Start an Improvement Session

Start an Improvement Session when evaluation evidence justifies a candidate change or bounded investigation. The setup should turn a free-form intention into a measurable Goal Contract before work begins.

Choose the saved Harness Version and a specific baseline launch. A baseline may contain one Run. Set the number of Runs for future candidate evaluations independently; a difference from the baseline count is informational. The work forecast and authorized budget use the chosen candidate count.

Prerequisites

• A selected benchmark and evidence that identifies the relevant Benchmark Version or Run.
• An existing target Harness and saved starting version.
• Case, rubric, Run, comparison, or frontier evidence that explains the need.
• A measurable outcome and constraints that should remain protected.
• An operator authorized to start and control the session.

Steps

1. Open the selected benchmark and choose Improve.
2. Choose the available Improve experience, then create a new Improvement Session and select Work or Evolve when using Coevolve.
3. Select the target Harness, exact starting Harness Version, starting Run, and execution source.
4. For Work, choose the available Coevolve or External Agents path. For Evolve, use Coevolve and choose user-gated or autonomous execution. External fine-tuning has its own provider and return boundary when available.
5. State the desired behavior change and important non-regression constraints.
6. Prepare the Goal Contract. Resolve canonical target identities, objectives, measurement bindings, intervention constraints, and unresolved items.
7. Inspect the proposed revision and confirm it only when the evidence can measure the requested outcome.
8. For Evolve, configure epoch authorization, Case pass target, and provider usage bounds before starting.
9. If using an external worker, verify the scoped package and return contract after the Goal is confirmed.
10. Start the session and use chronology, trajectories, candidates, receipts, and current frontier to follow observable progress.

Object and state changes

This task creates a benchmark-scoped Improvement Session, records its mode, experience, source, target, and pinned starting evidence, and establishes a Goal Contract revision. Session lifecycle states are draft, active, paused, completing, completed, cancelling, cancelled, or failed, with attention states when operator action is needed. Starting work can create worker packages, candidate Harness Versions, canonical evaluation requests and receipts, frontier changes, chronology events, and usage records.

Success criteria

• The target and starting evidence use canonical identities.
• Every objective has an observable measurement binding.
• Constraints protect important behavior from hidden regression.
• Work or Evolve is chosen deliberately.
• The exact starting Harness Version and Run are visible.
• Candidate progress is supported by returned artifacts and evaluation receipts.
• The current frontier is explainable from the Goal Contract and evidence.

Common failure modes

• Starting from an aggregate score without selected case or rubric evidence.
• Confirming a Goal Contract whose outcome cannot be measured.
• Allowing Evolve without bounded authorization.
• Treating a worker package as proof that private work occurred.
• Retaining the newest candidate without checking constraints and regressions.
• Changing the benchmark boundary during the session without making the new evidence explicit.

Related reference pages

Related troubleshooting pages

Source confidence

Code-backed: the current Improve setup, session command, and Goal Contract behavior support this workflow. External workers remain bounded by observable return artifacts and requests.