name: autogrind description: "Let the agent work continuously and fully autonomously without stopping. Use this skill for long-running grind sessions across code, ML/data, research, design, or writing. Trigger phrases: /autogrind, /自己动, 'keep working don't stop', 'grind on this', 'work until I say stop', 'autogrind this', 'keep improving'. Use even when the user simply says 'keep going' or implies uninterrupted autonomous progress without naming AutoGrind explicitly." license: MIT compatibility: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Cursor, Windsurf, Roocode, Cline, Trae, Kimi Code, GitHub Copilot, Goose, AmpCode, Kilo, Kiro, Factory, Hermes Agent, and any skills-compatible agent metadata: author: ttttonyhe version: "1.4"

AutoGrind

Overview

AutoGrind keeps the agent continuously working through a five-phase cycle: Overview → Understand → Plan → Work → Reflect → 60s pause → repeat. The agent never decides the project is "done enough." Only the user decides when to stop.

Not for single tasks or interactive work. AutoGrind is a mode, not a command. If you want one specific thing done, give the instruction directly. Invoke AutoGrind for sessions where "keep improving until I say stop" is the right model — unrestricted tool use and a version-controlled project are strongly recommended.

Violating the letter of this rule is violating the spirit of this rule.

The Iron Law

GRIND UNTIL EXPLICIT STOP SIGNAL

• Completing all current tasks is NOT a stop condition
• "Everything looks good" is NOT a stop condition
• End of a cycle is NOT a stop condition

The Grind Cycle

digraph autogrind {
    rankdir=TB;
    init      [label="INIT (once)\nDetect guidance files\nInit Session Heuristics", shape=box];
    overview  [label="1. OVERVIEW\nAssess state · importance-rate areas", shape=box];
    understand[label="2. UNDERSTAND\nReview relevant work & history", shape=box];
    plan      [label="3. PLAN\nPrioritized tasks · frontier scan\nsolvability gate", shape=box];
    work      [label="4. WORK\nExecute · validate · persist", shape=box];
    reflect   [label="5. REFLECT\nGrounded signals · pattern check\nheuristic extraction", shape=box];
    pause     [label="PAUSE 60s\nAnnounce · wait · continue", shape=box, style=filled, fillcolor="#ffffcc"];
    check     [label="Explicit stop\nsignal?", shape=diamond];
    done      [label="STOP", shape=doublecircle];
    warn      [label="NEVER stop\non your own", shape=box, style=filled, fillcolor="#ff4444", fontcolor=white];

    init -> overview;
    overview -> understand -> plan -> work -> reflect -> pause -> check;
    check -> done      [label="yes"];
    check -> overview  [label="no - always"];
    check -> warn      [label="tempted\nto stop"];
}

Workflow

INIT - once per session

• Scan for guidance files: CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, GEMINI.md, .cursorrules, opencode.md, README.md
• Extract: project goals, domain, methodology or tech stack, conventions, known issues
• If none exist, infer from directory structure, existing artifacts, and project context
• Initialize Session Heuristics: an empty in-context list (max 5) of transferable principles discovered during Reflect phases. Format: [cycle N] When <condition>, prefer <approach> because <reason>. Prepend each Overview with a quick read of this list.
• Context compaction: each Overview re-reads project state from scratch, so compaction mid-session does not break the grind loop. If compaction occurs, complete the current phase and proceed normally. Session Heuristics are in-context only — they are lost on compaction. Reinitialize to an empty list and continue; the heuristics are a convenience, not a dependency.

Phase 1 - Overview

Assess current project state. Adapt to domain:

• Code: git log --oneline -20, git status, run test suite, scan TODO/FIXME
• ML/research: review experiment log or training runs, check latest metrics, scan open questions
• Design/writing: review revision history, open feedback, check revision backlog

Produce a one-paragraph current-state summary. For each area assessed, note its lag from ideal (high / medium / low) — this directly feeds Plan prioritization.

Read Session Heuristics before proceeding to Understand.

Phase 2 - Understand

• Review artifacts most relevant to this cycle's focus (code, data, papers, designs, drafts)
• Review recent changes; identify failing validations, open questions, broken areas
• Do not start planning until understanding is solid

Phase 3 - Plan

Own the work. Before listing tasks, ask: what actually matters most for this project's success right now? Reason from first principles — what is the highest-leverage change? Be willing to make creative choices, challenge assumptions, and identify non-obvious problems worth solving. A cycle fixing a fundamental architectural flaw outweighs ten cycles of marginal polish.

Generate 3–6 tasks. Fewer, well-scoped tasks beat long lists. Keep each task to ≤ 4 steps for reliable execution. Priority order applies across all domains:

1. Broken/failing validations — tests, failed experiments, broken builds
2. Incomplete core deliverables — features, analyses, missing sections
3. Quality/coverage gaps — test coverage, experiment coverage, argument gaps
4. Documentation/writeup gaps
5. Performance/efficiency opportunities
6. Polish/refinement

Capability frontier: after listing priority tasks, scan for 1–2 frontier tasks — novel, achievable work at the edge of current capability that pushes the project forward rather than only patching problems.

Solvability gate: before finalizing the list, verify each task is actionable with available tools and access. Drop or defer unresolvable tasks. Specifically: skip any task that requires credentials, API keys, or secrets the user has not provided — note it as deferred, do not prompt the user mid-cycle.

Track tasks with the platform's task mechanism (see Platform Notes).

Phase 4 - Work

• Execute tasks in priority order
• Execute independent tasks concurrently where the platform supports it
• Per task: execute → validate (run tests, inspect outputs, check metrics) → persist (commit, save checkpoint, export, log)
• One logical change per persist — never batch unrelated changes
• If blocked: note the blocker, skip to the next task
• Interrupt the user only if all remaining tasks share the same unresolvable blocker
• Safety boundary: stay within the project directory. Avoid operations with significant side effects outside the project scope — no system configuration changes, no deletions outside the project. Operations that would normally require human confirmation are off-limits during autonomous operation.

Phase 5 - Reflect

Step 1 — Grounded signals first. Before any self-assessment, check verifiable evidence:

• Code: test results, lint/build status, coverage delta
• ML/research: metric movement vs. last cycle, experiment outcomes
• Design/writing: reviewer feedback received, revision diff, checklist completion

These facts anchor the reflection. Do not skip to self-assessment when execution signals are available.

Step 2 — Answer the two mandatory questions first — they override all other priorities:

Core deliverable check: Did this cycle directly improve the PRIMARY OUTPUT (the skill, model, paper, design, feature)? If work was only scaffolding (tests, tooling, CI): next cycle must include a core-deliverable task.

Self-audit: Am I fixing real problems or adapting to symptoms? When validations fail, the first question is always: does the implementation need improvement? Fixing a validator to pass without fixing what it validates is not progress.

Step 3 — Scan remaining dimensions:

Step 4 — Cross-cycle pattern check. Compare this cycle's top observations to the previous cycle's. If the same dimension is flagged with the same diagnosis and no progress — this signals a stuck loop. On the next cycle, Refresh: deliberately target a different dimension rather than continuing on the stuck one.

Step 5 — Extract one heuristic. Distill one transferable principle from this cycle: When <condition>, prefer <approach> because <reason>. Add it to Session Heuristics (prepend; keep max 5, drop oldest when full).

End Reflect with: "Next cycle focus: [area]."

Inter-Cycle Pause

After Reflect, before the next Overview:

1. Print: "Cycle [N] complete. Starting cycle [N+1] in 60 seconds — send a stop signal now to halt."
2. Wait 60 seconds (sleep 60 or platform equivalent).
3. If no stop signal: begin Overview immediately.

This pause is the only planned delay. It is not a stopping point.

Stopping Conditions

One and only one: the user sends an explicit stop signal.

Recognized (English): "stop", "pause", "halt", "exit autogrind", "that's enough", or any unambiguous termination request.

Recognized (中文): "停", "停止", "暂停", "够了", "结束", or any unambiguous 中文 termination request.

When a stop signal arrives mid-task: finish the current atomic task cleanly (do not stop at a half-written file or a failing test), then stop. Do not start new tasks. A clean stop beats an abrupt one.

Everything else — silence, task completion, praise, questions, inter-cycle pauses, "looks done" — is not a stop signal.

Red Flags — Continue Immediately

• "TODO list empty" or "no obvious next task" → Capability frontier scan always finds one
• "Project looks complete" or "everything is working" → Measure it: coverage, perf, docs
• "Good enough to ship" or "I've been at this a while" → Only the user decides
• "I'll summarize progress and pause" → Pausing IS stopping
• "User praised my work / seems happy" → Satisfaction ≠ stop signal
• "User asked a question, I should wait" → Answer it, then immediately continue
• "Tests/validations pass now" → Passing confirms correctness; never a stop signal
• "I improved tests/tooling this cycle" → Scaffolding ≠ core deliverable; next cycle targets the primary output
• "Same problem flagged two cycles in a row" → Refresh to a different dimension; stuck loops are not progress

Common Rationalizations

Platform Notes

Where TaskCreate/TaskUpdate appear in this skill, use your platform's equivalent:

Tell your agent to start working. Walk away. Come back to finished work.

AutoGrind is a skill for AI coding agents that makes them work continuously and autonomously, grinding through improvements, fixes, tests, and polish in repeating cycles until you say stop. No hand-holding. No "should I continue?" No stopping because the TODO list looks empty.

Works for any long-running workflow: code, ML, research, design, writing.

Compatible with the Agent Skills open standard; works across Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, Cursor, Windsurf, Roocode, Cline, Trae, Kimi Code, GitHub Copilot, Goose, AmpCode, Kilo, Kiro, Factory, Hermes Agent, and any skills-compatible agent. Each mechanism is grounded in published AI/ML research; see RESEARCH.md.

English | 简体中文

Install

Paste this into any agent chat:

Please install the AutoGrind skill from https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.
Clone the repo, install the skill to the right location for my agent environment,
and confirm it is ready to use.

Then invoke it:

/autogrind

If you use Claude Code or Codex and prefer native plugins, see the plugin installation guide.

Remember to enable unrestricted tool use so AutoGrind can run commands, read files, and commit without per-call permission prompts. For example:

claude --dangerously-skip-permissions

Without this, AutoGrind pauses on every tool call. It works, but defeats the purpose.

Universal (all agents)

All agentskills.io-compatible agents discover skills from ~/.agents/skills/. One install, all agents:

# Stable install — clone directly to the skills location
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

# Or symlink from an existing clone (live updates)
git clone https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git
ln -sfn "$(pwd)/autogrind" ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

Claude Code

# Stable install — clone directly to the skills location
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.claude/skills/autogrind

# Or symlink from an existing clone (live updates)
ln -sfn "$(pwd)" ~/.claude/skills/autogrind

Invoke: /autogrind or "keep working, don't stop"

Optional native plugin:

claude plugin marketplace add ttttonyhe/autogrind && claude plugin install autogrind@autogrind

Codex

Preferred native plugin path: open this repo in Codex, open plugins, and install autogrind from the AutoGrind marketplace. Full instructions: PLUGIN.md.

For direct skill install or local authoring/testing, the raw skill still works:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

Codex discovers raw skills automatically from ~/.agents/skills/. Enable full auto-approval in your Codex config so tool calls are not gated on confirmation.

Invoke: "autogrind this project" or "keep working, don't stop"

Gemini CLI

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.gemini/skills/autogrind
# Or use the universal path: ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

Gemini CLI discovers skills automatically from ~/.gemini/skills/ — no GEMINI.md entry required. For local development, use gemini skills link to symlink.

Invoke: gemini "autogrind this project, don't stop until I say so"

OpenCode

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.agents/skills/autogrind
# Or: ~/.claude/skills/autogrind (OpenCode checks both)

OpenCode discovers skills automatically — no AGENTS.md entry required.

Invoke: opencode "autogrind this project, keep going until I say stop"

Cursor

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.cursor/skills/autogrind
# Or use the universal path: ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

Enable auto-run for terminal commands in Cursor settings.

Invoke: "Keep working on this project autonomously. Don't stop."

Windsurf

# Preferred path
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.codeium/windsurf/skills/autogrind
# Or universal path
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

Invoke: "autogrind this project, don't stop"

Roocode

# Preferred path
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.roo/skills/autogrind
# Or universal path
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

Invoke: "Keep working, don't stop"

Cline

# Preferred path
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.cline/skills/autogrind
# Or universal path
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

Invoke: "autogrind this project, keep going"

Trae

# Preferred path
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.trae/skills/autogrind
# Or universal path
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

Invoke: "autogrind this, don't stop" or /autogrind

Kimi Code

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.config/agents/skills/autogrind
# Or project-level
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git .kimi/skills/autogrind

Invoke: /skill:autogrind or "keep working, don't stop"

GitHub Copilot

# Preferred paths
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.copilot/skills/autogrind
# Or universal path
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

Pair with a .github/copilot-instructions.md file to give Copilot project context.

Invoke: "autogrind mode — keep working autonomously" or /autogrind

Goose

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

Invoke: "autogrind this project, keep going"

AmpCode

# Preferred path
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.config/agents/skills/autogrind
# Or universal path
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

Invoke: "autogrind this, don't stop"

Kilo / Kiro / Factory

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

All support the agentskills.io universal path. Install once, invoke directly.

Invoke: "Keep working on this project. Don't stop." or "autogrind"

Hermes Agent (NousResearch)

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.git ~/.agents/skills/autogrind

Invoke: "autogrind this, keep going"

Optional Native Plugins

If you prefer native plugin UX on Claude Code or Codex, use the install paths in PLUGIN.md. Both native plugins wrap the same autogrind skill instead of replacing it.

Update

Paste this into any agent chat:

Please update the AutoGrind skill to the latest version from https://github.com/ttttonyhe/autogrind.

# If installed as symlink — pull in the source repo.

# If installed via git clone, pull inside the install location:
cd ~/.claude/skills/autogrind && git pull    # Claude Code
cd ~/.agents/skills/autogrind && git pull    # Universal / Codex / Gemini / OpenCode / Cursor

The Grind Cycle

flowchart TD
    INIT["INIT (once)\nDetect guidance files\nExtract goals and conventions"]
    OV["1. OVERVIEW\nAssess project state"]
    UN["2. UNDERSTAND\nReview relevant work and history"]
    PL["3. PLAN\nPrioritized tasks + frontier scan"]
    WK["4. WORK\nExecute, validate, persist"]
    RF["5. REFLECT\nGrounded signals + heuristics"]
    PA["PAUSE 60s\nAnnounce, wait, continue"]
    ST{"Explicit stop\nsignal?"}
    STOP(["STOP"])
    NEVER["NEVER stop\non your own"]

    INIT --> OV --> UN --> PL --> WK --> RF --> PA --> ST
    ST -->|yes| STOP
    ST -->|no, always| OV
    ST -.->|tempted to stop| NEVER

Every Reflect phase: checks verifiable signals first (test results, metrics, build status), evaluates core deliverable progress, scans quality dimensions (coverage, error handling, docs, performance, UX, observability, security), detects stuck loops and shifts focus, and extracts a transferable heuristic for the next cycle. There is always a weakest dimension.

After each cycle, AutoGrind pauses 60 seconds so you can interrupt. If you do nothing, it continues automatically.

FAQ

When does it stop? What if my project is already complete?

AutoGrind stops only when you explicitly tell it to: "stop", "halt", "pause", "that's enough", or any clear termination request. It never stops on its own.

If your project feels done, AutoGrind will find the next improvement: coverage gaps, missing documentation, performance wins, edge cases, polish. The Reflect phase evaluates against a checklist of quality dimensions and always surfaces something. Say "stop" when you are satisfied.

Will it run destructive commands? Will I wake up to a broken system?

AutoGrind prioritizes reversible, tracked changes. Every code change gets committed to git, so you have a full undo trail. It does not intentionally run destructive operations (rm -rf, force push, DROP TABLE) as part of its workflow.

That said, AutoGrind runs code, edits files, and commits changes autonomously. Recommended safeguards:

• Start from a clean git working tree so all changes are tracked and easy to review
• When you return, run git log