error-guard – OpenClaw Skill

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name: error-guard description: > System safety and control-plane skill that prevents agent deadlocks and freezes. Provides non-LLM control commands to inspect task state, flush message queues, cancel long-running work, and recover safely without restarting the container. Use when implementing or operating long-running tasks, sub-agents, benchmarks, background monitors (e.g., Moltbook, PNR checks), or when the system becomes unresponsive and needs immediate recovery controls.

error-guard

⚠️ System‑level skill (Advanced users)

This skill defines the control‑plane safety primitives for OpenClaw. It is intentionally minimal, non‑blocking, and designed to prevent agent freezes, deadlocks, and unrecoverable states when running long‑lived or high‑risk workloads.

Design Principles

Warning: This skill operates at the agent control‑plane level. It should be installed only by users who understand OpenClaw’s execution model and are running workloads that can block, hang, or run for extended periods.

• Main agent never blocks: no long exec, no external I/O, no LLM calls.
• Event-driven: workers emit events; the control plane listens.
• Fail-safe first: recovery commands must always respond.
• Minimal state: track only task metadata (never payloads).

Command Surface (Phase 1)

/status

Report current system health and task registry state.

Returns:

• Active tasks (taskId, type, state)
• Start time and last heartbeat
• Flags for stalled or overdue tasks

Constraints:

• Must run in constant time
• Must not call any model or external API

/flush

Emergency stop.

Immediately:

• Cancel all active tasks
• Kill active exec/process sessions
• Clear pending message queue
• Reset in-memory task registry

Constraints:

• Must always respond
• No waiting on workers
• No model calls

/recover

Safe recovery sequence.

Steps:

1. Execute /flush
2. Reset control-plane state
3. Optionally reload skills/state (no container restart)

Future Extensions (Not Implemented Yet)

• Sub-agent runner helper (event-driven)
• Task watchdogs with TTL and silence detection
• Structured event protocol (task.started, task.heartbeat, task.completed, ...)
• Back-pressure and task classes (interactive / batch / background)

Security & Privacy

• This skill does not store payloads, prompts, messages, or model outputs
• Only minimal task metadata is persisted (taskId, timestamps, state)
• No API keys, credentials, or user data are read or written
• Safe to publish and share publicly

Non-Goals

• No business logic
• No background polling loops
• No user-facing features
• No LLM reasoning paths

This skill is the last line of defense. Keep it small, fast, and reliable.