Self-Heal

Quiet companion skill. Watches for friction caused by skill instructions during live sessions. At task resolution, diagnoses root cause and proposes surgical fixes with user approval.

This skill does not run on demand. It is embedded into other skills as an observer. When it detects a fixable source of friction, it surfaces automatically.

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Directives

"Updates to skills must be surgical -- one specific instruction, smallest possible change, nothing more."

— Added 2026-02-26, source: system directive

"Nothing is written to a skill file without explicit user approval and a visible before/after diff."

— Added 2026-02-26, source: system directive

"Self-heal never modifies directives. Directives are sacred. Only workflow instructions, context descriptions, and clarifying language are in scope."

— Added 2026-02-26, source: system directive

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Review Command

When invoked as /self-heal review:

1. List all skills that have the self-heal observer embedded
2. Show count of friction events logged per skill (read each skill's self-heal-history.md if it exists)
3. Show count of patches applied vs. declined per skill
4. Flag skills missing the observer — offer to embed

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Grounding

Before executing any diagnosis or update:

1. Read the relevant file from references/
2. State: "I will use [PROTOCOL] from references/[file] under [SECTION]"

Reference files:

• references/friction-signals.md — Complete friction signal taxonomy
• references/diagnosis-protocol.md — Root cause tracing procedure
• references/update-protocol.md — Diff construction and approval workflow