Mulch Self Improver — Let your agents grow 🌱

Structured expertise that accumulates over time, lives in git, and works with any agent. Agents start each session from zero; the pattern discovered yesterday is forgotten today. This skill uses Mulch: agents call mulch record to write learnings and mulch query to read them. Expertise compounds across sessions, domains, and teammates. Mulch is a passive layer — it does not contain an LLM. Agents use Mulch; Mulch does not use agents.

Benefits: Better and more consistent coding · Improved experience · Less hallucination (grounding in project expertise)

When to use: Command/tool fails, user corrects you, user wants a missing feature, your knowledge was wrong, or you found a better approach — record with Mulch and promote proven patterns to project memory. Auto-detection: The hook now detects errors and corrections automatically and prompts to record.

Mechanics: One learning store — .mulch/ (append-only JSONL, git-tracked, queryable). Session start: mulch prime. Recording: mulch record --type .... No .learnings/ markdown files.

Qualification (features, benefits, pain points): See QUALIFICATION.md. Benchmark (token efficiency, troubleshooting skill improvement): See BENCHMARK.md — e.g. ~54% fewer chars to get same resolutions; find rate same or better; less context → fewer tokens, less noise, lower risk of wrong fix.

New Features (v1.1)

Auto-Detection

• Errors/failures — When commands fail or return errors
• Corrections — When you say "no", "actually", "wrong", etc.
• Retries — When you ask to try again

Pre-loaded Domains

api, database, testing, frontend, backend, infra, docs, config,
security, performance, deployment, auth, errors, debugging,
workflow, customer, system, marketing, sales, content,
competitors, crypto, automation, openclaw

Notifications

Quick Reference

Mulch Setup

Install (optional; npx works without install):

npm install -g mulch-cli
# or: npx mulch-cli <command>

Initialize in project:

mulch init
# Quick: add all preset domains at once
cat config/domains.json | jq -r '.domains[].name' | xargs -I {} mulch add {}
# Or add individually:
mulch add api
mulch add database
mulch add testing
# add domains that match your areas: frontend, backend, infra, docs, config

Provider hooks (remind agent to record):

mulch setup cursor   # or: claude, codex, gemini, windsurf, aider

Onboarding snippet for AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md:

mulch onboard

Record Types (Mulch)

Workflow

• Session start: If .mulch/ exists, run mulch prime (or mulch prime for focus).
• During work: When something fails or you learn something, run mulch record --type ....
• Before finishing: Review; record any remaining insights with mulch record.
• Promote: When a pattern is proven and broadly applicable, add to CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / SOUL.md / TOOLS.md; use mulch onboard to generate snippets.

Finding Domain

• Use existing domains from mulch status or mulch query --all.
• Run mulch learn to get domain suggestions from changed files.
• Common domains: api, database, testing, frontend, backend, infra, docs, config.

Recurring Patterns and Linking

• Search first: mulch search "keyword" or mulch query .
• Link records: mulch record ... --relates-to : or --supersedes :.
• Recurring issues → promote to CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md or add to TOOLS.md/SOUL.md so all agents see them.

Simplify & Harden Feed

For candidates from the simplify-and-harden skill:

• Use pattern_key as a stable tag: mulch record --type pattern --name "" --description "..." --tags "simplify-and-harden".
• Search first: mulch search ""; if found, use --relates-to or add to existing via mulch edit if needed.
• When recurrence is high, promote to CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md/SOUL.md/TOOLS.md as short prevention rules.

Periodic Review

• When: Before major tasks, after features, weekly.
• Commands: mulch status, mulch ready --since 7d, mulch query --all.
• Actions: Promote high-value records to project memory; run mulch prune for stale tactical/observational entries if desired; mulch doctor --fix for health.

Promotion Targets

Detection Triggers

Record when you notice:

• User corrects you ("No, that's not right...", "Actually...") → convention or pattern
• Command/API/tool fails → failure (description + resolution)
• User wants missing capability → decision (title + rationale)
• Your knowledge was wrong or outdated → convention
• You found a better approach → convention or guide

OpenClaw Setup

OpenClaw injects workspace files; use Mulch for learnings.

Installation

clawdhub install self-improving-agent
# or: git clone ... ~/.openclaw/skills/self-improving-agent

Workspace and Mulch

• Session start: Run mulch prime when the project (or workspace) has .mulch/. Optionally add mulch prime output to workspace context if your setup supports it.
• Recording: Use mulch record from the project or workspace directory that contains .mulch/.
• Promotion: SOUL.md, AGENTS.md, TOOLS.md live in ~/.openclaw/workspace/; add promoted rules there.

Enable Hook (reminder at bootstrap)

cp -r hooks/openclaw ~/.openclaw/hooks/self-improvement
openclaw hooks enable self-improvement

See references/openclaw-integration.md.

Generic Setup (Other Agents)

• In project: mulch init and mulch add as needed.
• Use mulch setup (cursor, claude, codex, etc.) for hooks.
• Add to CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md: "Run mulch prime at session start. Record learnings with mulch record --type failure|convention|decision|pattern|guide|reference."
• Run mulch onboard and paste the snippet into your agent docs.

Multi-Agent Safety

Mulch is safe for concurrent use: advisory file locking, atomic writes, and merge=union in .gitattributes for JSONL. Multiple agents can run mulch prime and mulch record in parallel; locks serialize writes per domain.

Skill Extraction

When a Mulch record is valuable as a reusable skill:

• Get content from mulch query or mulch search "...".
• Create skills//SKILL.md (template in assets/SKILL-TEMPLATE.md).
• Optionally note in the record (e.g. via mulch edit) that it was promoted to a skill.

Best Practices

• Record immediately — context is freshest after the issue.
• Pick the right type — failure (description+resolution), convention (short rule), decision (title+rationale), etc.
• Use domains consistently — e.g. same api domain for all API-related learnings.
• Link related records — --relates-to, --supersedes.
• Run mulch prime at session start — so the agent is grounded in existing expertise.
• Promote when proven — move broadly applicable rules to CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, TOOLS.md.

No .learnings/

This skill does not use .learnings/ or markdown log files. All learnings live in .mulch/ and are recorded via the Mulch CLI. If you see references to .learnings/ in older docs, treat them as superseded by Mulch.