Self-Iteration

Octopus should eventually improve its own repository through an authorized repo tentacle, not through hidden background power.

Boundary

The brain emits needs such as inspect repo health, verify tests, compare docs and code, or propose an improvement. The repo tentacle reads files, edits branches, runs checks, and opens pull requests.

OAuth

LLM OAuth is a capability grant. Without it, Octopus can plan and report. With it, Octopus may create branches, commits, and PRs within the allowed repository scope.

tmp=$(mktemp -d)
octopus --state "$tmp/state.json" self-iterate dangoZhang/Octopus
octopus --state "$tmp/state.json" oauth github dangoZhang/Octopus
octopus --state "$tmp/state.json" self-iterate dangoZhang/Octopus
OCTOPUS_PR_DRY_RUN=1 octopus --state "$tmp/state.json" self-iterate pr dangoZhang/Octopus "improve usability"

The first plan is report-only. After the grant, the repo-maintainer plan becomes pr-ready. The PR command uses the grant boundary; remove OCTOPUS_PR_DRY_RUN=1 only when the local branch and gh auth are ready.

tentacles/repo-maintainer/tools/inspect_repo.sh .
tentacles/repo-maintainer/tools/github_status.sh dangoZhang/Octopus
tmp=$(mktemp -d)
tentacles/repo-maintainer/tools/patch_queue.sh "$tmp" dangoZhang/Octopus "improve usability"
tentacles/repo-maintainer/tools/draft_pr.sh "$tmp" dangoZhang/Octopus "improve usability"
OCTOPUS_PR_DRY_RUN=1 tentacles/repo-maintainer/tools/publish_pr.sh "$tmp" dangoZhang/Octopus octopus/improve-usability "Improve usability" "$tmp/.octopus/self-iteration/PR_DRAFT.md"

GitHub status, patch queue, draft data, and publish reports land under .octopus/self-iteration/ in the selected workspace.

Harness Evolution

octopus evolve swe-agent "improve repository observation feed quality"
octopus evolve apply swe-agent runtime_code
octopus oauth octopus evolve:swe-agent harness:write
octopus evolve apply swe-agent runtime_code
octopus evolve score swe-agent 03-runtime-code satisfied "runtime patch improved feed"
octopus evolve recommend swe-agent "continue from scored feedback"

The draft lands under .octopus/evolution/<tentacle>/ with PROPOSAL.md, PATCH_CANDIDATES.md, PATCH_DRAFTS.md, per-candidate files under patches/, and proposal.json. It includes recent Feed traces and check history, so runtime-code candidates can target traced or failing tool entrypoints. Patch candidates, drafts, and apply plans include a feedback focus block; LLM-generated candidates can also carry a provider-assisted unified diff for the declared target. evolve recommend uses scored outcomes plus matching check history to choose the next candidate and write an apply plan. evolve apply writes an apply plan under apply/; it stays in needs_authorization until the matching octopus:evolve:<tentacle> grant has harness:write, then writes a reviewable .patch file without applying it.

beat 200 also feeds this loop. If recent check history, Feed traces, or repair outcomes have a failed or partial record for a known tentacle, the harness beat writes the proposal, recommendation, and apply plan automatically and prints the next grant or apply command. The native HTML app stays an observer for Goal, Need, Feed, pet state, and Output; grant, write, and score remain CLI or internal review commands.

Guardrails

Never push to main directly.
Prefer small pull requests.
Run Rust tests and tentacle runtime checks before proposing merge.
Store route outcomes in harness state.
Keep the Rust kernel small enough to audit.

Loop

Need: improve Octopus usability
Feed: repo tentacle inspects code, docs, CI, issues, and papers
Feedback: patch, tests, PR link, route score