agent-introspection

Agent Building

Loop-breaking self-diagnosis. Use when 3+ consecutive failures occur, circular retries persist, or context overwhelms the session.

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins/blob/HEAD/plugins/epicsagas/epic-harness/skills/agent-introspection/SKILL.md

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Agent Introspection — Systematic Self-Diagnosis

Iron Law

NO UNSUPPORTED SELF-HEALING CLAIMS. Only assert recovery actions you can actually perform with available tools.

When to Trigger

3+ consecutive failures on the same task
Repeating the same approach with different parameters (loop detection)
Context window exceeds 70% without resolution
Error messages repeat with no progress
User explicitly says "you're stuck" or "try a different approach"

Process

1. Failure Capture

Stop immediately and record:

Error type: syntax_error / type_error / test_fail / lint_fail / build_fail / runtime_error / permission_denied / not_found
Last 3 tool calls: what was attempted and what failed
Context pressure: approximate context usage percentage
What changed: what was the last successful state

2. Root Cause Diagnosis

Match against known patterns:

Pattern	Symptoms	Root Cause
Loop trap	Same error 3+ times	Wrong approach, not wrong parameters
Context overflow	Increasingly confused responses	Too much information, need compaction
Environment drift	"Works locally" failures	Missing env var, different tool version
Cascade failure	Fix A breaks B	Underlying assumption is wrong
Tool mismatch	Wrong tool for the job	Need a different approach entirely

3. Controlled Recovery

Execute ONLY the smallest safe action:

Loop trap → Abandon current approach entirely. Try a fundamentally different strategy.
Context overflow → Run /compact or summarize current state, then continue.
Environment drift → Verify environment with explicit checks (which, --version).
Cascade failure → Revert to last known good state. Re-analyze assumptions.
Tool mismatch → Switch tools. If Edit fails 3 times, try Write. If Bash fails, try Read first.

4. Introspection Report

Generate a structured report:

## Introspection Report
- **Failure type**: [type]
- **Root cause**: [diagnosis]
- **Recovery action**: [what was done]
- **Confidence**: [high/medium/low]
- **Next step**: [what to do if this happens again]

Save to memory:

epic mem add \
  --title "Self-diagnosis: {error_type} in {file}" \
  --type error \
  --body "Pattern: ...\nRoot cause: ...\nRecovery: ...\n"

Anti-Rationalization

Excuse	Rebuttal	What to do instead
"One more try might work"	3 failures means the approach is wrong, not unlucky.	Stop and run the full 4-step introspection process.
"I just need to tweak the parameters"	Tweaking a failing approach is not debugging. Step back and reassess.	Abandon the current approach and try a fundamentally different strategy.
"I can fix this myself"	Asking for help is not weakness. Escalation saves everyone time.	Escalate to the user with a clear summary of what was tried and what failed.
"The error is clear, I know the fix"	You said that 3 times already. Prove it with a different approach.	Run the introspection report and verify the fix with a test before claiming success.

Evidence Required

Failure type classified correctly
Root cause matched to known pattern
Recovery action is the smallest safe action
Introspection report generated
Failure pattern recorded in memory

Red Flags

Trying the same command more than 3 times with minor variations
Claiming "fixed!" without running the actual test
Not recording the failure pattern in memory
Continuing after 70% context usage without compacting