TELOS — Telic Evolution and Life Operating System

User's personal life OS. 20-file system capturing who they are across missions, goals, beliefs, challenges, and wisdom. Read at session start. Updated through guided workflows.

Data Location

• User data: $OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE/telos/ (defaults to ~/openclaw/telos/, never committed to git)
• Templates: assets/templates/ in this skill (20 files)
• References: references/onboarding.md, references/update-workflow.md

Context Loading

Two modes depending on setup:

• With hook (hooks/telos-context.js installed): MISSION.md + GOALS.md + BELIEFS.md are automatically pre-loaded at session start via agent:bootstrap. Additional files are injected on-demand when relevant topics are detected in your messages. This grants the hook persistent, automatic behavior — only install if you want this.
• Without hook (default): Files are loaded on-demand only — the AI reads SKILL.md instructions and loads the relevant files based on the context. Nothing is auto-injected.

⚠️ Persistence note: Installing the hook enables automatic context injection at every session start. This is intentional behavior — opt in only if you want TELOS context always available.

File Index

Use this index to decide which files to read. Each file captures a different dimension of the user's life context:

Loading Rules

1. Check if ~/clawd/telos/ exists. If not, skip silently.
2. Read the user's message. Identify which life dimensions it touches (use the "Load when" column).
3. Read only those files. Usually 1-3 files, rarely more than 4.
4. Absorb silently — use the context to inform your response without announcing it.
5. If a file is empty (only template content), skip it.
6. For major life decisions, load the core trio: MISSION.md + GOALS.md + BELIEFS.md.
7. If no telos directory exists and the user asks about personal topics, suggest "setup telos."

The goal: every response to a personal question should be informed by the user's own stated values, not generic advice. But unrelated conversations (coding, factual questions, etc.) should not trigger any telos loading.

Trigger → Action Map

Personal Analysis Context

When user asks about personal decisions, investments, career, relationships, life priorities, or strategy — always check telos first:

1. If telos files exist → read relevant sections before responding
2. Frame advice against their Goals (G#) and Beliefs (B#)
3. Flag if a suggested action conflicts with their stated Missions (M#)
4. Reference their Challenges (C#) and Strategies (S#) when relevant

Example: user asks "should I take this opportunity?" → read M#, G#, B# → advise through that lens.

Numbering System

M# Missions · G# Goals · C# Challenges · S# Strategies · B# Beliefs · FR# Frames · MO# Models · N# Narratives · P# Problems · TR# Traumas · I# Ideas

Hierarchy: M → G ← (blocked by) C ← (solved by) S | B guides all | P drives G

Update Workflow

When updating telos, the conversation matters as much as the data. Follow this order:

1. Engage first — Acknowledge what the user shared. Reflect on the insight, ask a follow-up, or connect it to their existing telos context. This is a life framework, not a database — treat additions as meaningful moments.
2. Execute — Run the update script: bun {baseDir}/scripts/update-telos.ts <file> "<content>" "<description>"
3. Confirm briefly — Mention it's backed up and logged. Don't dump execution logs.
4. Suggest connections — After adding to one file, suggest related files that might benefit. ("This connects to your B0 about compounding — want to add a related strategy?")

Full format rules: references/update-workflow.md

The tone should feel like a thoughtful conversation partner recording insights together, not a CLI tool reporting status.

OpenClaw Hook Integration

For deeper integration, the skill includes a hook that automatically injects TELOS context into conversations:

What it does:

• Session start (agent:bootstrap): Loads MISSION.md + GOALS.md + BELIEFS.md so the AI knows your core context from the first message
• Every message (message:preprocessed): Detects personal topics (career, decisions, investments, etc.) and injects only the relevant TELOS files before the AI responds

Install the hook (optional — enables automatic injection):

⚠️ Opt-in only: The hook injects your personal TELOS content (missions, goals, beliefs) into the system prompt at every session start and on relevant messages. This is persistent automatic behavior — only install if you explicitly want TELOS context always pre-loaded.

cp {baseDir}/hooks/telos-context.js ~/.openclaw/hooks/

How it works:

• User asks about career → hook detects "career" keywords → injects MISSION + GOALS + BELIEFS + STRATEGIES
• User asks to add a book → hook detects "book" → injects BOOKS.md
• User asks a coding question → no personal keywords detected → nothing injected (zero overhead)
• Empty template files are automatically skipped (won't inject placeholder content)

Without the hook: The skill still works — the AI reads the SKILL.md instructions and loads TELOS files based on the File Index table above. The hook just makes it automatic and faster.

With the hook: Context is pre-injected before the AI even sees the message, so responses are personalized from the first token.