self-learning

What the source does

• FilesystemNone observedNo reads or writes in the source
• NetworkNone observedNo outbound calls in the source
• ShellNone observedNo commands run in the source
• DependenciesPinnedNothing floats
• SecretsNone foundNo keys in source

Five audit layers

Gates applied: no behavioural pass.

Audit 0.4.1 · source sha 63babf366396 · 20 Oct 2026Report an issue or request a re-scan

• Publisherkulaxyz GitHub userOwner of the repository this skill is read from
• Source folderkulaxyz/self-learning-skills/skills/self-learningThe exact folder we audited
• LicenceMITAs the repository states it
• Commit pinned for this verdict63babf366396A new audit runs when the source changes
• Repository statusNot archivedLast push 35 days ago
• Sandboxed runNot runSkills are read, not executed; layer L4 is skipped

Its description: Capture a hard-won "golden path" from the current session as a reusable Agent Skill, so future sessions start already knowing it. Use it (1) right after non-trivial debugging, after working out a multi-step operational…

---
name: self-learning
description: >
  Capture a hard-won "golden path" from the current session as a reusable Agent
  Skill, so future sessions start already knowing it. Use it (1) right after
  non-trivial debugging, after working out a multi-step operational workflow, or
  after rediscovering project facts you didn't know up front — e.g. how to reach
  the dev/prod database, where credentials and env vars live, how to deploy, run
  migrations, or verify a change live; and (2) whenever the user says "remember
  this", "save this as a skill", "make a skill for this", "don't make me
  re-explain this next time", or otherwise wants a workflow preserved across
  sessions. Proactively recognize the moment even when unprompted: if a task took
  several attempts before it worked, used non-obvious tooling, or is likely to
  recur, harvest it without asking first. Delegates to a subagent when your tool
  supports one, or works inline, to extract the proven procedure into a new
  project-local or global skill.
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: kulaxyz
  version: "1.0"
---

# Self-learning: harvest golden paths into skills

This skill turns something you just figured out the hard way into a reusable
Agent Skill, so the next session — yours or a teammate's — starts already
knowing the proven route instead of rediscovering it from scratch.

It is a *meta-skill*: it doesn't do the work, it captures **how** work got done.
It's tool-neutral — it works with any agent that reads the Agent Skills format
(e.g. Claude Code and Codex, which both load `SKILL.md` skills natively). Where a
step differs by tool, the generic version comes first and any tool-specific
detail is only an example.

## Recognize the moment

Watch for these signals during normal work. Any one of them is a cue to harvest:

- A task only worked **after several attempts**, wrong turns, or a correction
  from the user. The successful path is worth more than the failures around it.
- You discovered **project-specific facts the agent didn't know up front**:
  where creds/env vars live, which selector or backend talks to a service, a
  non-obvious command, a required sequence, a gotcha that defies the obvious
  assumption.
- It's an **operational workflow likely to recur**: reach the dev/prod DB,
  deploy, run migrations, seed data, verify a change live, run one specific
  test path, rotate a key, tail the right logs.
- The user **signals it explicitly**: "remember this", "save this as a skill",
  "don't make me re-explain this next time".

**Act on the cue immediately — don't ask for permission first**, whether the
user requested it or you noticed it yourself. Harvest the skill, then tell the
user what you captured and where (step 5). They can always edit or delete it.

### Skill, memory, or skip?

Not every lesson deserves a whole skill — triage first, so you don't bloat the
skills list with one-liners:

- **A multi-step, reusable procedure or workflow** (how to deploy, reach the DB,
  run the migration dance, verify live) → harvest it as a **skill** using the
  procedure below.
- **A single standalone fact or one-line correction** (an env var name, a path,
  one gotcha) → if your harness has a lightweight memory/notes facility (e.g. a
  `MEMORY.md` index), record it **there** instead; a whole skill is overkill for
  a one-liner. With no such facility, make a small skill.
- **A genuinely one-off thing** unlikely to recur → skip it.

When you do harvest, capture the **failures too**, not just the win: the
approaches you ruled out and *why* often save more time next session than the
golden path itself.

### Promotion rule: don't enshrine guesses

A skill is authoritative — the next session trusts it without re-deriving it —
so hold promotion to a high bar. Only write a skill when **all three** hold:

1. **A passing check.** The path was actually verified — a test passed, the
   command exited clean, the repro reproduced, the build went green. Record what
   the check was. "Seemed to work" is not a passing check.
2. **A named failure pattern.** You can name the failure this path avoids or
   diagnoses (e.g. "stale build cache → phantom type errors"), not a vague
   "sometimes it breaks".
3. **At least one ruled-out dead-end.** A concrete approach you tried and
   eliminated, with the reason.

If any is missing, it isn't a skill yet — leave a tentative note in memory
(marked unverified) or skip it. This keeps confident guesses out of the skill
set.

## Harvest procedure

- [ ] 1. **Apply the promotion rule** (above). Passing check + named failure
      pattern + one ruled-out dead-end — or it isn't a skill: note it in memory
      or skip. Don't proceed on a confident guess.
- [ ] 2. **Choose scope and name yourself** using the heuristics below — don't
      stop to ask. Default to project scope; pick a clear, specific `name`.
- [ ] 3. **Dedupe.** Look for an existing skill to UPDATE rather than duplicate.
      List your agent's skills directories — the project one and the user-level
      one (e.g. Claude Code `.claude/skills` + `~/.claude/skills`, Codex
      `.codex/skills` + `~/.codex/skills`, or your tool's equivalent). Also
      glance at any memory/notes index — a fact already there may just need a
      pointer.
- [ ] 4. **Distill the golden path from THIS conversation** before delegating —
      while it's fresh in your head: the exact working commands, file paths, env
      var names, the required order, and (just as important) the dead-ends to
      avoid. This is the raw material for the write.
- [ ] 5. **Delegate the write** to a subagent that inherits this conversation if
      your tool supports one, or do it inline otherwise — see below. The
      conversation is the only place the golden path lives, so whoever writes it
      must have that context.
- [ ] 6. When the write is done, **relay the new skill's path** to the user
      and, in one line, what it captured.

### Scope: project vs global

- **Project** (the repo's ski

Excerpt, first 6,000 characters of SKILL.md, verbatim from the audited commit. It is text from someone else’s repository, quoted so you can judge it before your agent reads it.

1. 2026-10-20
   ✓SAFE B 89 / 100

   first audit · source 63babf366396

Questions about self-learning

• github.com/kulaxyz/self-learning-skills/tree/main/skills/self-le — the audited source at commit 63babf366396 and every finding aboveObserved · 20 Oct 2026

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