Self Improvement

Skill: Self-Improvement Pipeline

Purpose

Allows PHPBot to propose, build, and submit its own feature improvements as GitHub pull requests for community review.

Triggers

Use this skill when the user says any of:

• "improve yourself"
• "add a feature to yourself"
• "submit a feature"
• "make yourself better at ..."
• /feature <description>
• /feature status
• /feature withdraw <pr-number>

Pipeline Steps

When /feature <description> is invoked:

1. Classify — Determine the change type (skill, tool, or core) and risk tier using ProtectedPathGuard.
2. Branch — Create a new git branch phpbot/feat-<slug>-<date>.
3. Build — The bot implements the feature using its standard tools (write_file, edit_file, bash, etc.).
4. Smoke test — Validate with php -l, PHPStan (if available), and a bot self-test.
5. Commit & Push — Stage all changes, commit with a structured message, push to origin.
6. PR — Create a GitHub PR with the phpbot-self-improvement label and a review table.
7. Return to main — Switch the local branch back to main.
8. Notify — Inform the user of the PR URL and review requirements.

Risk Tiers

Passive Gap Detection

After each task completes, ImprovementDetector scores the run. If the score exceeds the threshold (complex task, many iterations, no matching skill, repeated errors), the bot will suggest:

"Tip: I noticed I could handle tasks like this more efficiently with a dedicated capability. Type /feature <description> to submit it for community review."

The user must explicitly confirm by running /feature — improvements are never submitted automatically.

Environment Variables