Skip to main content

​
Overview

Evolution strategies control the balance between repair, optimize, and innovate intents. They inform the selector logic and adjust the circuit breaker behavior. 
EVOLVE_STRATEGY=balanced|innovate|harden|repair-only|early-stabilize|steady-state|auto
Location: src/gep/strategy.js

​
Strategy Presets

​
balanced (Default)

Normal operation. Steady growth with stability. 
{
  repair: 0.20,
  optimize: 0.30,
  innovate: 0.50,
  repairLoopThreshold: 0.50,
  label: 'Balanced'
}
  • 20% repair: Fix critical errors
  • 30% optimize: Refactor and improve existing code
  • 50% innovate: Add new features
  • Circuit breaker: Triggers when >50% of last 8 cycles were failed repairs
When to use:
  • Production systems with moderate error rates
  • Continuous improvement workflows
  • Default for most use cases

​
innovate

System is stable. Maximize new features and capabilities. 
{
  repair: 0.05,
  optimize: 0.15,
  innovate: 0.80,
  repairLoopThreshold: 0.30,
  label: 'Innovation Focus'
}
  • 5% repair: Minimal firefighting
  • 15% optimize: Minor improvements
  • 80% innovate: Aggressive feature development
  • Circuit breaker: Very sensitive (30% repair ratio triggers innovation)
When to use:
  • After a successful hardening phase
  • Low error rate environments
  • Rapid prototyping
Do not use during incident response or high error rate periods.

​
harden

After a big change. Focus on stability and robustness. 
{
  repair: 0.40,
  optimize: 0.40,
  innovate: 0.20,
  repairLoopThreshold: 0.70,
  label: 'Hardening'
}
  • 40% repair: Fix bugs introduced by recent changes
  • 40% optimize: Improve reliability and performance
  • 20% innovate: Limited new features
  • Circuit breaker: Tolerates more repair cycles (70% threshold)
When to use:
  • After major feature releases
  • Post-incident recovery
  • Before production deployment

​
repair-only

Emergency. Fix everything before doing anything else. 
{
  repair: 0.80,
  optimize: 0.20,
  innovate: 0.00,
  repairLoopThreshold: 1.00,
  label: 'Repair Only'
}
  • 80% repair: Focus on fixing errors
  • 20% optimize: Refactor broken code
  • 0% innovate: NO new features
  • Circuit breaker: Never triggers (allows indefinite repair cycles)
When to use:
  • Incident response
  • Critical production issues
  • High error rate environments (>50% of logs are errors)
This mode disables innovation entirely. Use only during emergencies.

​
early-stabilize

First cycles. Prioritize fixing existing issues before innovating. 
{
  repair: 0.60,
  optimize: 0.25,
  innovate: 0.15,
  repairLoopThreshold: 0.80,
  label: 'Early Stabilization'
}
  • 60% repair: Fix initial bugs
  • 25% optimize: Improve existing code
  • 15% innovate: Small feature additions
  • Circuit breaker: High tolerance (80% threshold)
When to use:
  • First 5 evolution cycles (auto-applied)
  • New workspace setup
  • After major refactoring
Auto-detection: Automatically applied for cycles 1-5 when no explicit strategy is set. Location: src/gep/strategy.js:100-104

​
steady-state

Evolution saturated. Maintain existing capabilities. Minimal innovation. 
{
  repair: 0.60,
  optimize: 0.30,
  innovate: 0.10,
  repairLoopThreshold: 0.90,
  label: 'Steady State'
}
  • 60% repair: Keep system healthy
  • 30% optimize: Gradual improvements
  • 10% innovate: Rare new features
  • Circuit breaker: Very high tolerance (90% threshold)
When to use:
  • Long-running production systems
  • After reaching desired feature set
  • Low change environments
Auto-detection: Triggered by evolution_saturation or force_steady_state signals. Location: src/gep/strategy.js:107-111

​
auto

Adaptive strategy selection based on cycle count and saturation signals. 
EVOLVE_STRATEGY=auto
Heuristics:
  1. Cycles 1-5: Apply early-stabilize
  2. Saturation detected: Apply steady-state
  3. Otherwise: Use balanced
Saturation signals:
  • force_steady_state
  • evolution_saturation
Location: src/gep/strategy.js:85-119

​
Intent Balancing

Strategies inform the selector via intent allocation ratios. The selector scores genes based on category match: 
// Example: balanced strategy
if (gene.category === 'repair') score += 0.20;
if (gene.category === 'optimize') score += 0.30;
if (gene.category === 'innovate') score += 0.50;
The highest-scoring gene is selected.

​
Circuit Breaker

The circuit breaker detects repair loops and forces innovation to break the cycle.

​
How it works

  1. Read last N events from events.jsonl (default: 3)
  2. Check if all are failed repairs with the same gene
  3. If true and streak ≥ threshold: set FORCE_INNOVATION=true
  4. Selector switches to innovation intent
Location: src/evolve.js:787-811

​
Thresholds by strategy

StrategyRepair Loop Threshold
balanced0.50 (50%)
innovate0.30 (30%)
harden0.70 (70%)
repair-only1.00 (never triggers)
early-stabilize0.80 (80%)
steady-state0.90 (90%)
Example: With balanced strategy, if 4 out of last 8 cycles were failed repairs (50%), the circuit breaker forces innovation.

​
Backward Compatibility

​
FORCE_INNOVATION

Legacy environment variable. Maps to innovate strategy. 
FORCE_INNOVATION=true
# Equivalent to:
EVOLVE_STRATEGY=innovate
Location: src/gep/strategy.js:90-93

​
Usage Examples

​
Production hardening after release

EVOLVE_STRATEGY=harden node index.js --loop

​
Emergency incident response

EVOLVE_STRATEGY=repair-only node index.js --loop

​
Rapid prototyping

EVOLVE_STRATEGY=innovate node index.js --loop

​
Adaptive long-term operation

EVOLVE_STRATEGY=auto node index.js --loop

​
Custom Strategies

To define custom strategies, edit src/gep/strategy.js: 
var STRATEGIES = {
  'my-custom': {
    repair: 0.30,
    optimize: 0.40,
    innovate: 0.30,
    repairLoopThreshold: 0.60,
    label: 'My Custom Strategy',
    description: 'Balanced with higher optimize focus',
  },
};
Then: 
EVOLVE_STRATEGY=my-custom node index.js

​
Strategy Selection Flow

​
Best Practices

  1. Start with auto: Let the evolver adapt to your workspace lifecycle
  2. Monitor circuit breaker: Frequent forced innovation indicates gene quality issues
  3. Use repair-only sparingly: Only for emergencies
  4. Harden after innovation sprints: Stabilize before returning to balanced
  5. Review strategy every 50 cycles: Adjust based on outcome success rates

​
Troubleshooting

​
Strategy not applied

Check if FORCE_INNOVATION or circuit breaker is overriding your setting: 
grep -r "FORCE_INNOVATION" memory/evolution/

​
Too many repairs

Switch to harden or repair-only: 
EVOLVE_STRATEGY=harden node index.js --loop

​
Stuck in repair loop

Circuit breaker should auto-trigger. If not, check repairLoopThreshold: 
node -e "console.log(require('./src/gep/strategy').resolveStrategy())"

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us