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Autonomously runs a hypothesis→test→evaluate→keep/discard optimization loop on a target skill or CLAUDE.md. Three isolated sub-agents handle testing and evaluation — the main agent orchestrates and decides.

Output Contract

Produces: updated target skill file (SKILL.md or CLAUDE.md), iteration dashboard (markdown), entry appended to results.md.

Does not produce: new skills, research reports, publishing automation, or criteria for skills it has not been given.

Startup

Read references/learnings.md and summarise the 3 most relevant bullets for this run. Read the target skill file in full. If results.md exists, read the last run entry for this target.

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Step 1: Criteria Design

Read references/criteria-framework.md.

Propose 3–5 candidate criteria for the target skill. For each criterion:

• State the exact binary condition (true/false only — no gradients)
• Classify: Level 1 (deterministic, script-checkable) or Level 2 (pattern/style, LLM judge required)
• Confirm it tests one variable only — split any criterion containing "and"
• Rank by expected impact

State the recommended iteration cap (5 for 1–2 criteria; 10 for 3+) and target pass rate (default 100%).

Wait for human approval. Human may approve, edit, or add criteria before the loop starts.

If any criterion cannot be expressed as a true/false binary, stop and ask the human to reformulate it before proceeding.

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Step 2: Eval Harness Setup

Generate a minimum of 5 diverse test inputs appropriate for the target skill. Write to harness/test-inputs.md.

This file is read-only for the remainder of the run. The loop may never modify it.

If 10 or more inputs are generated, designate the last 20% as the holdout validation set. Note the split at the top of harness/test-inputs.md.

Run the current unmodified target skill on the training inputs 5 times. Score every output against all approved criteria. Calculate baseline pass rate per criterion and overall.

Log to results.md:

## Run: [YYYY-MM-DD] — Target: [skill name or file path]
Criteria: [numbered list]
Baseline: [score per criterion] | Overall: [X/Y = Z%]
Iterations: [cap]
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Step 3: Optimization Loop

Repeat until overall pass rate reaches target OR iteration cap is reached.

3a. Hypothesize

Propose one substantive change to a working copy of the skill (one variable, one change). State the expected mechanism of improvement. Small tweaks (whitespace, punctuation, trivial reordering) are not valid hypotheses.

3b. Test

Read agents/test-runner.md. Spawn it as a sub-agent with:

• Path to the skill working copy
• Path to harness/test-inputs.md (training set only)

Do not pass: the hypothesis text, experiment log, baseline score, or prior iteration context. Receive: raw outputs array, one per input.

3c. Evaluate (run in parallel)

For each output:

• Level 1 criteria → Read agents/eval-deterministic.md. Spawn as sub-agent with: the raw output + criterion definition.
• Level 2 criteria → Read agents/eval-judge.md. Spawn as sub-agent with: the raw output + criterion definition + relevant reference files.

Receive from each: {"criterion": "...", "result": "pass|fail", "evidence": "..."}.

3d. Score and Decide

Calculate pass rate for all criteria — not just the active hypothesis. Compare every criterion to the previous iteration.

• If any criterion regresses more than 5% from its previous value: flag the trade-off explicitly before deciding.
• If overall score improved → keep: apply the hypothesis to the working copy permanently.
• If overall score did not improve → revert: restore working copy to previous version.

3e. Log

Append to results.md:

Iteration [N]: [hypothesis one-liner] | Before: [scores] | After: [scores] | KEEP/REVERT | [one-line reasoning]

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Step 4: Validation and Output

If a holdout set exists: run the final working copy on holdout inputs and score against all criteria. Note any gap between training and holdout pass rates.

Read assets/dashboard-template.md. Produce the iteration dashboard using it.

Present to human:

1. Iteration dashboard (table)
2. Final pass rate vs baseline + holdout result if applicable
3. Diff summary: what changed in the skill and why, per kept hypothesis

Wait for human approval before writing to the original skill file.

On approval: write the final working copy to the original file path.

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Step 5: Feedback Gate

Ask: "Any corrections or patterns from this run I should learn from?"

Route the response: | User says | Destination | |-----------|-------------| | Behavioral correction ("don't do X", "I prefer Y") | references/learnings.md | | Factual exception ("format is actually Z") | references/edge-cases.md | | "Never do X again" | Add rule to Step 3 above | | Approval / "perfect" | Save dashboard to assets/approved-examples/ | | No response / "looks good" | Do nothing |

Trim references/learnings.md at 80 lines (consolidate redundant entries); hard cap at 100. When a correction reveals a repeatable failure pattern, add a new case to evals/evals.json with a prompt that triggers it and an assertion that the corrected behaviour is present.

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Rules

1. harness/test-inputs.md is written once in Step 2 and never modified by the loop
2. Monitor all criteria every iteration — not just the active hypothesis (trade-off detection)
3. One hypothesis per iteration, one variable per hypothesis
4. Hypotheses must be substantive — trivial changes are not valid
5. Never write to the original target file without explicit human approval
6. Hard stop at iteration cap — report partial improvement and recommend a second run
7. Sub-agents receive only what they need — never pass hypothesis context to the test-runner

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Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Agent-Engineer-Master
• Source: Agent-Engineer-Master/skill-engineer
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.