-gated', 'evidence-floor': number, judge: boolean }, default autonomy: 'off'. Do NOT add skill-evolution: as a column-0 key to any consolidated Session Config parity block — it is a standalone top-level block (claude-md-drift-check Check-6 enforces parity only on the ## Session Config keys).

Candidate intake. Pass the post-Step-3.5 learnings (and, when available, the claude-md-drift-check result) to extractCandidates({ learnings, driftResult, evidenceFloor: $CONFIG['skill-evolution']['evidence-floor'], now }) from scripts/lib/skill-evolution/candidate-intake.mjs. It is a pure transform — only actionable, non-expired learnings whose confidence ≥ evidence-floor AND whose insight is prescriptive AND resolves to a repo-relative path become RepairCandidates.

Gate per artifact type. Each candidate's target_path is classified by classifyTarget(target_path, { repoRoot }) from scripts/lib/skill-evolution/blast-radius-classifier.mjs (the heart of the design; path-traversal-safe, fail-closed):

Only ROOT-instruction Session Config edits are eligible for autonomous apply, and only when ALL of: runConfigValidationGate({ repoRoot }) (scripts/lib/skill-evolution/config-validation-gate.mjs) is GREEN (parse-config + config-schema + claude-md-drift-check) AND evidence ≥ evidence-floor AND autonomy: autonomous-gated. Skill repairs are MR-only by construction.

Invocation contract (this foundation slice = ADVISORY surfacing). The single orchestrator that ties intake → classify → gate → route → stamp together is runRepairEngine({ repoRoot, config, learnings, driftResult, dryRun }) from scripts/lib/skill-evolution/engine.mjs — it returns { outcomes, summary } and applies the full gate-per-artifact-type decision matrix internally (autonomy: off ⇒ every outcome is advisory-only). In the default/advisory posture, /evolve SURFACES candidates and their classification only — it does not apply or open MRs. Apply is gated on the config-validation gate above; MR-opening (openRepairMr({ candidate, diff, repoRoot, dryRun }) from scripts/lib/skill-evolution/mr-opener.mjs) is gated on autonomy != off. Candidate de-dup / processed_at lifecycle is owned by scripts/lib/skill-evolution/idempotency.mjs. When autonomy: off (default), report the surfaced candidates as advice and stop.

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. Include the Effective column — the recency-decayed surfacing score (#670) — so stale high-confidence entries are visible as decay candidates next to their static confidence:

## Active Learnings

| # | Type | Subject | Confidence | Effective | Expires | Insight |
|---|------|---------|------------|-----------|---------|---------|
| 1 | fragile-file | src/lib/auth.ts | 0.80 | 0.78 | 2026-07-05 | Changed in 4 of last 5 sessions |
| 2 | effective-sizing | feature-session-sizing | 0.65 | 0.61 | 2026-06-20 | Feature sessions work well with 3 agents/wave |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |

Summary: N active learnings (M high confidence, K expiring soon)

Effective (decayed) score — #670. Retrieval/surfacing ranks by an effectiveScore = max(confidence × 0.5^(ageDays / halfLifeDays), confidence × floorFactor) blend, NOT raw confidence. ageDays derives from last_reinforced / last_accessed / updated_at when present, else created_at. So a stale high-confidence learning ranks below a fresh mid-confidence one, while the floorFactor (default 0.1) guarantees a durable learning never collapses to ~0. Tuned under the existing evolve: Session Config block (decay-enabled: true, decay-half-life-days: 90, decay-floor-factor: 0.1 — all conservative defaults; set decay-enabled: false to restore pure-confidence ordering). Implemented in scripts/lib/learnings/surface.mjs (effectiveScore + surfaceTopN). The confidence FILTER (> 0.3) is unchanged — decay re-ranks survivors, it does not change eligibility.

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:

1. Read all lines from learnings.jsonl
2. 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
3. Prune entries where expires_at < current date OR confidence <= 0.0
4. 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.
5. 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:

Mutex check: --apply + --dry-run together = error "flags mutually exclusive".

Step 6.1: Pre-checks

• Bootstrap gate (Phase 0) — already executed
• Persistence check (Phase 1.2) — already executed
• 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):

1. Top-N learnings from .orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl (default 50, sorted by confidence DESC)
2. Last-K sessions from .orchestrator/metrics/sessions.jsonl (default 10, sorted by completed_at DESC)
3. Peer cards via readPeerCards(repoRoot) from scripts/lib/peer-cards/reader.mjs — returns {user, agent} or null
4. Project steering files (CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md Session Config block + narratives)

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):

const dispatchAgent = async ({ model, prompt, maxTokens }) => {
  // Coordinator uses Agent tool with subagent_type: "session-orchestrator:dialectic-deriver"
  // and the model parameter to invoke the right tier
  const result = await Agent({
    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 Claude Code harness `Agent()` tool does not currently accept a `max_tokens` parameter. Output-token budget is therefore enforced via prompt text (see line 414 in `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 = await runDialecticDeriver({
  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