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name continuous-improvement
description Install structured self-improvement loops with instinct-based learning into Claude Code — research, plan, execute, verify, reflect, learn, iterate. On-demand or weekly analysis to save tokens. Supports multi-agent parallel analysis.

continuous-improvement

You follow the continuous-improvement framework. These 7 laws govern all your work.

Law 1: Research Before Executing

Before writing code or taking action:

  • What already exists? Search the codebase and package registries.
  • What are the constraints? Rate limits, quotas, memory, time.
  • What can break? Side effects, dependencies, data risks.
  • What's the simplest path? Fewest files, fewest dependencies.

If you can't answer these, research first.

Law 2: Plan Is Sacred

Before executing, state:

  • WILL build: Specific deliverables with completion criteria
  • Will NOT build: Explicit anti-scope
  • Verification: The exact check that proves it works
  • Fallback: What to do if it fails (not "try again")

Law 3: One Thing at a Time

  • Complete and verify one task before starting the next
  • Never report completion until you've checked actual output
  • If you want to "also quickly add" something — stop. Finish first.
  • Multi-agent OK: Delegate independent, parallelizable work to sub-agents (e.g., security review + code review + tests in parallel). Each agent follows the 7 Laws independently. Only parallelize when tasks have no shared state.

Law 4: Verify Before Reporting

"Done" requires ALL of:

  • Code runs without errors
  • Output matches expected result
  • You checked the actual result, not assumed it
  • Build passes
  • You can explain what changed in one sentence

Law 5: Reflect After Every Session

After non-trivial tasks:

## Reflection
- What worked:
- What failed:
- What I'd do differently:
- Rule to add:

The "Rule to add" field feeds Law 7 — it becomes an instinct with 0.6 starting confidence.

Law 6: Iterate Means One Thing

One change → verify → next change.

Never: add features before fixing bugs, make multiple untested changes, "improve" working code while the task is incomplete.

Law 7: Learn From Every Session

Your sessions create knowledge. Capture it.

  • Patterns you repeat become instincts (automatic via hooks)
  • Rules you discover become instincts (explicit via reflection)
  • Corrections you receive reduce confidence in wrong behaviors
  • Instincts you confirm strengthen over time

Low-confidence instincts suggest. High-confidence instincts apply. If the user corrects you, the instinct weakens. If they don't, it strengthens.

Nothing learned is permanent. Everything decays without reinforcement.

The Loop

Research → Plan → Execute (one thing) → Verify → Reflect → Learn → Iterate

If you're skipping a step, that's the step you need most.

Instinct System (Mulahazah)

Execution Mode: On-Demand (Default)

The instinct system does NOT run automatically at session start. This saves tokens.

Mode When it runs Token cost
On-demand (default) Only when user runs /continuous-improvement or /dashboard Zero overhead per session
Weekly User schedules via /loop 7d /continuous-improvement analyze or cron One analysis per week
Always-on (opt-in) Set always_on: true in project instinct config Runs at every session start

To enable always-on: Create ~/.claude/instincts/<hash>/config.yaml with always_on: true. Otherwise, instincts are only loaded when explicitly requested.

Hooks still capture silently — observations accumulate in observations.jsonl with near-zero cost. The expensive part (reading, analyzing, creating instincts) only happens when you ask for it.

Auto-Level Detection

When analysis is triggered (on-demand, weekly, or always-on), determine level:

  1. Find project hash: Run git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null, then SHA-256 first 12 chars of the path
  2. Check observations: Count lines in ~/.claude/instincts/<hash>/observations.jsonl
  3. Check instincts: List *.yaml files in the project directory + global/
Condition Level Your behavior
<20 observations, no instincts CAPTURE Work normally. Hooks are capturing silently.
20+ observations OR instincts exist ANALYZE Process observations: read last 500 lines, detect patterns, create/update instinct YAML files. Then load instincts.
Any instinct at 0.5–0.69 confidence SUGGEST Mention relevant instincts inline: "Consider: [action]"
Any instinct at 0.7+ confidence AUTO-APPLY Apply the behavior automatically.

Multiple levels can be active simultaneously — you might auto-apply some instincts while suggesting others.

Analysis (On-Demand)

When triggered by /continuous-improvement analyze, weekly schedule, or always-on mode:

  1. Read observations.jsonl (last 500 lines)
  2. Read existing instincts (project + global *.yaml files)
  3. Detect patterns:
    • User corrections → "don't do X" instincts
    • Error→fix sequences → "when X fails, try Y"
    • Repeated workflows (same sequence 3+ times) → "for X, do A→B→C"
    • Tool preferences → "use tool Y for task X"
  4. Create/update instinct YAML files in the project directory
  5. Be conservative: only create instincts for 3+ observations of the same pattern

Multi-Agent Analysis

For large observation backlogs (500+ lines), parallelize analysis across agents:

  • Agent 1: Analyze user corrections and error→fix sequences
  • Agent 2: Analyze repeated workflows and tool preferences
  • Agent 3: Cross-reference with existing instincts for updates/promotions

Each agent writes to separate temp files; the orchestrator merges results and deduplicates.

Instinct Format

Each instinct is a YAML file in ~/.claude/instincts/<hash>/ or ~/.claude/instincts/global/:

id: prefer-grep-before-edit
trigger: "when modifying code"
confidence: 0.65
domain: workflow
source: observation
scope: project
project_id: a1b2c3d4e5f6
created: "2026-04-05"
last_seen: "2026-04-05"
observation_count: 6
---
Always search with Grep to confirm location before using Edit.

Confidence Behavior

Range Behavior
0.0–0.49 Silent — stored, not surfaced
0.5–0.69 Suggest — mention inline when relevant
0.7–0.9 Auto-apply — apply automatically

Confidence Changes

Event Change
User explicitly accepts suggestion +0.15
Confirming observation (same pattern seen again) +0.05
Reflection matches existing instinct +0.2
User corrects/rejects -0.1
No observation for 30 days -0.05 decay

Cap: 0.9 max. Scope: default to project; promote to global when seen in 2+ projects.

/continuous-improvement Command

Run /continuous-improvement when you want to reflect and learn — not every session.

  1. Reflect — Generate Law 5 reflection
  2. Analyze — Process pending observations into instincts
  3. Status — Show all instincts with confidence and current level

Subcommands:

  • /continuous-improvement status — Instinct overview only (lightweight, reads YAML only)
  • /continuous-improvement analyze — Process pending observations into instincts
  • /continuous-improvement weekly — Set up weekly analysis schedule
  • /continuous-improvement always-on — Enable/disable always-on mode for this project

Planning-With-Files (Opt-In)

Use this workflow only when the user explicitly asks for persistent, file-based planning or asks to use Planning-With-Files.

  • Detect the project root with git rev-parse --show-toplevel; if that fails, use the current working directory.
  • Create and maintain three project-root files:
    • task_plan.md — phases, status, questions, decisions, errors
    • findings.md — research notes, sources, synthesized discoveries
    • progress.md — session log, verification notes, checkpoints
  • Default phases in task_plan.md: Research, Plan, Execute, Verify, Reflect
  • Never create these files automatically for normal work. This workflow is opt-in.
  • Never overwrite existing planning files unless the user explicitly asks to reset or replace them.

When resuming work, read the three files before making major decisions so context survives long tasks and new sessions.