Scopes

SelfAgency supports three scopes for generated methods: :instance, :singleton, and :class. The scope is passed as the scope: keyword argument to _().

Instance Scope (Default)

Instance methods are available on all instances of the class. This is the default scope.

class Greeter
  include SelfAgency
end

alice = Greeter.new
bob   = Greeter.new

alice._("an instance method named 'hello' that returns the string 'Hello, world!'")

alice.hello  #=> "Hello, world!"
bob.hello    #=> "Hello, world!" -- available to all instances

Internally, SelfAgency creates an anonymous module containing the generated method and uses prepend to add it to the class. This means the method appears on all current and future instances.

Singleton Scope

Singleton methods are available on only one specific instance. Other instances of the same class do not have the method.

alice._("a method named 'secret' that returns 'Alice only'", scope: :singleton)

alice.secret                    #=> "Alice only"
bob.respond_to?(:secret)       #=> false

Internally, singleton-scoped methods are prepended to the instance's singleton class.

Class Scope

Class methods are available on the class itself, not on instances.

alice._("a class method named 'self.class_greeting' that returns 'Greetings from Greeter'", scope: :class)

Greeter.class_greeting  #=> "Greetings from Greeter"

Note

For class methods, the LLM generates def self.method_name. SelfAgency strips the self. prefix before evaluating, since it prepends the method to the class's singleton class.

Scope Comparison

Scope	Keyword	Available On	Mechanism
Instance	scope: :instance	All instances of the class	self.class.prepend(module)
Singleton	scope: :singleton	One specific instance	singleton_class.prepend(module)
Class	scope: :class	The class itself	self.class.singleton_class.prepend(module)

Combining Scopes

You can mix scopes freely on the same class:

calc = StatisticsCalculator.new([10, 20, 30])

# Instance methods -- available to all instances
calc._("an instance method named 'mean' ...")

# Class method -- available on StatisticsCalculator itself
calc._("a class method named 'self.from_range' ...", scope: :class)

# Singleton method -- available only on this calc instance
calc._("a method named 'report' ...", scope: :singleton)