Subconscious v1.5 — Bounded Self-Improving Agent#

What It Is#

A persistent, self-evolving bias layer that survives session resets. Alfred's "second brain" — quiet, bounded, and strictly governed. It does NOT make decisions. It shapes how Alfred approaches decisions.

Core principle: Every mutation is typed, bounded, and logged. Core identity is untouchable without manual override.

Architecture#

text

Learnings Bridge          Pending Queue           Live Store           Session Context
.learnings/ ─────────────► tick ──────────────► rotate ──────────────► bias inject
(Self-improving agent)    (reinforce,           (promote eligible,       (5 items max,
                         dedupe,               archive stale)           ephemeral)
                         skip duplicates)

Core Store ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────► Identity
(Immutable values,                                                  (never changes
 values/style, guiding principles)                                   without human OK)

Three layers:

• core/ — Immutable identity (Alfred's nature, Edward's preferences). Manual-only.
• live/ — Active learnings from experience. Governed promotion from pending.
• pending/ — Queue for new items. Bounded reinforcement before promotion eligibility.

Five bias types:

KindCategoryExampleVALUEIdentity"Alfred is sharp, calm, direct"LESSONContext"XHS MCP needs QR re-login each cycle"PRIORITYActive"Verify before claiming success"PATTERNInterpretation"Proof discipline failure mode"CONSTRAINTAttention"Don't suggest without trying first"

Lifecycle Commands#

All commands run from scripts/ directory inside the skill:

bash

cd ~/.openclaw/skills/subconscious/scripts

# Check system health
python3 subconscious_metabolism.py status
python3 subconscious_cli.py verify

# See active biases in session context
python3 subconscious_cli.py bias

# Manual metabolism cycles
python3 subconscious_metabolism.py tick        # Light tick (5 min cadence)
python3 subconscious_metabolism.py rotate       # Full rotation (hourly)
python3 subconscious_metabolism.py review       # Daily health check

Metabolism Cycles#

Tick (every 5 min)#

bash

python3 subconscious_metabolism.py tick

• Scans .learnings/ via learnings bridge → queues new items to pending
• Passive reinforcement: increments reinforcement count on pending items
• Skips already-reinforced items (prevents type corruption)
• Runs bounded maintenance: freshness decay, metrics, no structural changes

Rotate (hourly)#

bash

python3 subconscious_metabolism.py rotate --enable-promotion

• Full maintenance: flush, decay, snapshot rotation

• Promotion gate (only with --enable-promotion):

  • confidence >= 0.75
  • reinforcement >= 3
  • freshness >= 0.3
  • Not a duplicate of anything in core/live/pending
  • Passes governance check

• Governance enforces typed mutation bounds on all items

Review (daily at 6am)#

bash

python3 subconscious_metabolism.py review

• System health check
• Snapshot integrity
• Pending queue depth check
• Recommendations log

Learnings Bridge#

The learnings bridge connects the self-improving-agent skill to the subconscious:

• Scans .learnings/LEARNINGS.md, .learnings/ERRORS.md, .learnings/FEATURES.md
• Tracks seen entries per file in learnings_bridge_last_seen.json
• New entries → queued to pending.jsonl with type candidate_queued
• Entries already reinforced in this session → skipped (idempotent)

Bridge to self-improving agent: The learnings bridge should be called from the metabolism tick so that new learnings flow into the subconscious every 5 minutes automatically.

Checking System Health#

bash

python3 subconscious_metabolism.py status

Expected output:

text

Core: 3/50   Live: 1/100   Pending: 0/500   Snapshots: 10/10
Status: OK

If Pending: 0/500 and Live: N — system is healthy, items promoting correctly. If Status: blocked — resource limits hit, run rotate to compact.

Adding Items Manually#

bash

# Queue a lesson manually
python3 subconscious_cli.py intake --kind LESSON --text "Remember to verify before claiming success" --confidence 0.8 --source "manual"

# Check what's in pending
python3 subconscious_cli.py pending

Key Files#

FilePurposesubconscious/schema.pyItem dataclasses, validation, kind enumsubconscious/store.pyJSON file ops with atomic writessubconscious/retrieve.pyRelevance scoring, is_duplicate``subconscious/influence.pyConvert items to bias blocks for promptssubconscious/governance.pyMutation types, protection classes, boundssubconscious/evolution.pyPromotion pipeline, reinforcement logicsubconscious/maintenance.pyDecay, snapshot rotation, housekeepingsubconscious/intake.pyConservative item extraction from turnssubconscious/flush.pySnapshot building/loading for session continuitysubconscious/learnings_bridge.pyBridge to self-improving-agent .learnings/

For Claude Code Sessions#

When Claude Code needs to assess or improve the subconscious system, use the claude-cx wrapper:

bash

claude-cx "Run: python3 ~/.openclaw/skills/subconscious/scripts/subconscious_metabolism.py status"
claude-cx "Run: python3 ~/.openclaw/skills/subconscious/scripts/subconscious_cli.py bias"
claude-cx "Read ~/.openclaw/skills/subconscious/subconscious/evolution.py lines 450-525"

Cron Setup#

After running install.sh, four cron jobs are active:

• */5 * * * * — tick (light metabolism)
• 0 * * * * — rotate (hourly, with promotion)
• 0 6 * * * — review (daily health check)
• 0 9 * * 1 — weekly benchmark (Monday 9am, compares to baseline)

Weekly Benchmark#

Compares current state to the baseline snapshot captured at install time. Reports on:

• Learnings volume change (LEARNINGS.md, ERRORS.md entries)
• New biases promoted to live
• Pending queue depth
• Error recurrence as a proxy for learning effectiveness

bash

# Run manually
python3 scripts/subconscious_benchmark.py

# View past benchmarks
ls memory/subconscious/benchmarks/
cat memory/subconscious/benchmarks/benchmark_YYYY-MM-DD.json

To capture a new baseline:

bash

python3 scripts/subconscious_benchmark.py --capture-baseline

To override workspace location:

bash

export SUBCONSCIOUS_WORKSPACE=/path/to/any/workspace