
flywheel
Check knowledge flywheel health. Triggers: "flywheel", "check knowledge flywheel health.", "flywheel skill".
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Install
Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.
npx skills add https://github.com/boshu2/agentops --skill flywheel- 01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
- 02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads flywheel automatically when relevant.
- 03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.
SKILL.md
The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.
Flywheel Skill
Loop position: move 7 (capture + ratchet) of the operating loop — monitors the knowledge-pool health that the promotion ratchet feeds. Monitor the knowledge flywheel health.
The Flywheel Model
Sessions → Transcripts → Forge → Pool → Promote → Knowledge
↑ │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Future sessions find it
Velocity = rate of knowledge flowing through. Friction = bottlenecks slowing the flywheel.
Folded triggers (ag-s43tg wave 1): ratchet routes here
ratchet→ flywheel gate tracking. Use when asked to record Brownian Ratchet gates — tracking progress through the RPI workflow with permanent gates (Progress = Chaos × Filter → Ratchet; merged/closed/stored progress can't be un-ratcheted).- Gate surface:
ao ratchet status/ao ratchet check <step>/ao ratchet record <step> --output "<artifact-path>"over the chain at.agents/ao/chain.jsonl(steps:research,plan,implement,vibe,post-mortem). - Ratchet tracks and locks progress; it does not run the loop itself — pair with
/crank(epic loop) or/swarm(Ralph loop) to execute work.
Execution Steps
Given /flywheel:
Step 1: Measure Knowledge Pools
# Count top-level artifact files (avoid counting directories)
LEARNINGS=$(find .agents/learnings -maxdepth 1 -type f 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
PATTERNS=$(find .agents/patterns -maxdepth 1 -type f 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
RESEARCH=$(find .agents/research -maxdepth 1 -type f 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
RETROS=$(find .agents/retros -maxdepth 1 -type f 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
echo "Learnings: $LEARNINGS"
echo "Patterns: $PATTERNS"
echo "Research: $RESEARCH"
echo "Retros: $RETROS"
Step 2: Check Recent Activity
# Recent learnings (last 7 days)
find .agents/learnings -maxdepth 1 -type f -mtime -7 2>/dev/null | wc -l
# Recent research
find .agents/research -maxdepth 1 -type f -mtime -7 2>/dev/null | wc -l
Step 3: Detect Staleness
# Old artifacts (> 30 days without modification)
find .agents/ -name "*.md" -mtime +30 2>/dev/null | wc -l
Step 3.5: Check Cache Health
if command -v ao &>/dev/null; then
# Get citation report (cache metrics)
CITE_REPORT=$(ao metrics cite-report --json --days 30 2>/dev/null)
if [ -n "$CITE_REPORT" ]; then
HIT_RATE=$(echo "$CITE_REPORT" | jq -r '.hit_rate // "unknown"')
UNCITED=$(echo "$CITE_REPORT" | jq -r '(.uncited_learnings // []) | length')
STALE_90D=$(echo "$CITE_REPORT" | jq -r '.staleness["90d"] // 0')
echo "Cache hit rate: $HIT_RATE"
echo "Uncited learnings: $UNCITED"
echo "Stale (90d uncited): $STALE_90D"
fi
else
# ao-free fallback: compute approximate metrics from files
echo "Cache health (ao-free fallback):"
echo "Active learnings (30d): $(find .agents/learnings/ -name '*.md' -mtime -30 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
echo "Forge candidates pending: $(ls .agents/forge/*.md 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
if [ -f .agents/ao/citations.jsonl ]; then
echo "Total citations: $(wc -l < .agents/ao/citations.jsonl | tr -d ' ')"
echo "Unique learnings cited: $(grep -o '"artifact_path":"[^"]*"' .agents/ao/citations.jsonl 2>/dev/null | sort -u | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
else
echo "No citation data (citations.jsonl not found)"
fi
[ -f .agents/ao/outcomes.jsonl ] && echo "Session outcomes recorded: $(wc -l < .agents/ao/outcomes.jsonl | tr -d ' ')"
fi
Step 4: Check ao CLI Status
if command -v ao &>/dev/null; then
ao metrics flywheel status 2>/dev/null || echo "ao metrics flywheel status unavailable"
ao status 2>/dev/null || echo "ao status unavailable"
ao maturity --scan 2>/dev/null || echo "ao maturity unavailable"
ao anti-patterns 2>/dev/null || echo "ao anti-patterns unavailable"
ao badge 2>/dev/null || echo "ao badge unavailable"
# Knowledge maintenance
ao dedup --merge 2>/dev/null || true
ao contradict 2>/dev/null || true
ao constraint review 2>/dev/null || true
ao curate status 2>/dev/null || true
ao metrics health 2>/dev/null || true
ao metrics cite-report --days 30 2>/dev/null || true
# Active pruning: archive stale, evict low-utility, and curate noisy uncited learnings
ao maturity --expire --archive 2>/dev/null || true
ao maturity --evict --archive 2>/dev/null || true
ao maturity --curate --archive 2>/dev/null || true
# Retrieval quality: use the representative live corpus when it exists
if [ -d cli/cmd/ao/testdata/retrieval-bench-live ]; then
ao eval bench --live --corpus cli/cmd/ao/testdata/retrieval-bench-live --json 2>/dev/null || true
fi
else
echo "ao CLI not available — using file-based metrics"
echo "Pool depths:"
for pool in learnings patterns forge knowledge research retros; do
echo " $pool: $(ls .agents/${pool}/*.md 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
done
echo " global patterns: $(ls ~/.claude/patterns/*.md 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
echo "See references/promotion-tiers.md for tier definitions"
fi
Step 4.5: Process Metrics (from skill telemetry)
If .agents/ao/skill-telemetry.jsonl exists, use jq to extract: invocations by skill, average cycle time per skill, gate failure rates. Include in health report (Step 6) under ## Process Metrics.
Step 5: Validate Artifact Consistency
Cross-reference validation: scan knowledge artifacts for broken internal references.
Use scripts/artifact-consistency.sh (method documented in references/artifact-consistency.md).
Default allowlist lives at references/artifact-consistency-allowlist.txt; use --no-allowlist for a full raw audit.
Health indicator: >90% = Healthy, 70-90% = Warning, <70% = Critical.
Step 6: Write Health Report
Write to: .agents/flywheel-status.md
# Knowledge Flywheel Health
**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
## Pool Depths
| Pool | Count | Recent (7d) |
|------|-------|-------------|
| Learnings | <count> | <count> |
| Patterns | <count> | <count> |
| Research | <count> | <count> |
| Retros | <count> | <count> |
## Velocity (Last 7 Days)
- Sessions with extractions: <count>
- New learnings: <count>
- New patterns: <count>
## Artifact Consistency
- References scanned: <count>
- Broken references: <count>
- Consistency score: <percentage>%
- Status: <Healthy/Warning/Critical>
## Cache Health
- Hit rate: <percentage>%
- Uncited learnings: <count>
- Stale (90d uncited): <count>
- Status: <Healthy/Warning/Critical>
## Retrieval Quality
- Live corpus coverage: <percentage or unavailable>
- Live corpus learnings: <count or unavailable>
- Status: <Healthy/Warning/Critical>
## Health Status
<Healthy/Warning/Critical>
## Friction Points
- <issue 1>
- <issue 2>
## Recommendations
1. <recommendation>
2. <recommendation>
Step 7: Report to User
Tell the user:
- Overall flywheel health
- Knowledge pool depths
- Recent activity
- Any friction points
- Recommendations
Health Indicators
| Metric | Healthy | Warning | Critical |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learnings/week | 3+ | 1-2 | 0 |
| Stale artifacts | <20% | 20-50% | >50% |
| Research/plan ratio | >0.5 | 0.2-0.5 | <0.2 |
| Cache hit rate | >80% | 50-80% | <50% |
Golden Signals
Four golden signals (always shown) reveal whether knowledge is truly compounding or just accumulating noise.
ao flywheel status # table output with golden signals
ao flywheel status --json # machine-readable
The Four Signals
| # | Signal | Question | Key Metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Velocity Trend | Is σρ-δ increasing? | Linear regression slope of baseline velocities (7d/30d) |
| 2 | Citation Pipeline | Are citations useful? | % of feedback with reward > 0.6 |
| 3 | Research Closure | Is research being mined? | % orphaned research (no learning backlink) |
| 4 | Reuse Concentration | Is the whole pool active? | Gini coefficient of citation distribution |
Verdicts and Thresholds
| Signal | Healthy | Warning | Critical |
|---|---|---|---|
| Velocity Trend | compounding (slope > +0.01) | stagnant | decaying (slope < -0.01) |
| Citation Pipeline | reinforcing (>60% high-util) | inert (30-60%) | degrading (<30%) |
| Research Closure | mining (<=10% orphans) | — | hoarding (>=10% orphans) |
| Reuse Concentration | distributed (Gini<0.4, active>30%) | concentrated | dormant (Gini>0.7 or active<10%) |
Overall verdict: 3+ healthy = compounding, 3+ critical = decaying, mixed = accumulating.
Recommended Actions
| Verdict | Action |
|---|---|
| decaying | Run /compile cycle, archive stale artifacts, increase citation via ao lookup |
| accumulating | Review orphaned research (/research→/post-mortem --quick pipeline), improve /curate --mode=forge capture quality |
| compounding | Maintain cadence. Consider capturing baselines (ao metrics baseline) for trend tracking |
Cache Eviction
Read references/cache-eviction.md for the full eviction pipeline (passive tracking → confidence decay → maturity scan → archive).
Hub Budget & Phase 4 Hardening
Phase 4 (soc-ytpq) governance for ~/.agents/learnings/ — all advisory, none block by default. Full details in references/hub-budget.md.
- Size budget: target ≤ 250 MB / ≤ 5,000 files. Restore via
ao maturity --evict --target-size=250M(lowest-utility-first; respectslifecycle.IsEvictionEligibleso canonical / high-confidence files are protected). - Volume gate:
ao harvestWARNs when promotions exceed--max-promotions=N(default 500;AO_MAX_PROMOTIONS=Nenv as fallback; ≤0 disables). WARN-only — the 2,638-promotionsoc-ujlsdrain proves a hard gate would falsely block legitimate runs. - Provenance: every promoted file carries
source_rig:in its frontmatter (empty writers serialize assource_rig: unknown). Bothharvest.Promoteandpool.(*Pool).Promotecontent-dedup against the same hub via~/.agents/pool/promoted-index.jsonl. - Re-bloat triage: check
SkipGlobalHubdefaults totrue(the agentops-b3v / soc-ujls fix), thengrep -h '^source_rig:' ~/.agents/learnings/*.md | sort | uniq -c | sort -rnto identify the regressed writer. Use--target-size, never rawrm.
Key Rules
- Monitor regularly - flywheel needs attention; address bottlenecks early
- Feed the flywheel - run /post-mortem (or /post-mortem --quick)
- Prune stale knowledge - archive old artifacts
Examples
User says: /flywheel — Counts pool depths, checks recent activity, validates artifact consistency, writes health report to .agents/flywheel-status.md.
Hook trigger: After /post-mortem — Compares current vs historical metrics, flags velocity drops and friction points.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| All pool counts zero | .agents/ directory missing or empty | Run /post-mortem (or --quick) to seed knowledge pools |
| Velocity always zero | No recent extractions (last 7 days) | Run /post-mortem (or --quick) to extract and index learnings |
| "ao CLI not available" | ao command not installed or not in PATH | Install ao CLI or use manual pool counting fallback |
| Stale artifacts >50% | Long time since last session or inactive repo | Run /provenance --stale to audit and archive old artifacts |
Reference Documents
- references/artifact-consistency.md
- references/promotion-tiers.md
- references/hub-budget.md
- references/cache-eviction.md
- references/flywheel-cli.feature — Executable spec:
ao flywheelCLI command behavior, linked to cmd tests (soc-jnfgi)
FAQ
What does the flywheel skill do?
Check knowledge flywheel health. Triggers: "flywheel", "check knowledge flywheel health.", "flywheel skill".
How do I install flywheel?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/boshu2/agentops --skill flywheel in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/flywheel/ (personal) or .claude/skills/flywheel/ (project).
Which AI agents can use flywheel?
Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.
Is flywheel safe to install?
No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.
Who maintains flywheel?
It is published by boshu2 in boshu2/agentops. It has 1,045 recorded installs.
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