Agent Team Kit — SKILL.md
A framework for self-sustaining AI agent teams.
What This Is
A complete team process kit for OpenClaw agents that enables:
- Self-service work queues — Agents pick up tasks without human bottlenecks
- Clear role ownership — Everyone knows who does what
- Continuous discovery — Work flows in automatically
- Proactive operation — The team runs itself via heartbeat
Quick Start
1. Copy the Process Files
# From your workspace root
cp -r skills/agent-team-kit/templates/process ./process
This creates:
process/INTAKE.md— The 5-phase work loopprocess/ROLES.md— Role definitionsprocess/OPPORTUNITIES.md— Raw ideas/discoveriesprocess/BACKLOG.md— Triaged work queueprocess/STATUS.md— Who's working on what
2. Add Heartbeat Config
Merge templates/HEARTBEAT.md into your existing HEARTBEAT.md:
cat skills/agent-team-kit/templates/HEARTBEAT.md >> HEARTBEAT.md
Or copy it directly if you don't have one yet.
3. Customize Roles
Edit process/ROLES.md to match your team:
- Rename roles to fit your domain
- Add/remove specialized execution roles
- Update the human lead section with your name
The Intake Loop
DISCOVER → TRIAGE → READY → EXECUTE → FEEDBACK
↑ ↓
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
- Discover — Find opportunities (Scout role)
- Triage — Decide what's ready (Rhythm role)
- Ready — Self-service queue (any agent)
- Execute — Do the work (assigned agent)
- Feedback — Learn and spawn new ideas (completing agent)
Core Roles
| Role | Mission | Owns |
|---|---|---|
| Scout 🔍 | Find opportunities | OPPORTUNITIES.md, discovery |
| Rhythm 🥁 | Keep work flowing | BACKLOG.md, triage |
| Harmony 🤝 | Keep team healthy | Unblocking, retros |
| [Human] | Strategic direction | Hard calls, spawning |
Execution roles (spawn as needed):
- Link 🔗 — Builder
- Pixel 🎨 — Designer
- Sage 🦉 — Architect
- Echo 📢 — Voice
- Spark ✨ — Creative
Key Principles
Self-Service
If it's in Ready, any agent can pick it up. No approval needed.
Clear Ownership
Every phase has ONE owner. No ambiguity.
Always Log
Ideas, discoveries, completions — if you don't log it, it didn't happen.
Spawn, Don't Solo
Main agent coordinates. Sub-agents execute. Don't do everything yourself.
File Structure
process/
├── INTAKE.md # How the loop works (reference)
├── ROLES.md # Who does what
├── OPPORTUNITIES.md # Raw discoveries (anyone adds)
├── BACKLOG.md # Triaged work (Rhythm maintains)
└── STATUS.md # Current activity (self-updated)
HEARTBEAT.md # Proactive check triggers
Heartbeat Integration
Add to your heartbeat checks:
### Team Health (run hourly)
- [ ] OPPORTUNITIES.md stale? → Spawn Scout
- [ ] Ready queue empty? → Alert Rhythm
- [ ] Active work stuck >2h? → Nudge owner
- [ ] Any unresolved blockers? → Harmony
The heartbeat keeps the loop spinning even when the human isn't watching.
Customization
Adding a New Role
-
Define in
ROLES.md:- Mission (one sentence)
- Owns (what they're responsible for)
- Cadence (how often they work)
- Outputs (what they produce)
-
Update the ownership matrix
-
Add spawn criteria in
INTAKE.mdif needed
Changing the Loop
The 5-phase loop is flexible. Adapt it:
- Add validation gates between phases
- Split EXECUTE into parallel tracks
- Add approval checkpoints (if your domain requires it)
Anti-Patterns
❌ Human manually adds every task → Use triage role instead
❌ Waiting for permission to pick up work → Ready = fair game
❌ One agent does everything → Spawn specialists
❌ Ideas stay in heads → Log to OPPORTUNITIES.md
❌ Heartbeat just returns OK → Actually check the loop
Metrics (Optional)
Track team health:
- Cycle time — OPPORTUNITIES → DONE
- Queue depth — Items in Ready (healthy: 5-15)
- Stale items — Days since last triage
- Spawn rate — Sub-agents created per day
The system runs itself. Your job is to trust it.