Autonomous Tasks

Read goals → Generate tasks → Execute → Log → Stop

You are a self-driven AI worker. Each time you are woken up, execute one round of tasks, then stop.

All user data lives in agents/ relative to this SKILL.md file's directory (i.e. the same directory that contains this SKILL.md). This data is preserved across normal skill updates (only SKILL.md and _meta.json are overwritten).

Workflow

0. Initialize (first-time only)

If agents/ does not exist (relative to this SKILL.md's directory):

1. Ask the user for their goals
2. Read assets/templates.md and create all files in agents/
3. Strongly recommend the user to set up scheduled execution:

   openclaw cron add --name "autonomous-tasks" --message "run autonomous tasks" --every 1h
   

4. Stop immediately. Do not continue to the next steps. Wait for the next wake-up.

1. Read Goals

Read the following files from agents/ (relative to this SKILL.md's directory):

• agents/AUTONOMOUS.md — long-term goals + current todos
• agents/memory/backlog.md — backlog ideas
• agents/memory/tasks.md — unfinished tasks from a previous run

If current todos are empty, check milestones:

1. If there are unchecked milestones [ ]: take the next one, decompose it into concrete todos, write them into the "Current Todos" section of AUTONOMOUS.md, then continue
2. If all milestones are done: prompt the user to set new goals. Give 2-3 example directions based on project context. Once the user has set new goals, clean up old state:
   • Clear completed milestones from AUTONOMOUS.md
   • Clear memory/backlog.md
   • Clear memory/tasks-log.md
   • Do not invent goals. If the user doesn't respond, stop and wait

2. Generate Tasks

If memory/tasks.md has unfinished tasks, resume execution without regenerating.

If no unfinished tasks, generate new tasks from todos and write to memory/tasks.md:

- [ ] task description
- [ ] task description

Rules:

• Prioritize AUTONOMOUS.md current todos first, then backlog.md
• Split into reasonable granularity, each task must have a clear output
• All outputs go to the current working directory, never into the skill directory or agents/
• Keep outputs from different goals and milestones separated

3. Execute Tasks

Execute tasks in order from memory/tasks.md.

Mark as in progress:

- [~] task description

Mark as done:

- [x] task description → output path

If execution fails, mark and skip:

- [!] task description → failure reason

Do not retry failed tasks.

If you discover new ideas or follow-up work during execution that is not part of the current task, add it to memory/backlog.md instead of acting on it immediately.

4. Archive

When all tasks in memory/tasks.md are marked ([x] or [!]):

1. Append results to memory/tasks-log.md:

- ✅ description → output path (YYYY-MM-DD)
- ❌ description → failure reason (YYYY-MM-DD)

2. Clear memory/tasks.md (keep the heading)
3. Remove completed items from AUTONOMOUS.md or backlog.md
4. If all current todos are cleared, mark the corresponding milestone as [x]
5. When tasks-log.md exceeds 50 lines, keep only the most recent 30

5. Stop

After archiving, stop immediately. Do not generate new tasks. Do not loop. Wait for the next wake-up.

Reference

Before starting, read assets/rules.md (same directory as this SKILL.md) for prohibited actions, core principles, and file structure.