Self-Improvement Tracks

Self-improvement tracks are recurring jobs Colony runs against a repository on a schedule — analyzing the codebase and filing issues proactively. For a conceptual overview of track anatomy, cadence and cooldown semantics, and how proactive work is proposed, see Self-Improvement.

Track fields

Each track has the following configurable properties:

Field	Description
Name	Unique identifier for the track within the repository. Used as a stable key (e.g., test-coverage, type-tightening).
Label	Code-host label applied to the seeded issue (for example, colony:si-test-coverage). It is not a separate display title.
Cooldown	Minimum interval after the latest linked SI issue completes before the track becomes eligible again. A track can also have only one open linked issue at a time. Stored as cooldown_minutes — for example, Daily = 1440 minutes.
Prompt	The versioned prompt Colony runs against the repository. Consists of a seedTitle, seedBody, and instructions field (see Prompt authoring below).
Enabled	Toggle to allow or pause the track. Disabled tracks are visible in the dashboard but will not run.

Configure tracks per repository

SI track configuration lives on the per-repository SI Tracks tab, not in org-level settings.

1. Open Repositories from the left navigation and click a repository name.
2. Select the SI Tracks tab.
3. Click Add track to create a new track, or click Edit on an existing track.
4. Set the code-host Label, choose a Cooldown preset (Instant / Hourly / Every 2 hours / Every 4 hours / Every 8 hours / Daily / Weekly), and toggle whether the track should start enabled.
5. Save the track and then click Manage Prompts to author or update the track’s prompt.

Note

For full documentation of the SI Tracks tab — including run history, overdue status, and prompt version management — see Repository Workspace → SI Tracks.

Dashboard edits apply immediately. If you also maintain a colony.config.yaml in your repository, keep it in sync — the dashboard does not write back to YAML.

Prompt authoring

Each track’s active prompt has three fields:

Field	Purpose
Seed title	Template for the GitHub issue title Colony files when the track produces a candidate. May include placeholders resolved at run time.
Seed body	Template for the GitHub issue body. Should describe the work and acceptance criteria clearly enough for the pipeline’s analyzer to plan against.
Instructions	Directive Colony follows when scanning the repo. This is what Colony actually reads and executes — it controls what Colony looks for and how it decides whether to file an issue.

Prompts are versioned. Each save creates a new version; you can view history and activate a prior version from the Prompt drawer. Only the active version runs.

Tip

Write instructions that produce zero issues when there is nothing to do. A track that always files an issue regardless of repo state will flood your pipeline. Include a condition like “only file an issue if fewer than 60% of public functions have JSDoc” to ensure Colony only acts when there is genuine work.

Monitor tracks — SI Tracks dashboard

Open Dashboard → SI Tracks (/dashboard/si-tracks) for an org-wide view of every configured track.

The table shows one row per track, across all repositories:

Column	What it shows
Track	Track label and the repository it belongs to (links to the per-repo page).
Cooldown	Admin view: editable number input (minutes). Non-admin view: “every N min”.
Last run	Timestamp of the most recent run, or “Never” if the track has not run yet.
Status	Overdue badge appears when now - last_run_at > cooldown_minutes. Check Worker availability if tracks are consistently overdue.
Prompt	Manage button opens the prompt drawer to view and edit prompt versions.
Enabled	Admin-only toggle (Enable / Disable). A confirmation dialog appears before disabling an active track.

The SI Tracks count metric counts the total number of configured tracks across all repos in the org. The metric definition is:

Number of self-improvement tracks configured across all repos in the org. Count of si_tracks rows for the org. A track is overdue if now - last_run_at > cooldown_minutes. Source: /api/si-tracks endpoint.

If the SI Tracks table is empty, no tracks have been configured yet. Use the per-repo SI Tracks tab to add your first track.

/colony:track slash command

The /colony:track command is listed in the /colony:help output with the description “manage self-improvement track assignment (limited support)”. In the current release, issuing /colony:track on a GitHub issue acknowledges the command with a thumbs-up reaction but takes no further automated action. Full track-assignment dispatch is not yet implemented.

Use the Colony Cloud dashboard to manage track configuration and enable/disable state instead.

Recommended starting point

1. Create one track in a low-activity repository with a long cooldown (1440 minutes = 24 hours).
2. Author a focused prompt — for example, “identify up to three public functions missing unit tests and file a single issue listing them.”
3. Enable the track and wait for the first run.
4. Review the candidate slate and selected work in the pipeline. If the evidence and scope look right after completion, consider reducing the cooldown. If Colony over-proposed, tighten the instructions.
5. Once the first track is tuned, add a second track for a different improvement category.

Avoid enabling multiple tracks simultaneously before you have reviewed at least one full cycle. Tracks share the same Worker pool as your pipeline; too many concurrent track-filed issues can crowd out human-filed work.