openclaw-mission-control/docs/08-agents-and-skills.md

Agents & skills

Deep dives

• Gateway protocol
• Gateway base config

This page explains the automation model as it appears in Mission Control.

Agent lifecycle (conceptual)

• An agent checks in to Mission Control (often on a schedule) and posts work results as task comments.
• In OpenClaw terms, agents can run:
  • heartbeats (periodic loops)
  • cron jobs (scheduled runs; better for exact timing / isolation)

Heartbeats vs cron

• Use heartbeat for batched checks and context-aware incremental work.
• Use cron for exact timing and isolated, standalone actions.

Skills (how to think about them)

• A skill is a packaged workflow/tooling instruction set that agents can follow.
• Skills typically define:
  • when to use them
  • required binaries/services
  • command patterns

Next

• Add repo-specific guidance for authoring skills and where they live (once standardized).