Skills
skills/young8010/everything-claude-code/continuous-learning-v2

continuous-learning-v2

SKILL.md

Continuous Learning v2.1 - Instinct

-Based Architecture

An advanced learning system that turns your Claude Code sessions into reusable knowledge through atomic "instincts" - small learned behaviors with confidence scoring.

v2.1 adds project-scoped instincts — React patterns stay in your React project, Python conventions stay in your Python project, and universal patterns (like "always validate input") are shared globally.

When to Activate

  • Setting up automatic learning from Claude Code sessions
  • Configuring instinct-based behavior extraction via hooks
  • Tuning confidence thresholds for learned behaviors
  • Reviewing, exporting, or importing instinct libraries
  • Evolving instincts into full skills, commands, or agents
  • Managing project-scoped vs global instincts
  • Promoting instincts from project to global scope

What's New in v2.1

Feature v2.0 v2.1
Storage Global (~/.claude/homunculus/) Project-scoped (projects//)
Scope All instincts apply everywhere Project-scoped + global
Detection None git remote URL / repo path
Promotion N/A Project → global when seen in 2+ projects
Commands 4 (status/evolve/export/import) 6 (+promote/projects)
Cross-project Contamination risk Isolated by default

What's New in v2 (vs v1)

Feature v1 v2
Observation Stop hook (session end) PreToolUse/PostToolUse (100% reliable)
Analysis Main context Background agent (Haiku)
Granularity Full skills Atomic "instincts"
Confidence None 0.3-0.9 weighted
Evolution Direct to skill Instincts -> cluster -> skill/command/agent
Sharing None Export/import instincts

The Instinct Model

An instinct is a small learned behavior:

---
id: prefer-functional-style
trigger: "when writing new functions"
confidence: 0.7
domain: "code-style"
source: "session-observation"
scope: project
project_id: "a1b2c3d4e5f6"
project_name: "my-react-app"
---

# Prefer Functional Style

## Action
Use functional patterns over classes when appropriate.

## Evidence
- Observed 5 instances of functional pattern preference
- User corrected class-based approach to functional on 2025-01-15

Properties:

  • Atomic -- one trigger, one action
  • Confidence-weighted -- 0.3 = tentative, 0.9 = near certain
  • Domain-tagged -- code-style, testing, git, debugging, workflow, etc.
  • Evidence-backed -- tracks what observations created it
  • Scope-aware -- project (default) or global

How It Works

Session Activity (in a git repo)
      |
      | Hooks capture prompts + tool use (100% reliable)
      | + detect project context (git remote / repo path)
      v
+---------------------------------------------+
|  projects/<project-hash>/observations.jsonl  |
|   (prompts, tool calls, outcomes, project)   |
+---------------------------------------------+
      |
      | Observer agent reads (background, Haiku)
      v
+---------------------------------------------+
|          PATTERN DETECTION                   |
|   * User corrections -> instinct             |
|   * Error resolutions -> instinct            |
|   * Repeated workflows -> instinct           |
|   * Scope decision: project or global?       |
+---------------------------------------------+
      |
      | Creates/updates
      v
+---------------------------------------------+
|  projects/<project-hash>/instincts/personal/ |
|   * prefer-functional.yaml (0.7) [project]   |
|   * use-react-hooks.yaml (0.9) [project]     |
+---------------------------------------------+
|  instincts/personal/  (GLOBAL)               |
|   * always-validate-input.yaml (0.85) [global]|
|   * grep-before-edit.yaml (0.6) [global]     |
+---------------------------------------------+
      |
      | /evolve clusters + /promote
      v
+---------------------------------------------+
|  projects/<hash>/evolved/ (project-scoped)   |
|  evolved/ (global)                           |
|   * commands/new-feature.md                  |
|   * skills/testing-workflow.md               |
|   * agents/refactor-specialist.md            |
+---------------------------------------------+

Project Detection

The system automatically detects your current project:

  1. CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR env var (highest priority)
  2. git remote get-url origin -- hashed to create a portable project ID (same repo on different machines gets the same ID)
  3. git rev-parse --show-toplevel -- fallback using repo path (machine-specific)
  4. Global fallback -- if no project is detected, instincts go to global scope

Each project gets a 12-character hash ID (e.g., a1b2c3d4e5f6). A registry file at ~/.claude/homunculus/projects.json maps IDs to human-readable names.

Quick Start

1. Enable Observation Hooks

Add to your ~/.claude/settings.json.

If installed as a plugin (recommended):

{
  "hooks": {
    "PreToolUse": [{
      "matcher": "*",
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/continuous-learning-v2/hooks/observe.sh"
      }]
    }],
    "PostToolUse": [{
      "matcher": "*",
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/continuous-learning-v2/hooks/observe.sh"
      }]
    }]
  }
}

If installed manually to ~/.claude/skills:

{
  "hooks": {
    "PreToolUse": [{
      "matcher": "*",
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "~/.claude/skills/continuous-learning-v2/hooks/observe.sh"
      }]
    }],
    "PostToolUse": [{
      "matcher": "*",
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "~/.claude/skills/continuous-learning-v2/hooks/observe.sh"
      }]
    }]
  }
}

2. Initialize Directory Structure

The system creates directories automatically on first use, but you can also create them manually:

# Global directories
mkdir -p ~/.claude/homunculus/{instincts/{personal,inherited},evolved/{agents,skills,commands},projects}

# Project directories are auto-created when the hook first runs in a git repo

3. Use the Instinct Commands

/instinct-status     # Show learned instincts (project + global)
/evolve              # Cluster related instincts into skills/commands
/instinct-export     # Export instincts to file
/instinct-import     # Import instincts from others
/promote             # Promote project instincts to global scope
/projects            # List all known projects and their instinct counts

Commands

Command Description
/instinct-status Show all instincts (project-scoped + global) with confidence
/evolve Cluster related instincts into skills/commands, suggest promotions
/instinct-export Export instincts (filterable by scope/domain)
/instinct-import <file> Import instincts with scope control
/promote [id] Promote project instincts to global scope
/projects List all known projects and their instinct counts

Configuration

Edit config.json to control the background observer:

{
  "version": "2.1",
  "observer": {
    "enabled": false,
    "run_interval_minutes": 5,
    "min_observations_to_analyze": 20
  }
}
Key Default Description
observer.enabled false Enable the background observer agent
observer.run_interval_minutes 5 How often the observer analyzes observations
observer.min_observations_to_analyze 20 Minimum observations before analysis runs

Other behavior (observation capture, instinct thresholds, project scoping, promotion criteria) is configured via code defaults in instinct-cli.py and observe.sh.

File Structure

~/.claude/homunculus/
+-- identity.json           # Your profile, technical level
+-- projects.json           # Registry: project hash -> name/path/remote
+-- observations.jsonl      # Global observations (fallback)
+-- instincts/
|   +-- personal/           # Global auto-learned instincts
|   +-- inherited/          # Global imported instincts
+-- evolved/
|   +-- agents/             # Global generated agents
|   +-- skills/             # Global generated skills
|   +-- commands/           # Global generated commands
+-- projects/
    +-- a1b2c3d4e5f6/       # Project hash (from git remote URL)
    |   +-- observations.jsonl
    |   +-- observations.archive/
    |   +-- instincts/
    |   |   +-- personal/   # Project-specific auto-learned
    |   |   +-- inherited/  # Project-specific imported
    |   +-- evolved/
    |       +-- skills/
    |       +-- commands/
    |       +-- agents/
    +-- f6e5d4c3b2a1/       # Another project
        +-- ...

Scope Decision Guide

Pattern Type Scope Examples
Language/framework conventions project "Use React hooks", "Follow Django REST patterns"
File structure preferences project "Tests in __tests__/", "Components in src/components/"
Code style project "Use functional style", "Prefer dataclasses"
Error handling strategies project "Use Result type for errors"
Security practices global "Validate user input", "Sanitize SQL"
General best practices global "Write tests first", "Always handle errors"
Tool workflow preferences global "Grep before Edit", "Read before Write"
Git practices global "Conventional commits", "Small focused commits"

Instinct Promotion (Project -> Global)

When the same instinct appears in multiple projects with high confidence, it's a candidate for promotion to global scope.

Auto-promotion criteria:

  • Same instinct ID in 2+ projects
  • Average confidence >= 0.8

How to promote:

# Promote a specific instinct
python3 instinct-cli.py promote prefer-explicit-errors

# Auto-promote all qualifying instincts
python3 instinct-cli.py promote

# Preview without changes
python3 instinct-cli.py promote --dry-run

The /evolve command also suggests promotion candidates.

Confidence Scoring

Confidence evolves over time:

Score Meaning Behavior
0.3 Tentative Suggested but not enforced
0.5 Moderate Applied when relevant
0.7 Strong Auto-approved for application
0.9 Near-certain Core behavior

Confidence increases when:

  • Pattern is repeatedly observed
  • User doesn't correct the suggested behavior
  • Similar instincts from other sources agree

Confidence decreases when:

  • User explicitly corrects the behavior
  • Pattern isn't observed for extended periods
  • Contradicting evidence appears

Why Hooks vs Skills for Observation?

"v1 relied on skills to observe. Skills are probabilistic -- they fire ~50-80% of the time based on Claude's judgment."

Hooks fire 100% of the time, deterministically. This means:

  • Every tool call is observed
  • No patterns are missed
  • Learning is comprehensive

Backward Compatibility

v2.1 is fully compatible with v2.0 and v1:

  • Existing global instincts in ~/.claude/homunculus/instincts/ still work as global instincts
  • Existing ~/.claude/skills/learned/ skills from v1 still work
  • Stop hook still runs (but now also feeds into v2)
  • Gradual migration: run both in parallel

Privacy

  • Observations stay local on your machine
  • Project-scoped instincts are isolated per project
  • Only instincts (patterns) can be exported — not raw observations
  • No actual code or conversation content is shared
  • You control what gets exported and promoted

Related

  • Skill Creator - Generate instincts from repo history
  • Homunculus - Community project that inspired the v2 instinct-based architecture (atomic observations, confidence scoring, instinct evolution pipeline)
  • The Longform Guide - Continuous learning section

Instinct-based learning: teaching Claude your patterns, one project at a time.

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