Evolution Kernel

A general-purpose evolution engine for autonomously improving software projects.

中文 · Protocol · First Target

Evolution Kernel is a minimal protocol and runtime for autonomous, self-evolving software systems.

It is not a project-specific automation script. Its purpose is to make software evolution controlled, reproducible, sandboxed, auditable, and reversible. Any project can become an optimization target once it can expose a goal, a sandbox, and an evaluator.

Why It Exists

Modern coding agents can propose and modify code, but long-running software improvement needs more than code generation. It needs a kernel that can:

• define what improvement means for a target project,
• isolate each experiment before it touches the accepted branch,
• evaluate candidate changes with repeatable criteria,
• promote only accepted candidates,
• keep a ledger of what happened and why.

Evolution Kernel provides that loop as a small, inspectable runtime.

Evolution Loop

flowchart LR
Goal[Goal] --> Governor[Governor]
Governor --> Planner[Planner]
Planner --> Plan[plan.json]
Plan --> Executor[Executor]
Executor --> Candidate[Sandbox candidate]
Candidate --> Evaluator[Evaluator]
Evaluator --> Eval[evaluation.json]
Eval --> Governor
Governor --> Accepted[evolution/accepted]
Governor --> Ledger[Ledger]

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First Optimization Target

Evolution Kernel is designed to optimize any software project. The first project being optimized is Token-Ignition, specifically its backend evaluator.

Token-Ignition is therefore the first optimization target and reference adapter, not a hard dependency. It is used to prove that the kernel can safely and deterministically evolve a real codebase while keeping the runtime small.

Current Status

The current v0 implementation provides the foundational runtime:

Area	What exists now
Governor	Deterministic orchestration for planning, execution, evaluation, promotion, rollback, and ledger updates.
Sandbox	Git worktree-based experiment isolation. Candidate changes do not affect the accepted branch unless promoted.
Role handoff	planner, executor, and evaluator run as isolated commands and communicate through JSON files.
Promotion model	Accepted candidates advance the local evolution/accepted branch. Rejected experiments remain recorded but do not advance it.
First adapter	A Token-Ignition adapter with a hand-written golden set for evaluator evolution.

What It Does Not Do Yet

Not yet	Why it matters
LLM-native planner/executor	The current tests use fixture scripts; real agent integrations are the next step.
Strong process/container sandboxing	Git worktrees isolate files, but executor and evaluator isolation should become stronger.
Multi-target adapter framework	Token-Ignition is the first target; more adapters are needed to prove generality.
Parallel evolution branches	v0 focuses on one accepted branch and a simple promotion path.

Roadmap

• Add LLM-driven planner and executor implementations.
• Add stronger sandbox isolation for executor and evaluator runs.
• Generalize the adapter interface beyond Token-Ignition.
• Add examples for multiple project types.
• Support parallel evolution branches and richer merge strategies.
• Improve reporting around ledger history, promotion decisions, and rejected candidates.

Documents

• Protocol
• Token-Ignition First Task

Run Tests

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -v
python3 adapters/token_ignition/evaluate_golden_cases.py

CLI Shape

python3 -m evolution_kernel.cli \
--repo /path/to/target-repo \
--ledger /path/to/evolution-ledger \
--goal /path/to/goal.json \
--planner python3 /path/to/planner.py \
--executor python3 /path/to/executor.py \
--evaluator python3 /path/to/evaluator.py

Each role command receives:

--input <json>
--output <json>
--worktree <sandbox path>