Wikiskill Evolve Agent Skill

WikiSkill Evolve

Run Google's WikiSkill evolution loop (arXiv:2608.27454) — a faithful

implementation with Hermes as the reference backend. The agent evolves its own

skills: raw sessions → a maintainer distills failure patterns into a

persistent wiki → a proposer writes a candidate skill → a validation gate

accepts it only if R_val > R_best (git rollback otherwise).

When to use

• You want an agent's own experience (traces) turned into reusable skills
• You want to test whether a candidate skill actually helps, with statistics

instead of vibes

• You're running the paper's protocol on your own tasks

Install

pip install wikiskill          # Python ≥ 3.10; works with Hermes, Claude Code

Run the loop

wikiskill init myws                        # workspace + auto-graded bench
wikiskill evolve myws --iters 3            # train → maintain → propose → gate
wikiskill status myws                      # baseline, r_best, skill state
wikiskill compare wsA wsB --iters 5        # paired exact-binomial comparison
wikiskill transfer src dst                 # copy accepted skills to another ws

Reading the output

• runs/state.json — baseline (S₀ on val), r_best, next_iter
• wiki/log.md — every maintenance/proposal/gate decision with evidence
• wiki/patterns/ — distilled failure patterns (the raw material)
• wiki/skill-impact.md — rejected proposals stay visible (paper requirement)
• Gate verdicts: ACCEPTED (R_val > R_best, git commit), REJECTED

(rolled back), no_action (proposer declined — a valid outcome)

Backends

wikiskill init myws --backend claude       # Claude Code as the worker

Hermes is the reference backend; Claude Code ships in the box; codex/opencode

are on the roadmap. All speak open SKILL.md, so evolved skills transfer.

Honest-expectation notes

• Each iteration costs ~$0.09 on free-tier models (gemini-lite class) —

turn budgets and --max-turns bound the spend

• A weak model may produce no_action iterations — that's the gate working,

not a failure; skill accumulation needs a reasonably strong proposer

• The gate has rejected harmful skills in live runs — a rejection is a win