Darwin core-systems evolution loop — plan

Branch: darwin/core-systems-evolution-2026-06-27 Started: 2026-06-27 Predecessors: capability-evolution (BEIR retrieval, 30 ticks) + plugin-evolution (35 plugins, 4 ticks) Inspired by: dream cycle #2478 (SKILL-DISCO, Verification Horizon, ContextForge — Grade A 2026 papers)

Goal

Apply concurrent Darwin to ruflo's CORE STRENGTHS — self-learning + memory systems — using worktree-isolated parallel agents so different code areas evolve without conflict.

6 dimensions

#	Dimension	Existing bench	SOTA target
1	HNSW search (recall@10 / latency)	scripts/benchmark-intelligence.mjs	recall ≥ 0.99 @ N=20k, p50 < 1ms
2	SONA adaptation (per-pattern ms)	same script	< 0.005 ms/adapt (current 0.0043)
3	MoE gate convergence (rewards-to-confident)	same	< 100 episodes to 0.85 confidence
4	ReasoningBank retrieval (BEIR scifact ndcg10)	run-beir-hybrid.mjs	match BGE-large 0.74 (we're at 0.6256)
5	Causal memory graph (pathfinder accuracy + latency)	smoke-graph-query-dispatch.mjs	pass all 21 + <100ms p99
6	Skill distillation (SKILL-DISCO baseline)	NONE YET — tick 1 writes it	+22% over no-distill (per arXiv 2026 paper)

Per-tick contract (per dimension, worktree-isolated)

1. Spawn claude -p --max-budget-usd 0.50 --model haiku in an isolated worktree
2. Read the dimension's source code + last benchmark result
3. Apply ONE focused change in the worktree (algorithm tweak, parameter, data structure swap)
4. Run that dimension's benchmark in the worktree → capture delta
5. If Δ > 0: commit in the worktree; orchestrator cherry-picks back to main branch
6. If Δ ≤ 0: discard the worktree (auto-removed)
7. Append JSONL line to docs/darwin-core/log.jsonl

Concurrency

• 6 worktrees per tick, parallel via Workflow parallel() with isolation: 'worktree'
• Worktree setup overhead: ~200-500ms each, ~3s total — negligible vs benchmark cost

Cron cadence

• /loop 15m (NOT 5m — benchmarks take real time)
• 7-day TTL, cron job ID will be returned on schedule

Halt

• 3 consecutive ticks where ALL 6 dimensions log noImprovement
• OR explicit user stop (CronDelete)

Budget envelope

• ~$3 per tick (6 agents × $0.50)
• ~30 min per tick (worst-case parallel benchmarks)
• 8-15 useful ticks before plateau → ~$40-60 total