Rulph

rulph

Iterative self-improvement skill driven by a user-defined rubric. Builds a scoring rubric interactively, evaluates an artifact with multiple models in parallel, then loops autonomously — improving one criterion at a time — until the score meets the threshold or the circuit breaker fires. No user interaction after Phase 1.

Phase 1: Rubric Building

Build an evaluation rubric through a 3-step interactive process before any scoring begins.

User interaction: Use the AskUserQuestion tool for all user-facing questions in this skill. This ensures the UI renders properly and waits for real user input.

Step 1 — Criteria Collection

Use AskUserQuestion to ask what they are evaluating and what criteria matter. Suggest common categories (code quality, writing quality, system design) but let them describe freely.

After the user responds, parse:

• Target: the artifact or output being evaluated (file path, text block, or description)
• Criteria: the named dimensions to score (extract from free text or selection)

Require a minimum of 2 criteria. If fewer than 2 are given, prompt again:

"Please provide at least 2 criteria so we can triangulate quality. What else matters?"

Rubric Validation — before proceeding, check each criterion:

• Warn on criteria that are not LLM-evaluable (e.g., "is it beautiful", "feels right", "gut check")

  "Warning: '[criterion]' is hard to score objectively. Consider rewording to something measurable, e.g., 'visual hierarchy is clear and consistent'."

• Block on purely subjective criteria only if the user cannot clarify after one prompt.

Step 2 — Rubric Draft Presentation

Generate a rubric draft based on the collected criteria. Assign equal weights by default.

Checklist Decomposition (default): Break each criterion into 5–10 yes/no sub-items. Score is computed as (checked / total) × 100. This eliminates evaluator interpretation variance.

Present the draft as a table with sub-items:

## Draft Rubric

| # | Criterion       | Weight | Sub-items (yes/no each)                                    |
|---|-----------------|--------|------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1 | [criterion]     | 25%    | □ [sub-item-1] · □ [sub-item-2] · □ [sub-item-3]          |
|   |                 |        | □ [sub-item-4] · □ [sub-item-5]                            |
|   |                 |        | score = (checked / 5) × 100                                |
| 2 | [criterion]     | 25%    | □ [sub-item-1] · □ [sub-item-2] · □ [sub-item-3]          |
|   |                 |        | □ [sub-item-4] · □ [sub-item-5] · □ [sub-item-6]          |
|   |                 |        | score = (checked / 6) × 100                                |

Sub-item design rules:

• Each sub-item must be binary observable — answerable with yes or no by reading the artifact
• Avoid subjective sub-items ("code is clean") — reword to observable ("all functions have explicit return types")
• Order sub-items from basic (easy to pass) to advanced (hard to pass)
• Unchecked sub-items automatically become improvement targets in Phase 3

Qualitative fallback: If a criterion genuinely cannot be decomposed into sub-items (e.g., "writing tone"), use level-based anchors instead:

| # | Criterion       | Weight | Scoring Guidance (0–100)                                   |
|---|-----------------|--------|------------------------------------------------------------|
| N | [criterion]     | 25%    | 0=absent · 25=minimal · 50=partial · 75=good · 100=full   |

Level-based anchors must have 5 levels (0/25/50/75/100) with one concrete observable indicator per level. 3-level anchors (0/50/80) are too coarse.

Each criterion gets:

• A 0–100 scoring range
• Either checklist sub-items (preferred) or 5-level anchors with observable indicators

Then use AskUserQuestion to confirm or modify (accept, adjust weights, edit criteria, or start over). Loop until the user accepts.

Weight validation: After any adjustment, verify sum(weights) == 100% (±1% tolerance for rounding). If invalid, prompt:

"Weights must sum to 100%. Current sum: [X]%. Please redistribute." Re-present the rubric table until weights are valid.

Step 3 — Threshold & Floor Setting

Use AskUserQuestion to ask two things:

1. Overall threshold (0–100): what overall score the artifact should reach before stopping. Suggest 70/80/90 as options. Default is 70 if the user doesn't specify.

2. Per-criterion floor (0–100): the minimum score that EACH individual criterion must meet, regardless of overall score. Suggest 50/60 as options. Default is 60 if the user doesn't specify. Set to 0 to disable.

Why floor matters: Without a floor, strong criteria can mask weak ones (e.g., overall 80 passes threshold 70, but one criterion scores 50). The floor ensures every dimension meets a minimum bar.

Rubric Summary (Evaluation Contract)

Display the final rubric before Phase 2 begins:

## Evaluation Contract

**Target**: [artifact description or path]
**Threshold**: [threshold]/100
**Per-criterion floor**: [floor]/100
**Max rounds**: 5
**Scoring method**: Checklist Decomposition

| # | Criterion   | Weight | Sub-items                              | Formula              |
|---|-------------|--------|----------------------------------------|----------------------|
| 1 | [criterion] | [W]%   | □ A · □ B · □ C · □ D · □ E           | (checked/5) × 100   |
| 2 | [criterion] | [W]%   | □ A · □ B · □ C · □ D                 | (checked/4) × 100   |
...

Pass condition: overall >= [threshold] AND every criterion >= [floor]
Rubric locked. Starting evaluation.

State init — write the loop state so the Stop hook can track progress. The state file is session-scoped to prevent cross-session interference:

Bash: SESSION_ID="[session ID from UserPromptSubmit hook]" && hoyeon-cli session set --sid $SESSION_ID --json '{"rulph": {"round": 0, "max_rounds": 5, "score": 0, "threshold": [threshold], "status": "active", "iteration": 0, "max_iterations": 15}}'

Replace [threshold] with the actual threshold value. The state is stored under the .rulph key in the session-scoped state.json. This file is read by the Stop hook to decide whether the loop should continue. The iteration/max_iterations fields are the Stop hook's safety counter — always preserve them in subsequent state updates.

Phase 2: Multi-Model Evaluation

Score the artifact independently using up to 3 models in parallel.

CLI Availability Check

Before scoring, check which CLIs are available:

Bash: command -v codex && command -v gemini

Model states: AVAILABLE (CLI found) / SKIPPED (not found) / DEGRADED (found but call failed).

Note: The 3rd evaluator (Claude) runs as a subagent — no CLI check needed.

Parallel Scoring

Score isolation rule: Pass only the current artifact content to each model. Do NOT include previous round scores, improvement history, or prior evaluation feedback.

Each evaluator receives the same prompt template with the rubric, artifact content, and required JSON output format:

## Rubric Evaluation Task

You are a strict evaluator. Score the artifact below using the provided rubric.
For each criterion, check every sub-item (yes/no) and compute: score = (checked / total) × 100.
Return ONLY a JSON object — no prose before or after.

## Rubric
[criterion list with weights and sub-items checklist]

## Artifact
[Full artifact content — read the file]

## Required Output Format
{
  "scores": { "[criterion]": <0-100>, ... },
  "checklist": { "[criterion]": { "[sub-item-1]": true/false, "[sub-item-2]": true/false, ... }, ... },
  "suggestions": { "[criterion]": "<one concrete action targeting an unchecked sub-item>", ... }
}

Launch all 3 evaluators in a single message using run_in_background: true:

# All 3 in ONE message — true parallel execution
Agent(subagent_type="general-purpose", run_in_background=true,
      description="Codex evaluator",
      prompt="Run: codex exec <<'PROMPT'\n[evaluation prompt with rubric + artifact]\nPROMPT")

Agent(subagent_type="general-purpose", run_in_background=true,
      description="Gemini evaluator",
      prompt="Run: gemini -p \"$(cat <<'PROMPT'\n[evaluation prompt with rubric + artifact]\nPROMPT)\"\n")

Agent(subagent_type="general-purpose", run_in_background=true,
      description="Claude evaluator",
      prompt="[evaluation prompt with rubric + artifact — subagent evaluates directly]")

After launching, wait for all 3 to complete (check TaskOutput for each background agent). Then proceed to Score Aggregation.

Score Aggregation

After all models complete (or fail):

Minimum model guarantee: If all 3 CLIs fail, fall back to main agent self-evaluation as a last resort. Score aggregation is guaranteed to have at least one model result.

Low confidence flag: If only 1 model is AVAILABLE, flag the round as LOW CONFIDENCE in the inline display. Single-model scores lack cross-validation.

1. For each criterion, compute the average score across AVAILABLE models only.
2. Compute the overall weighted average:

   overall = sum(criterion_avg[i] * weight[i]) for all i
   

3. Record per-model status: AVAILABLE / SKIPPED / DEGRADED.

Inline display:

📊 Score: XX/100 (Codex: XX | Gemini: XX | Claude: XX) — Threshold: [threshold] · Floor: [floor]
   [criterion_1]: XX  (Codex: XX, Gemini: XX, Claude: XX)
   [criterion_2]: XX  (Codex: XX, Gemini: XX, Claude: XX)  ⚠️ BELOW FLOOR
   ...
   Model status: Codex=AVAILABLE · Gemini=SKIPPED · Claude=AVAILABLE
   Floor violations: [list of criteria below floor, or "None"]

Convergence / Divergence Analysis:

If any two models differ by more than 20 points on the same criterion:

"Warning: Model disagreement on '[criterion]' (gap: XX pts). Scores may reflect differing interpretations of the rubric. Consider clarifying the scoring anchor for this dimension."

Improvement Suggestion Synthesis:

Collect suggestions from all AVAILABLE models. Prioritize the criterion with the lowest average score. Present the top suggestion per criterion, labeled by source model.

State update — after every scoring round, update the session-scoped state file (preserve iteration/max_iterations for the Stop hook's safety counter):

Bash: SESSION_ID="[session ID from UserPromptSubmit hook]" && hoyeon-cli session set --sid $SESSION_ID --json '{"rulph": {"round": [round], "score": [overall], "threshold": [threshold], "status": "active", "iteration": 0}}'

Replace [round], [overall], etc. with actual values. Note: iteration resets to 0 here — the Stop hook increments it each time it fires within a round, providing a per-round safety net.

Phase 3: Improvement Loop

Iteratively improve the artifact one criterion at a time until the threshold is met or the circuit breaker fires. No user interaction in this phase — the loop runs autonomously.

Initialize: round = 1, max_rounds = 5, score_history = []

Loop Structure

The initial Phase 2 scoring produces baseline scores. Phase 3 then runs this loop:

LOOP:
  1. Pass Check → if overall >= threshold AND all criteria >= floor → Phase 4 (PASSED)
  2. Circuit Breaker → if round > max_rounds → Phase 4 (CIRCUIT BREAKER)
  3. Improvement Dispatch (improve lowest criterion — floor violations first)
  4. Re-score (return to Phase 2)
  5. Append to score_history, round += 1
  6. Repeat from 1

Pass Check (Threshold + Floor)

below_floor = [c for c in criteria if c.score < floor]

if overall >= threshold AND len(below_floor) == 0:
  → Proceed to Phase 4 immediately (PASSED)

if len(below_floor) > 0:
  → Log: "Floor violation: [criterion] at [score] < floor [floor]. Auto-targeting for improvement."
  → Improvement target = lowest below-floor criterion (not lowest overall)

if overall < threshold AND len(below_floor) == 0:
  → Improvement target = lowest criterion (original behavior)

Floor priority: Floor violations take precedence over overall threshold. Even if overall >= threshold, a below-floor criterion blocks PASSED and triggers improvement.

Circuit Breaker Check

if round > max_rounds:
  → Proceed to Phase 4 immediately (result: CIRCUIT BREAKER)

Improvement Dispatch

Select the single lowest-scoring criterion (prevents scope creep). If multiple criteria tie for the lowest score, pick the one with the higher weight (greater impact on overall score).

Dispatch a worker agent:

Agent(subagent_type="worker",
     prompt="## Improvement Task — Round [round]

## Artifact
Location: [artifact file path or content block]

## Target Criterion
[criterion name]: current score [score]/100
Weight: [W]%

## Unchecked Sub-items (fix these)
[List each unchecked sub-item from the checklist — these are the specific gaps to close]

## Improvement Instructions
[Synthesized suggestions from all AVAILABLE models for this criterion]

## Constraint
Improve ONLY this criterion. Focus on the unchecked sub-items listed above.
Do not restructure or rewrite unrelated sections.
Return the improved artifact to the same location.")

After the worker completes:

1. Return to Phase 2 for re-scoring (which updates state file automatically)
2. Append to score history: score_history.append({ round, overall, per_criterion_scores, model_states })
3. Increment round counter: round += 1
4. Return to top of loop (Threshold Check)

Phase 4: Completion

State update — mark as completed so the Stop hook allows exit:

Bash: SESSION_ID="[session ID from UserPromptSubmit hook]" && hoyeon-cli session set --sid $SESSION_ID --json '{"rulph": {"status": "completed"}}'

Final Report

Display the complete evaluation summary:

## Rulph Final Report

**Artifact**: [artifact description or path]
**Rubric**: [N] criteria · threshold [threshold]/100 · floor [floor]/100
**Result**: [PASSED / CIRCUIT BREAKER]

### Score History

| Round | Overall | [C1] | [C2] | ... | Models Used         |
|-------|---------|------|------|-----|---------------------|
| 1     | XX      | XX   | XX   | ... | Codex, Claude       |
| 2     | XX      | XX   | XX   | ... | Codex, Claude       |
| ...   |         |      |      |     |                     |
| N     | XX      | XX   | XX   | ... | Codex, Claude       |

### Final Scores (Round [N])

| Criterion   | Weight | Score | Top Suggestion                        |
|-------------|--------|-------|---------------------------------------|
| [criterion] | [W]%   | XX    | [best suggestion from last round]     |
| ...         |        |       |                                       |

**Overall: [final_score]/100**
[PASSED threshold of [threshold] ✓ / Did not reach threshold — stopped at round N]

Auto-Save Report

Always save the rubric and scores automatically. Include the full report in the saved file.

SESSION_ID="[session ID from UserPromptSubmit hook]"
REPORT_DIR="$HOME/.hoyeon/$SESSION_ID/tmp/rulph"
Bash: mkdir -p "$REPORT_DIR"

Write to $REPORT_DIR/$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S)-report.md:
  [Full rubric definition]
  [Score history table]
  [Final scores table]
  [Model availability log per round]

Close with:

"Finished! Final score: [final_score]/100 after [N] round(s). Report saved to session tmp."

Prompt Hardening

• Never interpolate user input directly into CLI parameters. Always wrap artifact content and rubric text in a heredoc (<<'PROMPT' ... PROMPT). For Gemini, use gemini -p "$(cat <<'PROMPT' ... PROMPT)" to prevent shell injection. The Claude evaluator runs as a subagent so no CLI escaping is needed.
• Isolate artifact content from evaluator prompt. Rubric definition and artifact content must appear in separate labeled blocks.
• Score isolation. When re-evaluating after improvement, pass only the current artifact state. Strip prior scores, history, and suggestions from the evaluator prompt.