Auto-Dev User Guide
**Version:** 1.0
**Last Updated:** 2026-04-10
Complete guide to using Auto-Dev self-evolving agent capabilities in ATOM.
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Table of Contents
- Overview
- Getting Started
- Core Concepts
- Using Auto-Dev Agents
- Monitoring Evolution
- Capability Gates
- Best Practices
- Troubleshooting
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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
| Component | Purpose |
|---|---|
| **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 |
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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
- **Navigate to Agent Settings**
- **Enable Auto-Dev**
- **Configure Learning Parameters**
- **Save and Start Learning**
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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 → Deployment2. 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 → Monitored3. 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:**
| Gate | Threshold | Description |
|---|---|---|
| **Conservative** | 90% fitness | Only proven improvements |
| **Standard** | 80% fitness | Balanced safety and innovation |
| **Aggressive** | 70% fitness | Faster evolution, more risk |
| **Disabled** | N/A | No automatic deployment |
**Gate Validation:**
- Performance testing on historical episodes
- Safety checks (governance compliance)
- A/B testing against current skills
- Gradual rollout (10% → 50% → 100%)
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Using Auto-Dev Agents
Agent Behavior Differences
**Auto-Dev agents differ from standard agents:**
| Aspect | Standard Agent | Auto-Dev Agent |
|---|---|---|
| **Skills** | Fixed set | Evolves over time |
| **Performance** | Static | Improves with use |
| **Updates** | Manual | Automatic |
| **Adaptability** | Limited | High |
| **Learning** | None | Continuous |
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 automaticallyMonitoring Agent Evolution
**View Evolution History:**
Agents → [Select Agent] → EvolutionShows:
- Evolution timeline
- Skill changes deployed
- Performance improvements
- Fitness scores over time
- Rollback options
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Monitoring Evolution
Evolution Dashboard
**Access:** Agents → [Agent] → Auto-Dev → Dashboard
**Metrics Displayed:**
- **Evolution Timeline**
- Skill additions and removals
- Performance improvements over time
- Deployment history
- **Performance Trends**
- Success rate by week
- Average execution time
- Resource efficiency
- User satisfaction
- **Skill Inventory**
- Current skills and versions
- Skill fitness scores
- Usage frequency
- Last updated
- **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
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Capability Gates
Understanding Capability Gates
Capability gates are safety checkpoints that validate skill improvements before deployment.
**Gate Criteria:**
- **Performance Threshold**
- Minimum fitness score (e.g., 80%)
- Success rate improvement
- No performance regression
- **Safety Validation**
- Governance compliance
- No security violations
- Passes safety checks
- **Testing Requirements**
- Validated on historical episodes
- A/B test completed
- Consistent performance
- **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:**
- **Deployment Blocked**
- Skill not deployed
- Reason logged
- Notification sent
- **Investigation Required**
- Review violation details
- Analyze root cause
- Decide on action
- **Resolution Options**
- Adjust gate parameters
- Fix skill candidate
- Force deploy (with confirmation)
- Discard candidate
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Best Practices
For Optimal Evolution
- **Provide High-Quality Episodes**
- Diverse task types
- Clear success/failure outcomes
- Detailed feedback
- Consistent context
- **Set Appropriate Gate Levels**
- Conservative for critical agents
- Standard for most use cases
- Aggressive for experimentation
- **Monitor Evolution Actively**
- Review evolution dashboard weekly
- Investigate performance changes
- Adjust parameters as needed
- **Provide Regular Feedback**
- Rate agent performance
- Correct agent mistakes
- Provide context and guidance
For Safe Evolution
- **Enable Capability Gates**
- Never disable gates for production agents
- Use conservative gates for critical tasks
- Monitor gate violations closely
- **Test in Development First**
- Enable Auto-Dev in dev environment
- Monitor evolution patterns
- Adjust parameters before production
- **Maintain Rollback Strategy**
- Keep evolution history
- Document skill versions
- Test rollback procedures
- **Set Realistic Expectations**
- Evolution takes time (weeks to months)
- Not all episodes lead to improvements
- Some evolution cycles may fail
For Team Collaboration
- **Share Evolution Insights**
- Document successful patterns
- Share learning across team
- Collaborate on improvements
- **Establish Evolution Policies**
- Standard gate levels
- Approval workflows
- Monitoring schedules
- **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:**
- Check if Auto-Dev is enabled
- Verify minimum episode count (10+ required)
- Check evolution schedule (is it running?)
- Review learning parameters (window size, thresholds)
**Issue: Performance Regression**
**Symptoms:**
- Success rate decreased after evolution
- Agent making more mistakes
- User complaints increased
**Solutions:**
- Check evolution timeline for recent changes
- Identify problematic skill deployment
- Rollback to previous skill version
- Adjust capability gate parameters
**Issue: Capability Gate Violations**
**Symptoms:**
- Frequent deployment blocks
- "Gate violation" notifications
- No skills being deployed
**Solutions:**
- Review gate threshold (may be too strict)
- Check if fitness targets are realistic
- Analyze why candidates are failing
- Consider adjusting gate level
**Issue: Excessive Resource Usage**
**Symptoms:**
- High compute costs
- Slow evolution cycles
- Storage limits reached
**Solutions:**
- Reduce episode batch size
- Increase evolution interval
- Clean up old skill versions
- 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
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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 fitnessEvolution 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
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