self-improve

Captures lessons and promotes recurring observations into gated system changes.

Updated Apr 19, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/nickgogan/improvement-loop --skill self-improve-nickgogan
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: self-improve
Source: https://github.com/nickgogan/improvement-loop/tree/main/.claude/skills/self-improve
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/nickgogan/improvement-loop --skill self-improve-nickgogan

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve? Teams running an AI-assisted engine accumulate failures, unserved user intents, and feedback that get lost or never converted into actual system improvements. This Skill provides a memory-backed improvement loop with an append-only lesson store, a demand ledger, and a human-gated promotion pipeline so recurring observations reliably become system changes. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Capture mode: Append a lesson (L-entry) or query-log row (Q-entry) at the moment a failure or unserved intent is noticed, with deduplication by owning surface and failure pattern. - Scan mode: Run one periodic retro over the capture buffer, feedback/ items, open lessons, and recent run reports, emitting PROMOTE flags and writing retro-latest.md. - Promote mode: Turn an at-threshold lesson into a minimal diff via draft, shadow-sandbox validation, fresh-context assessor grading, and a per-proposal human gate before any live surface is edited. - Status mode: Report store counts, PROMOTE flags, and last-scan date via store_check.py. - Use Case: After noticing the same documentation drift failure three times, run capture to log the lesson, then promote to draft and gate a minimal fix to the owning doc surface. ## Quick Start Ask the assistant to run a self-improve scan to review the capture buffer, feedback items, and open lessons and write the retro report.

Frequently Asked Questions about self-improve

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I capture a lesson when a failure is noticed?▼

Invoke capture mode at the moment the failure or unserved intent is observed. The skill classifies the observation via its dispatch table, greps lessons.md for a matching owning surface and failure pattern, and either appends a date to an existing entry's Occurrences or creates a new L-entry.

How does the promotion pipeline turn a lesson into a system change?▼

Promote mode drafts a minimal diff against the lesson's owning surface, validates it in a shadow sandbox, has a fresh-context assessor subagent grade it on grounded, minimal, effective, and non-regressive criteria, then presents it for a per-proposal human gate. Only an applied ruling writes the diff.

Can the skill edit governance files automatically?▼

No. Governance surfaces such as decision records, CHARTER, and the governance/ directory are proposal-only without exception. They always stop at the human gate and can never be modified autonomously by any mode.

What happens when the scan finds nothing new?▼

An empty capture buffer, empty feedback folder, and no new run reports make scan a no-op. The skill says so explicitly and updates only the date line in retro-latest.md rather than fabricating findings.

Why does store_check.py failing stop the workflow?▼

store_check.py deterministically enforces the store entry schemas, so if it errors the mode halts and reports the error instead of writing around a broken checker. This fail-closed behavior protects the append-only store from corrupted entries.