Evolve an Existing Agent

Improve, extend, or create an advanced variant of an agent that was originally authored with create-agent. This procedure covers the maintenance side of the agent lifecycle: assessing gaps against best practices, applying targeted improvements to the persona definition, bumping versions, and keeping the registry and cross-references in sync.

When to Use

• An agent's skills list is outdated after new skills were added to the library
• User feedback reveals missing capabilities, unclear purpose, or weak examples
• Tool requirements have changed (new MCP server, tool removed, privilege reduction needed)
• An agent's scope needs sharpening — it overlaps with another agent or is too broad
• An advanced variant is needed alongside the original (e.g., r-developer and r-developer-advanced)
• Related agents or teams were added and cross-references in See Also are stale

Inputs

• Required: Path to the existing agent file to evolve (e.g., agents/r-developer.md)
• Required: Evolution trigger (feedback, new skills, tool change, scope overlap, team integration, discovered limitations)
• Optional: Target version bump magnitude (patch, minor, major)
• Optional: Whether to create an advanced variant instead of refining in-place (default: refine in-place)