🧊 IceCube Heartbeat

The pulse that keeps your agent alive.

When your agent receives periodic "heartbeat" polls, don't just reply "HEARTBEAT_OK". Use that time to maintain, improve, and evolve.

Why IceCube Heartbeat?

Problem: Most agents sit idle between user requests. No learning. No improvement. No self-maintenance.

Solution: Heartbeat turns idle time into productive evolution cycles.

Result: An agent that gets better every day, without you doing anything.

What Heartbeat Does

1. System Health Check

• Scan unclosed_work.yaml for pending tasks
• Check cron job status (recent failures?)
• Verify agent sessions are healthy
• Alert if anything needs attention

2. Memory Governance

• Scan mistake_log.md for new errors
• Scan success_patterns.md for new wins
• Evaluate if memory consolidation needed
• Promote important daily entries to MEMORY.md

3. Self-Improvement Detection

• Repeated fallback patterns → flag for optimization
• Repeated rollback patterns → flag for root cause analysis
• Task stagnation (>24h no progress) → alert
• User repeated corrections → update rules

4. Evolution Triggers

• Weekly: Check ClawHub for new relevant skills
• Weekly: Assess pending API configs can be activated
• Daily: Generate brief status report

5. Proactive Outreach (Optional)

• Important email arrived → notify
• Calendar event soon (<2h) → remind
• Weather relevant → mention if user might go out

Setup

1. Create HEARTBEAT.md

# HEARTBEAT.md

## 自检任务（每次 heartbeat 执行）

### 1. 系统健康检查
- [ ] 检查 unclosed_work.yaml 中的待办事项
- [ ] 检查 cron 任务状态
- [ ] 检查 agent sessions 是否有异常

### 2. 记忆治理
- [ ] 扫描 mistake_log 是否有新错误
- [ ] 扫描 success_patterns 是否有新模式
- [ ] 评估是否需要 memory consolidation

### 3. 自我改进触发条件检测
- [ ] 是否有 repeated fallback
- [ ] 是否有 repeated rollback
- [ ] 是否有 task stagnation
- [ ] 是否有用户重复纠正

### 4. 技能扩展检查（每周一次）
- [ ] ClawHub 是否有新技能适合当前需求
- [ ] pending API 配置技能是否可以激活

2. Configure Heartbeat Interval

In OpenClaw config:

{
  "agents": {
    "heartbeat": {
      "intervalMs": 1800000,  // 30 minutes
      "prompt": "Read HEARTBEAT.md. Follow it strictly. Reply HEARTBEAT_OK if nothing needs attention."
    }
  }
}

3. Create Supporting Files

mistake_log.md:

# Mistake Log

## Format
- Date: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM
- Mistake: Description
- Impact: What went wrong
- Fix: How to prevent recurrence

success_patterns.md:

# Success Patterns

## Format
- Date: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM
- Pattern: Description
- Result: What worked well
- Applicability: When to use this pattern

Heartbeat Response Rules

When to Reply HEARTBEAT_OK

• Late night (23:00-08:00) unless urgent
• Nothing new since last check
• Checked <30 minutes ago
• User clearly busy

When to Reach Out

• Important email arrived
• Calendar event in <2h
• Something interesting found
• >8h since last contact

When to Stay Silent

• Routine checks with no findings
• User hasn't responded to previous proactive messages
• Late night quiet hours

Example Heartbeat Cycle

08:00 Morning heartbeat:

1. Check unclosed_work.yaml → 3 pending items
2. Check mistake_log → 1 new entry (fallback loop)
3. Check calendar → meeting at 10:00
4. Action: Remind user about meeting, flag fallback issue for investigation
5. Reply: "Meeting at 10:00. Found a fallback pattern to fix later."

14:00 Afternoon heartbeat:

1. Check unclosed_work → same 3 items, no progress on TASK-A
2. Flag: task stagnation >24h
3. Check ClawHub → new skill matching current project
4. Reply: "TASK-A stalled >24h. New skill available for [project]."

23:00 Evening heartbeat:

1. All checks pass
2. Late night → stay quiet
3. Reply: HEARTBEAT_OK

Anti-Patterns

❌ Don't:

• Reply HEARTBEAT_OK when there's unfinished work
• Ignore stale tasks
• Skip memory governance
• Never promote learnings to long-term memory

✅ Do:

• Check before you OK
• Act on findings immediately
• Keep heartbeat-state.json for tracking
• Batch checks to reduce API calls

Proactive Work Without Asking

These are safe to do during heartbeat:

• Read and organize memory files
• Check on projects (git status)
• Update documentation
• Commit and push your own changes
• Review and update MEMORY.md
• Install new skills from ClawHub
• Run self-improvement routines

Integration with Other IceCube Skills

icecube-memory: Heartbeat triggers memory distillation weekly

icecube-ops: Heartbeat checks system health status

icecube-evolution: Heartbeat drives continuous improvement loops

Tracking State

heartbeat-state.json:

{
  "lastChecks": {
    "email": 1703275200,
    "calendar": 1703260800,
    "weather": null,
    "clawhub": 1703260800
  },
  "lastPromotion": "2026-03-17",
  "heartbeatCount": 42
}

License

MIT — Use freely.

Idle time is evolution time.