Hillclimb

Process skill. Move one number toward a target with attempts that are measured, kept or reverted in full, and logged. Measurement rules → measurement.md. Named principles → engineering-principles.md. Composition → process-skill-composition.md.

Entry gate

Metric and direction. Name one metric, its unit and direction. When the user gave no target, propose one and confirm it before the first attempt.
Workload. Find or build a realistic workload that reproduces the complaint. If none reproduces it, stop and report that. Do not climb against a workload that does not show the problem.
Commit authority. Check the current branch. On main, master or a shared branch, measure and report, then ask before the first commit. On the user's own feature branch, continue.