🧬 Capability Evolver

Chinese Docs

"Evolution is not optional. Adapt or die."

Three lines

• What it is: A protocol-constrained self-evolution engine for AI agents.
• Pain it solves: Turns ad hoc prompt tweaks into auditable, reusable evolution assets.
• Use in 30 seconds: node index.js to generate a GEP-guided evolution prompt.

Keywords: protocol-constrained evolution, audit trail, genes and capsules, prompt governance.

Try It Now (Minimal)

node index.js

What It Does

The Capability Evolver inspects runtime history, extracts signals, selects a Gene/Capsule, and emits a strict GEP protocol prompt to guide safe evolution.

Who This Is For / Not For

For

• Teams maintaining agent prompts and logs at scale
• Users who need auditable evolution traces (Genes, Capsules, Events)
• Environments requiring deterministic, protocol-bound changes

Not For

• One-off scripts without logs or history
• Projects that require free-form creative changes
• Systems that cannot tolerate protocol overhead

Features

• Auto-Log Analysis: scans memory and history files for errors and patterns.
• Self-Repair Guidance: emits repair-focused directives from signals.
• GEP Protocol: standardized evolution with reusable assets.
• Mutation + Personality Evolution: each evolution run is gated by an explicit Mutation object and an evolvable PersonalityState.
• Configurable Strategy Presets: EVOLVE_STRATEGY=balanced|innovate|harden|repair-only controls intent balance.
• Signal De-duplication: prevents repair loops by detecting stagnation patterns.
• Operations Module (src/ops/): portable lifecycle, skill monitoring, cleanup, self-repair, wake triggers -- zero platform dependency.
• Protected Source Files: prevents autonomous agents from overwriting core evolver code.
• One-Command Evolution: node index.js to generate the prompt.

Typical Use Cases

• Harden a flaky agent loop by enforcing validation before edits
• Encode recurring fixes as reusable Genes and Capsules
• Produce auditable evolution events for review or compliance

Anti-Examples

• Rewriting entire subsystems without signals or constraints
• Using the protocol as a generic task runner
• Producing changes without recording EvolutionEvent

FAQ

Does this edit code automatically? No. It generates a protocol-bound prompt and assets that guide evolution.

Do I need to use all GEP assets? No. You can start with default Genes and extend over time.

Is this safe in production? Use review mode and validation steps. Treat it as a safety-focused evolution tool, not a live patcher.

Roadmap

• Add a one-minute demo workflow
• Add a public changelog
• Add a comparison table vs alternatives

GEP Protocol (Auditable Evolution)

This repo includes a protocol-constrained prompt mode based on GEP (Genome Evolution Protocol).

• Structured assets live in assets/gep/:
  • assets/gep/genes.json
  • assets/gep/capsules.json
  • assets/gep/events.jsonl
• Selector logic uses extracted signals to prefer existing Genes/Capsules and emits a JSON selector decision in the prompt.
• Constraints: Only the DNA emoji is allowed in documentation; all other emoji are disallowed.

Usage

Standard Run (Automated)

node index.js

Review Mode (Human-in-the-Loop)

node index.js --review

Continuous Loop

node index.js --loop

With Strategy Preset

EVOLVE_STRATEGY=innovate node index.js --loop   # maximize new features
EVOLVE_STRATEGY=harden node index.js --loop     # focus on stability
EVOLVE_STRATEGY=repair-only node index.js --loop # emergency fix mode

Operations (Lifecycle Management)

node src/ops/lifecycle.js start    # start evolver loop in background
node src/ops/lifecycle.js stop     # graceful stop (SIGTERM -> SIGKILL)
node src/ops/lifecycle.js status   # show running state
node src/ops/lifecycle.js check    # health check + auto-restart if stagnant

Public Release

This repository is the public distribution.

• Build public output: npm run build
• Publish public output: npm run publish:public
• Dry run: DRY_RUN=true npm run publish:public

Required env vars:

• PUBLIC_REMOTE (default: public)
• PUBLIC_REPO (e.g. autogame-17/evolver)
• PUBLIC_OUT_DIR (default: dist-public)
• PUBLIC_USE_BUILD_OUTPUT (default: true)

Optional env vars:

• SOURCE_BRANCH (default: main)
• PUBLIC_BRANCH (default: main)
• RELEASE_TAG (e.g. v1.0.41)
• RELEASE_TITLE (e.g. v1.0.41 - GEP protocol)
• RELEASE_NOTES or RELEASE_NOTES_FILE
• GITHUB_TOKEN (or GH_TOKEN / GITHUB_PAT) for GitHub Release creation
• RELEASE_SKIP (true to skip creating a GitHub Release; default is to create)
• RELEASE_USE_GH (true to use gh CLI instead of GitHub API)
• PUBLIC_RELEASE_ONLY (true to only create a Release for an existing tag; no publish)

Versioning (SemVer)

MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH

• MAJOR: incompatible changes
• MINOR: backward-compatible features
• PATCH: backward-compatible bug fixes

Changelog

v1.10.3

• Configurable Blast Radius Policy: computeBlastRadius() now separates runtime artifacts (logs, memory, capsules, events) from functional code. Only code/config files count toward max_files constraints. Policy is configurable via openclaw.json at evolver.constraints.countedFilePolicy.
• Structured Status Output: solidify() now generates a structured status payload (result, en, zh, meta) and writes it to a cycle status file, providing downstream reporters with rich evolution context (intent, gene, signals, blast radius, validation results).
• Solidify CLI Observability: index.js solidify prints [SOLIDIFY_STATUS] and [SOLIDIFY_STATUS_FILE] lines for wrapper integration.

v1.10.1

• Innovation Cooldown: Track recent innovation targets in analyzeRecentHistory() and inject Context [Innovation Cooldown] into GEP prompt, preventing the Hand Agent from repeatedly innovating on the same skill/module across consecutive cycles.
• Signal Enhancement: analyzeRecentHistory() now returns recentInnovationTargets (map of target path to count in last 10 events).

v1.10.0

• Operations Module (src/ops/): 6 portable modules extracted from environment-specific wrapper:
  • lifecycle.js -- process start/stop/restart/status/health check
  • skills_monitor.js -- skill health audit with auto-heal (npm install, SKILL.md stub)
  • cleanup.js -- GEP artifact disk cleanup
  • trigger.js -- wake signal mechanism
  • commentary.js -- persona-based cycle commentary
  • self_repair.js -- git emergency repair (abort rebase, remove stale locks)
• Configurable Evolution Strategy (EVOLVE_STRATEGY env var):
  • 4 presets: balanced (default 50/30/20), innovate (80/15/5), harden (20/40/40), repair-only (0/20/80)
  • Strategy-aware signal filtering with per-preset repair loop thresholds
  • Backward compatible: FORCE_INNOVATION=true maps to innovate
• Signal De-duplication: repair ratio check forces innovation when >= 50% of last 8 cycles are repairs (threshold varies by strategy).
• Tool Usage Analytics: detects high-frequency tool usage patterns in logs (auto-evolved by Hand Agent).
• Protected Source Files (GEP Section IX): evolver core .js files listed as immutable to prevent Hand Agent overwrites.
• Forbidden Innovation Zones (GEP Section X): prevents creation of skills that duplicate existing infrastructure (process management, health monitoring, scheduling).
• Known Issues List (GEP Section VII.6): tells the LLM to skip already-fixed errors.
• Resilience: replaced process.exit(2) with throw Error() for MemoryGraph failures (loop survives transient errors).
• Gene Limits Relaxed: repair max_files 12->20, innovate max_files 8->25.
• paths.js: added getWorkspaceRoot(), getSkillsDir(), getLogsDir().

v1.9.2

• Intermediate release with strategy presets and protected files.

v1.9.1

• Signal de-duplication (repair ratio check).
• Singleton Guard (PID lock file).
• Environment fingerprint in GEP prompt.

v1.6.0

• Add innovation/opportunity signal detection: user_feature_request, user_improvement_suggestion, perf_bottleneck, capability_gap, stable_success_plateau, external_opportunity.
• Add innovate Gene (gene_gep_innovate_from_opportunity) for proactive feature development.
• Auto-innovate mutation when opportunity signals are present (no longer requires --drift flag).
• Personality evolution now responds to opportunity signals by increasing creativity.
• Safety: repair still takes priority over innovate when errors are present.

v1.5.1

• Add containerized vibe testing framework (Docker + node:22-bookworm, OpenClaw-compatible environment).
• 7 end-to-end tests: module load, dry-run solidify, schema compliance, A2A round-trip, full evolve+solidify, loop gating, env fingerprint.
• Add internal daemon loop with suicide guard for memory leak protection.
• One-command test: npm run test:vibe.

v1.5.0

• Add content-addressable asset IDs (SHA-256 canonical hashing) for deduplication, tamper detection, and cross-node consistency.
• Add environment fingerprint capture (node version, platform, arch, evolver version) embedded in EvolutionEvents, Capsules, and ValidationReports.
• Add standardized ValidationReport type with machine-readable schema, full command results, and env fingerprint.
• Add GEP A2A protocol layer with 6 message types (hello/publish/fetch/report/decision/revoke) and pluggable transport interface.
• Add FileTransport as default A2A transport (JSONL outbox/inbox).
• Add asset_id integrity verification on A2A ingest; reject tampered assets.
• Add schema_version field to all GEP asset types (Gene, Capsule, EvolutionEvent, ValidationReport).
• Fix: dry-run mode no longer triggers rollback.
• Merge backport/online-fixes: self-contained crash recovery with recover_loop.js.

v1.4.4

• Add validation command safety check: Gene validation commands are gated by prefix whitelist (node/npm/npx) and shell operator blocking.
• Add validation audit on A2A Gene promotion: external Genes with unsafe validation commands are rejected before promotion.
• Add Security Model documentation to README.

v1.4.3

• Release preparation for v1.4.3.

v1.4.2

• Add loop gating: do not start a new cycle until the previous run is solidified (prevents fast empty cycles).
• Preserve last_solidify when writing solidify state (merge instead of overwrite).

v1.4.1

• Add execute-by-default bridge: after generating the GEP prompt, emit sessions_spawn(...) to spawn an executor agent.
• Write prompt artifacts to memory/ for reliable handoff and auditing.

v1.4.0

• Add explicit Mutation protocol (repair/optimize/innovate) and require Mutation per evolution run.
• Add evolvable PersonalityState with small PersonalityMutation steps and natural selection statistics.
• Extend EvolutionEvent with mutation_id and personality_state; record both into Memory Graph events.
• Add scripts/gep_personality_report.js to observe personality success rates and convergence.

v1.3.1

• Release preparation for v1.3.1.

v1.3.0

• Release preparation for v1.3.0.

v1.2.0

• Memory Graph v2 and A2A exchange protocol integration.

v1.1.0

• Public build/publish pipeline, prompt budget enforcement, and structured GEP asset storage.

Security Model

This section describes the execution boundaries and trust model of the Capability Evolver.

What Executes and What Does Not

Component	Behavior	Executes Shell Commands?
src/evolve.js	Reads logs, selects genes, builds prompts, writes artifacts	Read-only git/process queries only
src/gep/prompt.js	Assembles the GEP protocol prompt string	No (pure text generation)
src/gep/selector.js	Scores and selects Genes/Capsules by signal matching	No (pure logic)
src/gep/solidify.js	Validates patches via Gene validation commands	Yes (see below)
index.js (loop recovery)	Prints sessions_spawn(...) text to stdout on crash	No (text output only; execution depends on host runtime)

Gene Validation Command Safety

solidify.js executes commands listed in a Gene's validation array. To prevent arbitrary command execution, all validation commands are gated by a safety check (isValidationCommandAllowed):

1. Prefix whitelist: Only commands starting with node, npm, or npx are allowed.
2. No command substitution: Backticks and $(...) are rejected anywhere in the command string.
3. No shell operators: After stripping quoted content, ;, &, |, >, < are rejected.
4. Timeout: Each command is limited to 180 seconds.
5. Scoped execution: Commands run with cwd set to the repository root.

A2A External Asset Ingestion

External Gene/Capsule assets ingested via scripts/a2a_ingest.js are staged in an isolated candidate zone. Promotion to local stores (scripts/a2a_promote.js) requires:

1. Explicit --validated flag (operator must verify the asset first).
2. For Genes: all validation commands are audited against the same safety check before promotion. Unsafe commands cause the promotion to be rejected.
3. Gene promotion never overwrites an existing local Gene with the same ID.

sessions_spawn Output

The sessions_spawn(...) strings in index.js and evolve.js are text output to stdout, not direct function calls. Whether they are interpreted depends on the host runtime (e.g., OpenClaw platform). The evolver itself does not invoke sessions_spawn as executable code.

Configuration & Decoupling

This skill is designed to be environment-agnostic. It uses standard OpenClaw tools by default.

Local Overrides (Injection)

You can inject local preferences (e.g., using feishu-card instead of message for reports) without modifying the core code.

Method 1: Environment Variables Set EVOLVE_REPORT_TOOL in your .env file:

EVOLVE_REPORT_TOOL=feishu-card

Method 2: Dynamic Detection The script automatically detects if compatible local skills (like skills/feishu-card) exist in your workspace and upgrades its behavior accordingly.

Star History

License

MIT