ATOM Documentation

← Back to App

Auto-Dev User Guide

**Version:** 1.0

**Last Updated:** 2026-04-10

Complete guide to using Auto-Dev self-evolving agent capabilities in ATOM.

---

Table of Contents

  1. Overview
  2. Getting Started
  3. Core Concepts
  4. Using Auto-Dev Agents
  5. Monitoring Evolution
  6. Capability Gates
  7. Best Practices
  8. Troubleshooting

---

Overview

Auto-Dev is ATOM's self-evolving agent system that enables AI agents to automatically improve their capabilities through experience. Instead of manually updating agent skills, Auto-Dev agents learn, adapt, and evolve based on their interactions and outcomes.

Key Benefits

  • **Continuous Improvement**: Agents get better over time without manual intervention
  • **Skill Discovery**: Automatically identifies and learns new skills from successful patterns
  • **Performance Optimization**: Refines existing skills based on real-world feedback
  • **Adaptive Behavior**: Adjusts to changing requirements and environments
  • **Safe Evolution**: Capability gates ensure only proven improvements are deployed

Auto-Dev Components

ComponentPurpose
**Memento Engine**Generates new skill candidates from successful experiences
**AlphaEvolver Engine**Optimizes and refines existing skills
**Reflection Engine**Detects patterns and suggests improvements
**Fitness Service**Evaluates skill performance and quality
**Capability Gate**Validates improvements before deployment
**Event Hooks**Subscribes to agent events for learning triggers

---

Getting Started

Prerequisites

  • **ATOM Account**: Free, Solo, Team, or Enterprise plan
  • **Agent Maturity**: Agent must be at least **INTERN** level or higher
  • **Episodes**: Minimum of 10 episodes recorded for initial learning
  • **Storage**: Sufficient storage for skill versions and evolution history

Enabling Auto-Dev

  1. **Navigate to Agent Settings**
  1. **Enable Auto-Dev**
  1. **Configure Learning Parameters**
  1. **Save and Start Learning**

---

Core Concepts

1. Episodes as Learning Data

Auto-Dev learns from episodes - records of agent executions with outcomes.

**Episode Structure:**

  • **Input**: Task description, context, parameters
  • **Execution**: Agent actions, decisions, intermediate states
  • **Output**: Final result, success/failure, performance metrics
  • **Feedback**: User ratings, corrections, quality scores

**Learning from Episodes:**

Episodes → Pattern Detection → Skill Generation → Performance Testing → Deployment

2. Skill Candidates

Auto-Dev generates "skill candidates" - potential new skills or improvements.

**Candidate Types:**

  • **New Skills**: Novel capabilities discovered from patterns
  • **Skill Refinements**: Improvements to existing skills
  • **Parameter Optimizations**: Better configurations for existing skills
  • **Composite Skills**: Combined skills for complex tasks

**Candidate Lifecycle:**

Generated → Tested → Validated → Deployed → Monitored

3. Fitness Evaluation

Every skill candidate is evaluated for "fitness" - how well it performs.

**Fitness Metrics:**

  • **Success Rate**: Percentage of successful executions
  • **Efficiency**: Resource usage (time, compute, tokens)
  • **Quality**: Output quality scores
  • **Consistency**: Performance variance across episodes
  • **Safety**: Compliance with governance rules

**Fitness Score Formula:**

fitness = (success_rate * 0.4) +
         (efficiency * 0.3) +
         (quality * 0.2) +
         (consistency * 0.1)

4. Capability Gates

Capability gates ensure only safe, effective improvements are deployed.

**Gate Levels:**

GateThresholdDescription
**Conservative**90% fitnessOnly proven improvements
**Standard**80% fitnessBalanced safety and innovation
**Aggressive**70% fitnessFaster evolution, more risk
**Disabled**N/ANo automatic deployment

**Gate Validation:**

  • Performance testing on historical episodes
  • Safety checks (governance compliance)
  • A/B testing against current skills
  • Gradual rollout (10% → 50% → 100%)

---

Using Auto-Dev Agents

Agent Behavior Differences

**Auto-Dev agents differ from standard agents:**

AspectStandard AgentAuto-Dev Agent
**Skills**Fixed setEvolves over time
**Performance**StaticImproves with use
**Updates**ManualAutomatic
**Adaptability**LimitedHigh
**Learning**NoneContinuous

Using Auto-Dev Agents

**No special usage required** - Auto-Dev agents work like normal agents:

// Use Auto-Dev agent just like any other agent
const response = await fetch('/api/chat', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'X-Tenant-Id': tenantId
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    agent_id: 'auto-dev-agent-id',
    message: 'Analyze sales data and create report'
  })
});

const result = await response.json();
// Agent uses evolved skills automatically

Monitoring Agent Evolution

**View Evolution History:**

Agents → [Select Agent] → Evolution

Shows:

  • Evolution timeline
  • Skill changes deployed
  • Performance improvements
  • Fitness scores over time
  • Rollback options

---

Monitoring Evolution

Evolution Dashboard

**Access:** Agents → [Agent] → Auto-Dev → Dashboard

**Metrics Displayed:**

  1. **Evolution Timeline**
  • Skill additions and removals
  • Performance improvements over time
  • Deployment history
  1. **Performance Trends**
  • Success rate by week
  • Average execution time
  • Resource efficiency
  • User satisfaction
  1. **Skill Inventory**
  • Current skills and versions
  • Skill fitness scores
  • Usage frequency
  • Last updated
  1. **Learning Progress**
  • Episodes analyzed
  • Patterns discovered
  • Candidates generated
  • Candidates deployed

Evolution Notifications

Auto-Dev sends notifications for important events:

**Email Notifications:**

  • New skill deployed
  • Performance milestone reached
  • Capability gate violation
  • Rollback initiated

**In-App Notifications:**

  • Real-time evolution updates
  • Skill performance alerts
  • A/B test results
  • Deployment status

---

Capability Gates

Understanding Capability Gates

Capability gates are safety checkpoints that validate skill improvements before deployment.

**Gate Criteria:**

  1. **Performance Threshold**
  • Minimum fitness score (e.g., 80%)
  • Success rate improvement
  • No performance regression
  1. **Safety Validation**
  • Governance compliance
  • No security violations
  • Passes safety checks
  1. **Testing Requirements**
  • Validated on historical episodes
  • A/B test completed
  • Consistent performance
  1. **Gradual Rollout**
  • Deployed to small percentage first
  • Monitor for issues
  • Full deployment after validation

Configuring Capability Gates

**Settings:** Agents → [Agent] → Auto-Dev → Capability Gates

**Configuration Options:**

Gate Level: Standard
Fitness Threshold: 80%
Success Rate Improvement: 5%
A/B Test Duration: 100 episodes
Rollout Strategy: Gradual (10% → 50% → 100%)
Rollback Trigger: Success rate drop > 10%

Gate Violations

**When a gate violation occurs:**

  1. **Deployment Blocked**
  • Skill not deployed
  • Reason logged
  • Notification sent
  1. **Investigation Required**
  • Review violation details
  • Analyze root cause
  • Decide on action
  1. **Resolution Options**
  • Adjust gate parameters
  • Fix skill candidate
  • Force deploy (with confirmation)
  • Discard candidate

---

Best Practices

For Optimal Evolution

  1. **Provide High-Quality Episodes**
  • Diverse task types
  • Clear success/failure outcomes
  • Detailed feedback
  • Consistent context
  1. **Set Appropriate Gate Levels**
  • Conservative for critical agents
  • Standard for most use cases
  • Aggressive for experimentation
  1. **Monitor Evolution Actively**
  • Review evolution dashboard weekly
  • Investigate performance changes
  • Adjust parameters as needed
  1. **Provide Regular Feedback**
  • Rate agent performance
  • Correct agent mistakes
  • Provide context and guidance

For Safe Evolution

  1. **Enable Capability Gates**
  • Never disable gates for production agents
  • Use conservative gates for critical tasks
  • Monitor gate violations closely
  1. **Test in Development First**
  • Enable Auto-Dev in dev environment
  • Monitor evolution patterns
  • Adjust parameters before production
  1. **Maintain Rollback Strategy**
  • Keep evolution history
  • Document skill versions
  • Test rollback procedures
  1. **Set Realistic Expectations**
  • Evolution takes time (weeks to months)
  • Not all episodes lead to improvements
  • Some evolution cycles may fail

For Team Collaboration

  1. **Share Evolution Insights**
  • Document successful patterns
  • Share learning across team
  • Collaborate on improvements
  1. **Establish Evolution Policies**
  • Standard gate levels
  • Approval workflows
  • Monitoring schedules
  1. **Train Team Members**
  • Auto-Dev concepts
  • Monitoring procedures
  • Troubleshooting techniques

---

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

**Issue: Agent Not Evolving**

**Symptoms:**

  • No skill changes over time
  • Evolution dashboard shows no activity
  • Fitness scores static

**Solutions:**

  1. Check if Auto-Dev is enabled
  2. Verify minimum episode count (10+ required)
  3. Check evolution schedule (is it running?)
  4. Review learning parameters (window size, thresholds)

**Issue: Performance Regression**

**Symptoms:**

  • Success rate decreased after evolution
  • Agent making more mistakes
  • User complaints increased

**Solutions:**

  1. Check evolution timeline for recent changes
  2. Identify problematic skill deployment
  3. Rollback to previous skill version
  4. Adjust capability gate parameters

**Issue: Capability Gate Violations**

**Symptoms:**

  • Frequent deployment blocks
  • "Gate violation" notifications
  • No skills being deployed

**Solutions:**

  1. Review gate threshold (may be too strict)
  2. Check if fitness targets are realistic
  3. Analyze why candidates are failing
  4. Consider adjusting gate level

**Issue: Excessive Resource Usage**

**Symptoms:**

  • High compute costs
  • Slow evolution cycles
  • Storage limits reached

**Solutions:**

  1. Reduce episode batch size
  2. Increase evolution interval
  3. Clean up old skill versions
  4. Adjust learning window

Getting Help

**Support Resources:**

  • **Documentation:** docs.atomagentos.com/auto-dev
  • **Community:** community.atomagentos.com
  • **Support:** support@atomagentos.com
  • **Status:** status.atomagentos.com

**Debug Information:**

When reporting issues, include:

  • Agent ID and maturity level
  • Evolution configuration
  • Episode count and timeframe
  • Error messages or logs
  • Performance metrics

---

Advanced Topics

Custom Fitness Functions

For specialized use cases, you can define custom fitness functions:

def custom_fitness_function(episode_batch, skill_candidate):
    """Calculate custom fitness score"""

    # Base metrics
    success_rate = calculate_success_rate(episode_batch)
    efficiency = calculate_efficiency(episode_batch, skill_candidate)

    # Custom metrics
    domain_specific_score = calculate_domain_score(episode_batch)
    user_satisfaction = calculate_satisfaction(episode_batch)

    # Custom weights
    fitness = (
        success_rate * 0.3 +
        efficiency * 0.2 +
        domain_specific_score * 0.3 +
        user_satisfaction * 0.2
    )

    return fitness

Evolution Policies

Define policies for automated evolution decisions:

# Evolution policy example
policies:
  - name: "Financial Services Policy"
    conditions:
      domain: "financial"
      maturity: "autonomous"
    gates:
      level: "conservative"
      fitness_threshold: 0.95
      require_human_approval: true
    rollout:
      strategy: "manual"
      testing_duration: "30 days"

  - name: "Research Policy"
    conditions:
      domain: "research"
      maturity: "supervised"
    gates:
      level: "aggressive"
      fitness_threshold: 0.75
      require_human_approval: false
    rollout:
      strategy: "gradual"
      testing_duration: "7 days"

Multi-Agent Evolution

Coordinate evolution across multiple agents:

# Evolve agent team together
from atom_auto_dev import MultiAgentEvolution

team_evolution = MultiAgentEvolution(
    agents=["agent-1", "agent-2", "agent-3"],
    shared_context=True,
    coordinated_evolution=True
)

# Agents learn from each other's episodes
team_evolution.evolve_team()

# Share successful skills across team
team_evolution.share_skills()

---

Next Steps

  • **Enable Auto-Dev:** Turn on Auto-Dev for your agents
  • **Monitor Evolution:** Track improvements over time
  • **Provide Feedback:** Rate agent performance regularly
  • **Join Community:** Share evolution insights with other users

---

**← Back to Documentation**