agent-autonomy-kit – OpenClaw Skill

---

name: agent-autonomy-kit version: 1.0.0 description: Stop waiting for prompts. Keep working. homepage: https://github.com/itskai-dev/agent-autonomy-kit metadata: openclaw: emoji: "🚀" category: productivity

Agent Autonomy Kit

Transform your agent from reactive to proactive.

Quick Start

1. Create tasks/QUEUE.md with Ready/In Progress/Blocked/Done sections
2. Update HEARTBEAT.md to pull from queue and do work
3. Set up cron jobs for overnight work and daily reports
4. Watch work happen without prompting

Key Concepts

• Task Queue — Always have work ready
• Proactive Heartbeat — Do work, don't just check
• Continuous Operation — Work until limits hit

See README.md for full documentation.

🚀 Agent Autonomy Kit

Stop waiting for prompts. Keep working.

Most AI agents sit idle between human messages. This kit turns your agent into a self-directed worker that continuously makes progress on meaningful tasks.

---

The Problem

Agents waste tokens by waiting:

• Heartbeats check "anything need attention?" and reply HEARTBEAT_OK
• Team members sit idle until spawned
• Work stops when the human stops prompting
• Subscription limits (tokens/hour, tokens/day) go unused

The Solution

A proactive work system:

1. Task Queue — Always have work ready to pull
2. Proactive Heartbeat — Do work, don't just check for work
3. Team Coordination — Agents communicate and hand off tasks
4. Continuous Operation — Work until limits hit, then sleep

---

Core Concepts

1. The Task Queue

Instead of waiting for prompts, agents pull from a persistent task queue.

Location: tasks/QUEUE.md (or GitHub Projects)

# Task Queue

## Ready (can be picked up)
- [ ] Research competitor X pricing
- [ ] Write blog post draft on memory systems
- [ ] Review and improve procedure docs

## In Progress
- [ ] @kai: Building autonomy skill
- [ ] @rhythm: Updating process docs

## Blocked
- [ ] Deploy to production (needs: Ryan's approval)

## Done Today
- [x] Memory system shipped
- [x] Team spawning documented

Rules:

• Any agent can pick up a "Ready" task
• Mark yourself when you start: @agentname: task
• Move to Done when complete
• Add new tasks as you discover them

2. Proactive Heartbeat

Transform heartbeat from "check for alerts" to "do meaningful work."

HEARTBEAT.md template:

# Heartbeat Routine

## 1. Check for urgent items (30 seconds)
- Unread messages from human?
- Blocked tasks needing escalation?
- System health issues?

If urgent: handle immediately.
If not: continue to work mode.

## 2. Work Mode (use remaining time)

Pull from task queue:
1. Check `tasks/QUEUE.md` for Ready items
2. Pick the highest-priority task you can do
3. Do meaningful work on it
4. Update status when done or blocked

## 3. Before finishing
- Log what you did to daily memory
- Update task queue
- If task incomplete, note progress for next heartbeat

3. Team Coordination

Agents communicate through Discord (or configured channel):

• Progress updates
• Handoffs ("@rhythm this is ready for review")
• Blockers ("stuck on X, need help")
• Discoveries ("found interesting thing, adding to queue")

4. Token Budget Awareness

Know your limits, use them wisely:

## Token Strategy

**Daily budget:** ~X tokens (Claude Max)
**Heartbeat cost:** ~2-5k tokens per run
**Runs available:** ~Y per day

**Priority:**
1. Human requests (always first)
2. Urgent tasks (time-sensitive)
3. High-impact tasks (move needles)
4. Maintenance tasks (improvements)

When approaching limits:
- Wrap up current task
- Write detailed handoff notes
- Sleep until reset

---

Installation

Git Clone (Recommended)

# Clone into your skills folder
git clone https://github.com/reflectt/agent-autonomy-kit.git skills/agent-autonomy-kit

Then follow the setup steps below.

---

Setup

1. Create the task queue

mkdir -p tasks
cat > tasks/QUEUE.md << 'EOF'
# Task Queue

## Ready
<!-- Add tasks here that any agent can pick up -->

## In Progress
<!-- Tasks currently being worked on -->

## Blocked
<!-- Tasks waiting on something -->

## Done Today
<!-- Completed tasks (clear daily) -->
EOF

2. Update HEARTBEAT.md

Replace passive checking with proactive work:

# Heartbeat Routine

## Quick Checks (if urgent, handle immediately)
- [ ] Human messages waiting?
- [ ] Critical blockers?

## Work Mode
1. Read `tasks/QUEUE.md`
2. Pick highest-priority Ready task
3. Do the work
4. Update queue and daily memory
5. If time remains, pick another task

## End of Heartbeat
- Log progress to `memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md`
- Post update to team channel if significant

3. Configure continuous operation

Set heartbeat to run frequently:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      heartbeat: {
        every: "15m",  // More frequent = more work done
        target: "last",
        activeHours: { start: "06:00", end: "23:00" }
      }
    }
  }
}

4. Set up team channel (optional)

Configure Discord/Slack for team communication:

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      // ... existing config ...
      groups: {
        "team-reflectt": {
          policy: "allow",
          channels: ["team-chat-channel-id"]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

---

Workflow Example

Morning (6:00 AM)

1. Heartbeat fires
2. Agent checks: no urgent human messages
3. Agent reads task queue: "Research competitor X pricing"
4. Agent does the research, writes findings
5. Agent updates queue: moves task to Done, adds follow-up tasks discovered
6. Agent posts to team channel: "Competitor research done, see tasks/competitor-analysis.md"

Throughout the Day

• Heartbeat fires every 15-30 minutes
• Each time: check for urgent → do work → update queue → log progress
• Human messages always get priority
• Team coordinates via channel

Evening (11:00 PM)

• Last heartbeat of active hours
• Agent wraps up current task
• Writes detailed notes for tomorrow
• Goes dormant until morning

---

Anti-Patterns

❌ Passive heartbeats — "HEARTBEAT_OK" wastes the opportunity to work ❌ No task queue — Agents don't know what to work on ❌ Solo operation — No coordination means duplicated effort ❌ Ignoring limits — Getting rate-limited mid-task loses context ❌ No handoff notes — Next session starts from scratch

---

Metrics to Track

In memory/metrics.md:

# Autonomy Metrics

## This Week
- Tasks completed: X
- Heartbeats used productively: Y%
- Token utilization: Z%
- Human interventions needed: N

## Patterns
- Most productive hours: morning
- Common blockers: waiting for human approval
- Tasks that work well async: research, writing, code review

---

Related Kits

This kit works best with its companions:

Agent Memory Kit

Required foundation. Provides the memory system this kit builds on:

• Task progress logged to daily memory (episodic)
• Procedures for common tasks (procedural)
• Learnings added to MEMORY.md (semantic)
• Failures tracked in feedback.md (feedback loops)

Agent Team Kit

For multi-agent setups. Coordinates autonomous agents working together:

• Role-based work distribution
• Self-service task queues
• Team communication patterns

---

Origin

Created by Team Reflectt after realizing their Claude Max subscription tokens were going unused. The agent would complete a task and wait for the next prompt, leaving hours of potential work on the table.

Now the team works continuously, coordinating via Discord, pulling from a shared task queue, and only sleeping when the token limits are reached.

---

Cron Jobs for Autonomy

Set up automated reporting and work triggers:

Daily Progress Report (10 PM)

openclaw cron add \
  --name "Daily Progress Report" \
  --cron "0 22 * * *" \
  --tz "America/Vancouver" \
  --session isolated \
  --message "Generate daily progress report. Read tasks/QUEUE.md for completed tasks. Summarize: completed, in progress, blockers, tomorrow's plan."

Morning Kickoff (7 AM)

openclaw cron add \
  --name "Morning Kickoff" \
  --cron "0 7 * * *" \
  --tz "America/Vancouver" \
  --session main \
  --system-event "Morning kickoff: Review task queue, pick top priorities, spawn team members for parallel work." \
  --wake now

Overnight Work Check (3 AM)

openclaw cron add \
  --name "Overnight Work" \
  --cron "0 3 * * *" \
  --tz "America/Vancouver" \
  --session isolated \
  --message "Overnight work session. Pull tasks from queue that don't need human input. Do research, writing, or analysis. Log progress."

These run automatically — no human prompt needed.

---

Idle agents are wasted agents. Keep working.