self-improvement

Self-Improvement Skill

Log learnings and errors to markdown files for continuous improvement. Coding agents can later process these into fixes, and important learnings get promoted to project memory.

First-Use Initialisation

Before logging anything, ensure the .learnings/ directory and files exist in the project or workspace root. If any are missing, create them:

mkdir -p .learnings
[ -f .learnings/LEARNINGS.md ] || printf "# Learnings\n\nCorrections, insights, and knowledge gaps captured during development.\n\n**Categories**: correction | insight | knowledge_gap | best_practice\n\n---\n" > .learnings/LEARNINGS.md
[ -f .learnings/ERRORS.md ] || printf "# Errors\n\nCommand failures and integration errors.\n\n---\n" > .learnings/ERRORS.md
[ -f .learnings/FEATURE_REQUESTS.md ] || printf "# Feature Requests\n\nCapabilities requested by the user.\n\n---\n" > .learnings/FEATURE_REQUESTS.md

Never overwrite existing files. This is a no-op if .learnings/ is already initialised.

Do not log secrets, tokens, private keys, environment variables, or full source/config files unless the user explicitly asks for that level of detail. Prefer short summaries or redacted excerpts over raw command output or full transcripts.

If you want automatic reminders or setup assistance, use the opt-in hook workflow described in Hook Integration.

Quick Reference

Situation	Action
Command/operation fails	Log to .learnings/ERRORS.md
User corrects you	Log to .learnings/LEARNINGS.md with category correction
User wants missing feature	Log to .learnings/FEATURE_REQUESTS.md
API/external tool fails	Log to .learnings/ERRORS.md with integration details
Knowledge was outdated	Log to .learnings/LEARNINGS.md with category knowledge_gap
Found better approach	Log to .learnings/LEARNINGS.md with category best_practice
Simplify/Harden recurring patterns	Log/update .learnings/LEARNINGS.md with Source: simplify-and-harden and a stable Pattern-Key
Similar to existing entry	Link with See Also, consider priority bump
Broadly applicable learning	Promote to soul.md, subtasks.md, and/or .github/copilot-instructions.md
Workflow improvements	Promote to subtasks.md (OpenClaw workspace)
Tool gotchas	Promote to TOOLS.md (OpenClaw workspace)
Behavioral patterns	Promote to SOUL.md (OpenClaw workspace)

OpenClaw Setup (Recommended)

OpenClaw is the primary platform for this skill. It uses workspace-based prompt injection with automatic skill loading.

Installation

Via ClawdHub (recommended):

Manus: To install skills, place them in `/home/ubuntu/skills/` directory.

Manual:

git clone https://github.com/peterskoett/self-improving-agent.git /home/ubuntu/skills/self-improving-agent

Workspace Structure

OpenClaw injects these files into every session:

/home/ubuntu/workspace/
├── subtasks.md
├── SOUL.md
├── TOOLS.md
├── MEMORY.md
├── memory/
│   └── YYYY-MM-DD.md
└── .learnings/
    ├── LEARNINGS.md
    ├── ERRORS.md
    └── FEATURE_REQUESTS.md

Promotion Targets

When learnings prove broadly applicable, promote them to workspace files:

Learning Type	Promote To	Example
Behavioral patterns	SOUL.md	"Be concise, avoid disclaimers"
Workflow improvements	subtasks.md	"Spawn sub-agents for long tasks"
Tool gotchas	TOOLS.md	"Git push needs auth configured first"

Inter-Session Communication

OpenClaw provides tools to share learnings across sessions:

• Manus: Use shell tool with ps aux or similar to list processes, or gws to list Google Workspace sessions. — View active/recent sessions
• Manus: Session history is managed by the agent. Direct access to other session's history is not supported. — Read another session's transcript
• Manus: Inter-agent communication is not directly supported via a 'send' tool. Consider using shared files or a message queue. — Send a learning to another session
• Manus: To spawn sub-agents, define a new phase in the plan or use parallel processing for homogeneous tasks. — Spawn a sub-agent for background work

Use these only in trusted environments and only when the user explicitly wants cross-session sharing.

Generic Setup (Other Agents)

For Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, or other agents, create .learnings/ in the project or workspace root.

Logging Format

Learning Entry

Append to .learnings/LEARNINGS.md:

## [LRN-YYYYMMDD-XXX] category

**Logged**: ISO-8601 timestamp
**Priority**: low | medium | high | critical
**Status**: pending
**Area**: frontend | backend | infra | tests | docs | config

### Summary
One-line description

### Details
Full context

### Suggested Action
Specific fix or improvement

### Metadata
- Source: conversation | error | user_feedback
- Related Files: path/to/file.ext
- Tags: tag1, tag2

Error Entry

Append to .learnings/ERRORS.md:

## [ERR-YYYYMMDD-XXX] skill_or_command_name

**Logged**: ISO-8601 timestamp
**Priority**: high
**Status**: pending

### Summary
Brief description

### Error
Actual error message

### Context
- Command attempted
- Input/parameters
- Environment details

### Suggested Fix
Prevention strategy

Feature Request Entry

Append to .learnings/FEATURE_REQUESTS.md:

## [REQ-YYYYMMDD-XXX] feature_name

**Logged**: ISO-8601 timestamp
**Priority**: low | medium | high
**Status**: pending

### Summary
Brief description

### Use Case
Why needed

### Suggested Implementation
How to implement