Metaskill

Teaches AI agents how to learn better by enforcing deep correction, transfer learning, and proactive pattern recognition. Use when an error occurs and needs deep analysis (not surface patch), before starting a complex task to check past analogies, or after success to capture winning patterns. NOT for routine file reads or simple one-off commands.

3 Core Components

1. Deep Self-Correction (deep-correct.sh) — 3-level breakdown on errors:

   • Surface: What specifically failed
   • Principle: The underlying rule/constraint violated
   • Habit: Concrete behavioral change to prevent recurrence

2. Transfer Learning (transfer-check.sh) — Before a task, search past learnings for analogous patterns. Maps domains (e.g., "auth" → "security") to prevent siloed learning.

3. Proactive Pattern Recognition (success-capture.sh) — Log what worked and why, building a repository of successful patterns.

Usage

# When an error occurs
bash skills/metaskill/scripts/deep-correct.sh "description of the error"

# Before starting a complex task
bash skills/metaskill/scripts/transfer-check.sh "description of the new task"

# After successful execution
bash skills/metaskill/scripts/success-capture.sh "what worked" "why it worked"

# Monthly health eval
bash skills/metaskill/scripts/eval.sh --save

Configuration (LLM Provider)

Metaskill uses two provider tiers — fast (extraction) and deep (transfer/eval). Edit config.yaml to match your setup:

# config.yaml
providers:
  fast: anthropic   # change to: openai | ollama | gemini
  deep: anthropic

Provider	Env Var	Notes
anthropic	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Default
openai	OPENAI_API_KEY
ollama	(none needed)	Local, free
gemini	GOOGLE_API_KEY

Ollama example (fully local, no API key):

providers:
  fast: ollama
  deep: ollama
models:
  ollama:
    fast: llama3.2
    deep: llama3.1:70b

If no provider is available, metaskill falls back to manual/heuristic mode (still works, but less precise extraction).

Integration with Self-Improving-Agent

Writes to skills/self-improving-agent/.learnings/ if present, otherwise falls back to its own .learnings/ directory. No extra setup needed.

AGENTS.md Wiring (Mandatory)

Add to pre-task checklist:

1. Run transfer-check.sh before any major task
2. Run deep-correct.sh immediately after any error (not just LEARNINGS.md append)
3. Run success-capture.sh after complex task completes successfully