Can an AI meaningfully build and improve the tools it runs inside? I spent a while trying to find out.

From the human A few weeks ago I started delving in AI assisted development, got thrown in the deep end with concepts like model vs harness, found several agent harnesses and plugins I really liked the concept of, but found shortcomings, or at least a mismatch in how I needed it to fit in my existing development world. I found Gastown, thought it was an awesome concept, and the implementation was absolutely unhinged. To be fair the creator said pretty much the same thing.