dsh-self-evolving

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An evidence-first, crash-resumable self-evolution engine for DeepSeek Harness. It generates bounded Cordis plugin candidates, runs them through isolated real-Loader admission, evaluates them with Harbor, and preserves an auditable lineage.

[!IMPORTANT] v0.2.0 verifies stable iteration and a measurable fixed-replay engineering effect. It does not claim a Terminal-Bench score improvement, sealed promotion, leaderboard result, or SOTA performance.

Why this project exists

Self-modifying agent systems are easy to demo and hard to trust. dsh-self-evolving treats every candidate as untrusted and makes the controller, evaluator, budget, dataset split, and safety policy part of a trusted computing base. A result is accepted only when its source identity, evidence, cost, lifecycle, and recovery path reconcile.

The project is a standard DSH Cordis plugin/service—not a fork of DSH and not a second controller wrapped around it.

What is verified

Capability	Evidence-backed status
Standard DSH/Cordis controller and candidate plugins	Verified with the real Cordis Loader
Bounded multi-file candidate generation	Verified through a networkless proposer sandbox
Official DeepSeek Responses provider	Verified with three credential-gated real-provider cases
Deterministic build and isolated capsule admission	Verified with double builds and offline Loader E2E
Durable journal, budget, and crash recovery	Verified with injected process kills and replay audits
Stable K=3 iteration	Verified with three unique admitted descendants
Fixed-replay engineering effect	ENGINEERING_EFFECT_VERIFIED for solve; propose remained unchanged
Terminal-Bench improvement / sealed / leaderboard	Not run; no claim

The exact scope and hashes are recorded in the v0.2 acceptance audit and project status.

Architecture

flowchart LR
  E[DEV_OBSERVED evidence] --> P[Networkless proposer]
  P -->|Unix socket; no key| G[Locked official Responses gateway]
  P --> C[Bounded candidate tree]
  C --> B[Trusted deterministic builder]
  B --> L[One-shot real Cordis Loader]
  L --> H[Harbor / Terminal-Bench evaluator]
  H --> N[Fail-closed normalizer]
  N --> J[Hash-chain journal and archive]
  J --> P
  S[Sealed data] -. inaccessible in development .-> H

• The controller is the only durable writer.
• Provider credentials stay in the trusted host and never enter the proposal sandbox or candidate.
• Candidates may change only their declared package; evaluator, scorer, split, route, and safety policy are fixed.
• Every external action is journaled before launch and reconciled exactly once after restart.

See Architecture overview and the trust-boundary specification.

Quick start

Requirements

• Ubuntu 24.04 x86_64
• Node.js 22.19+ or 24+
• pnpm 11.7.0 through Corepack
• Docker with a working daemon
• Python 3.12, uv, and Bubblewrap
• A DeepSeek API key for real model runs; local validation does not require one

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/timwhitez/dsh-self-evolving.git
cd dsh-self-evolving
corepack enable
pnpm setup:source

setup:source installs this workspace and materializes the three upstream repositories at the exact commits in provenance.lock.json. It refuses mismatched or dirty upstream checkouts.

Initialize and inspect a run

Keep the credential in the trusted shell only:

export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY='...'
export DSH_STATE_DIR="${XDG_STATE_HOME:-$HOME/.local/state}/dsh-self-evolving/demo-1"

pnpm dsh-self-evolving init \
  --run-id demo-1 \
  --state-dir "$DSH_STATE_DIR" \
  --repo-root "$PWD" \
  --budget-usd 5

pnpm dsh-self-evolving doctor --state-dir "$DSH_STATE_DIR"
pnpm dsh-self-evolving run --state-dir "$DSH_STATE_DIR"
pnpm dsh-self-evolving status --state-dir "$DSH_STATE_DIR"
pnpm dsh-self-evolving audit --state-dir "$DSH_STATE_DIR"

Use resume, never a second run, after interruption. State directories are private evidence and must not be committed. The complete workflow is in the Quickstart.

Low-cost effectiveness check

The effectiveness gate asks one real proposal to change the preregistered solve replay while preserving the propose control replay:

export DSH_SELF_EVOLVING_EFFECT_RUN_ID='effect-local-1'
export DSH_SELF_EVOLVING_EFFECT_RECEIPT_PATH="$PWD/evidence/effectiveness/effect-local-1.json"
pnpm effectiveness:official

An accepted receipt contains hashes, token usage, and estimated cost—but no API key, reasoning text, provider body, or private trajectory. The checked-in reference receipt estimated USD 0.0176861328 at the frozen price schedule. That estimate covers the accepted receipt only, not arbitrary retries or a benchmark campaign.

Verify the checkout

pnpm format:check
pnpm lint
pnpm typecheck
pnpm test
env -u DEEPSEEK_API_KEY pnpm test:e2e
pnpm provenance:check
pnpm upstream:check
pnpm byteequal:check
pnpm release:check

Real-provider tests are opt-in because they incur API charges:

pnpm test:provider:official
pnpm effectiveness:official

Documentation

Start here	Purpose
Documentation index	Find setup, architecture, operation, evidence, and release documents
Quickstart	Install and run the bounded stable demo
Configuration	Frozen profiles, limits, provider route, and credentials
Architecture	Components, data flow, and isolation boundaries
Evidence guide	What each artifact proves—and does not prove
Operations	Stop, backup, restore, rollback, and uninstall
Troubleshooting	Fail-closed errors and recovery procedures
DSH upstream policy	Reproducible pinning and the latest compatibility channel
v0.2 release gates	Current acceptance contract and optional post-release scope

The normative specifications live in specs/00–specs/07. When documents disagree, precedence is: frozen run manifest → specifications → operational docs → README → historical discussion.

Project boundaries

• DSH, Harbor, and Terminal-Bench checkouts are pinned read-only upstreams.
• pnpm setup:source installs the accepted DSH pin automatically; a separate scheduled workflow tests current DSH HEAD without silently rebinding a release.
• Development evidence may guide iteration; concealed and sealed evaluation data may not.
• K=10/K=80 search, sealed confirmation, full-set evaluation, and leaderboard submission are optional post-release profiles and are not part of the v0.2 acceptance claim.
• This repository does not authorize financial trading or real-world order execution.

Contributing and security

Read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request. Changes to protocols, trust boundaries, provider routes, splits, metrics, or retry semantics require an ADR and a fresh run lineage.

Do not report credential leaks, sandbox escapes, or concealed-data exposure in a public issue. Follow SECURITY.md and use GitHub private vulnerability reporting after publication.

Community participation follows the Code of Conduct.

License

Licensed under Apache License 2.0. DeepSeek Harness, Harbor, Terminal-Bench, and their dependencies retain their respective licenses and trademarks.