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 (${XDG_DATA_HOME:-~/.local/share}/ecc-homunculus/projects/<hash>/)
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 2025-01-15Properties:
- 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) orglobal
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:
- **
CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIRenv var** (highest priority)
- **
git remote get-url origin** -- hashed to create a portable project ID (same repo on different machines gets the same ID)
- **
git rev-parse --show-toplevel** -- fallback using repo path (machine-specific)
- 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 ${XDG_DATA_HOME:-~/.local/share}/ecc-homunculus/projects.json maps IDs to human-readable names.
Data Directory
Continuous-learning-v2 stores observer data outside ~/.claude so Claude Code's sensitive-path guard does not block background instinct writes:
CLV2_HOMUNCULUS_DIRwhen set to an absolute path
$XDG_DATA_HOME/ecc-homunculus
$HOME/.local/share/ecc-homunculus
Existing users with data at ~/.claude/homunculus can migrate once:
bash skills/continuous-learning-v2/scripts/migrate-homunculus.shQuick Start
1. Enable Observation Hooks
If installed as a plugin (recommended):
No extra settings.json hook block is required. Claude Code v2.1+ auto-loads the plugin hooks/hooks.json, and observe.sh is already registered there.
If you previously copied observe.sh into ~/.claude/settings.json, remove that duplicate PreToolUse / PostToolUse block. Duplicating the plugin hook causes double execution and ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} resolution errors because that variable is only available inside plugin-managed hooks/hooks.json entries.
If installed manually to ~/.claude/skills, add this to your ~/.claude/settings.json:
{
"hooks": {
"PreToolUse": [{
"matcher": "*",
"hooks": [{
"type": "command",
"command": "~/.claude/skills/continuous-learning-v2/hooks/observe.sh"
}]
}],
"PostToolUse": [{
"matcher": "*",
"hooks": [{
"type": "command",
"command": "~/.claude/skills/continuous-learning-v2/hooks/observe.sh"
}]
}]
}
}2. Initialize Directory Structure
The system creates directories automatically on first use, but you can also create them manually:
# Global directories
mkdir -p "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/ecc-homunculus"/{instincts/{personal,inherited},evolved/{agents,skills,commands},projects}
# Project directories are auto-created when the hook first runs in a git repo3. 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 countsCommands
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
${XDG_DATA_HOME:-~/.local/share}/ecc-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)
| +-- project.json # Per-project metadata mirror (id/name/root/remote)
| +-- 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-runThe /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 can be migrated from
~/.claude/homunculus/instincts/withscripts/migrate-homunculus.sh
- 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
- ECC-Tools GitHub App - 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.