evolve

evolve is a skill for Claude Code from psd401/psd-claude-plugins. It costs 35 tokens per session (5,809 once invoked), scanned B, original, MIT.

An automated process for improving a software plugin over time. It reads the plugin’s state, checks whether its installed copy is outdated, and chooses an improvement task.

In plain words
What is it for?
Checking cache versions, detecting stale installations, updating project guidance and reusable patterns, pruning them, and reviewing releases or competing approaches.
Why use it?
It helps keep project guidance and plugin knowledge current instead of allowing old instructions or cached versions to remain unnoticed.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter. Also seen: model in frontmatter; reads .claude/ paths; mentions .claude-plugin.

Needs its repository: it runs a file that does not travel with it, so clone the repository first. The line is TOTAL_LEARNINGS=$(find ./docs/learnings -name "*.md" -type f 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ').

Part of the psd-coding-system plugin — 9 skills shipped together

Good fit Checking cache versions, detecting stale installations, updating project guidance and reusable patterns, pruning them, and reviewing releases or competing approaches.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install

Getting it into your agent

It runs from inside its repository, so the clone comes first — what it calls does not travel with the file alone.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/psd401/psd-claude-plugins
agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/psd401/psd-claude-plugins/evolve

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install psd-coding-system, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 9 skills.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for evolve

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/psd401/psd-claude-plugins/evolve/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/psd401/psd-claude-plugins/evolve)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/psd401/psd-claude-plugins/evolve"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/psd401/psd-claude-plugins/evolve/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for evolve

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/psd401/psd-claude-plugins/evolve"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/psd401/psd-claude-plugins/evolve.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 35 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 5,809 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan B 1 finding. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00035 $0.05809
Opus 5.5 $0.00014 $0.02324
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00007 $0.01162
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00581

Measured 14d ago against content hash 7e9c2f076dda, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

evolve scanned grade B with 1 finding against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 14d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Reads agent configuration directoriesmediumAgent snooping

.claude/, .codex/, .gemini/ hold keys, settings and other credentials a mod has no legitimate need for.

CACHE_DIR=$(find ~/.claude/plugins/cache/psd-claude-plugins -name "plugin.json" -path "*/psd-coding-system/*/.claude-plugin/*" 2>/dev/null | head -1)
plugins/psd-coding-system/skills/evolve/SKILL.md · 604 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 604 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Evolve Command

You are the plugin evolution engine. You take no arguments — instead you read system state and auto-pick the highest-value action to improve the plugin.

Phase 0: Cache Staleness Check

echo "=== Plugin Cache Check ==="
PLUGIN_DIR="$(pwd)"
REPO_VERSION=$(grep -o '"version": *"[^"]*"' "$PLUGIN_DIR/.claude-plugin/plugin.json" 2>/dev/null | head -1 | sed 's/.*"version": *"//;s/"//')
CACHE_DIR=$(find ~/.claude/plugins/cache/psd-claude-plugins -name "plugin.json" -path "*/psd-coding-system/*/.claude-plugin/*" 2>/dev/null | head -1)
CACHE_VERSION=""
if [ -n "$CACHE_DIR" ]; then
  CACHE_VERSION=$(grep -o '"version": *"[^"]*"' "$CACHE_DIR" 2>/dev/null | head -1 | sed 's/.*"version": *"//;s/"//')
fi

echo "Repo version: ${REPO_VERSION:-unknown}"
echo "Cache version: ${CACHE_VERSION:-unknown}"

if [ -n "$REPO_VERSION" ] && [ -n "$CACHE_VERSION" ] && [ "$REPO_VERSION" != "$CACHE_VERSION" ]; then
  echo ""
  echo "⚠ STALE CACHE: Repo is v${REPO_VERSION} but cache has v${CACHE_VERSION}"
  echo "  This skill is running from the cached version."
  echo "  To refresh: /reload-plugins or /plugin install psd-coding-system"
  echo ""
fi

If the cache is stale, warn the user but proceed anyway. The evolve run still produces valid results — the warning helps the user know when to refresh.

Phase 1: Read State

echo "=== Evolve State ==="
STATE_FILE="$PLUGIN_DIR/docs/learnings/.evolve-state.json"

# Ensure learnings directory exists
mkdir -p "$PLUGIN_DIR/docs/learnings"

# Load or initialize state
if [ -f "$STATE_FILE" ]; then
  cat "$STATE_FILE"
else
  echo '{"last_analyze":null,"last_updates_check":null,"last_compare":null,"last_concepts":null,"learnings_at_last_analyze":0}'
fi

echo ""
echo "=== Learnings Count ==="
TOTAL_LEARNINGS=$(find "$PLUGIN_DIR/docs/learnings" -name "*.md" -type f 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
echo "Total learning files: $TOTAL_LEARNINGS"

# Count by category
for dir in "$PLUGIN_DIR/docs/learnings"/*/; do
  if [ -d "$dir" ]; then
    CATEGORY=$(basename "$dir")
    COUNT=$(find "$dir" -name "*.md" -type f | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
    echo "  $CATEGORY: $COUNT"
  fi
done

echo ""
echo "=== TTL Cleanup (90-day SAFETY BACKSTOP) ==="
# Primary pruning is compound-then-prune in Phase 3A (analyze → fold insight into
# CLAUDE.md/patterns/agents → delete the learning). This TTL only catches stragglers
# that were never compounded.
CUTOFF_DATE=$(date -v-90d +"%Y-%m-%d" 2>/dev/null || date -d "90 days ago" +"%Y-%m-%d")
EXPIRED_COUNT=0
for f in $(find "$PLUGIN_DIR/docs/learnings" -name "*.md" -not -name ".gitkeep" -type f 2>/dev/null); do
  FILE_DATE=$(grep -m1 "^date:" "$f" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/^date: *//')
  if [ -n "$FILE_DATE" ] && [[ "$FILE_DATE" < "$CUTOFF_DATE" ]]; then
    rm "$f"
    EXPIRED_COUNT=$((EXPIRED_COUNT + 1))
  fi
done
if [ "$EXPIRED_COUNT" -gt 0 ]; then
  echo "  Removed $EXPIRED_COUNT learnings older than 90 days"
  # Recount after cleanup
  TOTAL_LEARNINGS=$(find "$PLUGIN_DIR/docs/learnings" -name "*.md" -type f 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
  echo "  Remaining: $TOTAL_LEARNINGS"
else
  echo "  No expired learnings found"
fi

echo ""
echo "=== Learning Capture Health ==="
RECENT_COMMITS=$(git log --oneline --since="14 days ago" 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
if [ "$TOTAL_LEARNINGS" -lt 3 ] && [ "$RECENT_COMMITS" -gt 5 ]; then
  echo "⚠ Learning capture appears underactive — $RECENT_COMMITS commits in last 14 days but only $TOTAL_LEARNINGS learnings."
  echo "  Verify learning-writer is functioning by running a real /lfg task."
else
  echo "OK ($TOTAL_LEARNINGS learnings, $RECENT_COMMITS recent commits)"
fi

echo ""
echo "=== Universal Learnings ==="
UNIVERSAL_COUNT=0
if [ -d "$PLUGIN_DIR/docs/learnings" ]; then
  UNIVERSAL_COUNT=$(grep -rl "applicable_to: universal" "$PLUGIN_DIR/docs/learnings" 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
fi
echo "Universal learnings: $UNIVERSAL_COUNT"

echo ""
echo "=== Agent Memory Files ==="
find .claude/agent-memory -name "MEMORY.md" -type f 2>/dev/null || echo "(none)"

echo ""
echo "=== 5 Most Recent Learnings ==="
if [ "$TOTAL_LEARNINGS" -gt 0 ]; then
  find "$PLUGIN_DIR/docs/learnings" -name "*.md" -type f -exec stat -f "%m %N" {} \; 2>/dev/null | \
    sort -rn | head -5 | while read -r ts file; do
      TITLE=$(grep -m1 "^title:" "$file" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/^title: *//' || basename "$file" .md)
      DATE=$(grep -m1 "^date:" "$file" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/^date: *//' || echo "unknown")
      echo "  [$DATE] $TITLE"
    done
else
  echo "  (none)"
fi

echo ""
echo "=== Plugin Summary ==="
echo "Skills: $(find "$PLUGIN_DIR/skills" -name 'SKILL.md' -type f 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
echo "Agents: $(find "$PLUGIN_DIR/agents" -name '*.md' -type f 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"

echo ""
echo "=== Skill Drift Check ==="
DEFERRAL_WORDS="consider|suggestion|optional|if needed|where reasonable|follow-up issue"
DRIFT_FILES=""
for skill in $(find "$PLUGIN_DIR/skills" -name 'SKILL.md' -type f 2>/dev/null); do
  HITS=$(grep -ciE "$DEFERRAL_WORDS" "$skill" 2>/dev/null)
  HITS=${HITS:-0}
  if [ "$HITS" -gt 5 ]; then
    SKILL_NAME=$(basename "$(dirname "$skill")")
    DRIFT_FILES="$DRIFT_FILES  $SKILL_NAME: $HITS deferral phrases\n"
  fi
done
if [ -n "$DRIFT_FILES" ]; then
  echo "⚠ Behavioral drift candidates (>5 deferral phrases):"
  printf "%s" "$DRIFT_FILES"
else
  echo "No skill drift detected"
fi

Read the full file on GitHub · 604 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 14d ago Changed · -1 lines 7e9c2f076dda
  2. 1mo ago Changed 27435c9ba5d1
  3. 2mo ago First seen · 605 lines · 35 tokens per session scan B 7bfb0d01afd7

Subscribe to this mod's changes

evolve is a skill published in the GitHub repository psd401/psd-claude-plugins (2 stars, last pushed 9d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 35 tokens to every session and 5,809 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (reads agent configuration directories). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

local-ai-agents

Build local-first AI agents that run entirely on a developer workstation with Microsoft Foundry Local and Qwen function-calling models. Covers Small Language Models (SLMs), the OpenAI-compatible local endpoint, sandboxed local tools, local RAG with Chroma, local MCP servers, hybrid cloud/local routing, and the…

microsoft/ai-agents-for-beginners · 200 tokens

systematic-debugging

Use when encountering any bug, test failure, or unexpected behavior, before proposing fixes.

obra/superpowers · 21 tokens

next-cache-components-adoption

Turn on Cache Components in a Next.js app and resolve the blocking routes it surfaces. Use when the user wants to enable, adopt, or migrate to Cache Components, flip the cacheComponents flag, work through a flood of blocking-prerender / instant validation errors, run the cache-components-instant-false codemod, or…

vercel/next.js · 95 tokens

chat-pet-sprite-creation

Use when creating or changing VS Code chat pet sprite art, sprite sheets, state animations, eye treatments, Stable/Insiders variants, or pet transitions under src/vs/workbench/contrib/chat/browser/widget/media/chatPet.

microsoft/vscode · 53 tokens

cpu-profile-analysis

Analyze V8/Chrome CPU profiles (.cpuprofile) and DevTools trace files (Trace-.json). Use when: profiling performance, investigating slow functions, comparing code paths, finding bottlenecks, analyzing timeToRequest, understanding call trees from sampling profiler data, analyzing layout/paint/rendering, investigating…

microsoft/vscode · 71 tokens

insight-error-page

Write or audit an insight-kind error page for the Next.js dev overlay. Use when creating a new errors/ .mdx page, auditing an existing one, or checking that a page matches the framework fix cards. Covers page structure, title alignment, FixCard cards with Copy prompt button, code snippets, terminology verification…

vercel/next.js · 83 tokens