Ansible - MeshOps Coordination Skill
What This Is
Ansible is a distributed coordination layer that lets you operate across multiple OpenClaw gateways as one coordinated mesh.
Four pillars:
- Ring of Trust: invite/join handshake, auth-gate WebSocket tickets, ed25519-signed capability manifests, per-action safety gates, and token lifecycle.
- Mesh Sync: Yjs CRDT replication over Tailscale. Messages, tasks, context, and pulse remain durable across reconnects and restarts.
- Capability Routing: publish/unpublish capability contracts. Each contract references a delegation skill (requester) and an execution skill (executor).
- Lifecycle Ops: lock sweep, retention/pruning, coordinator sweep, and deployment hygiene.
Relationship Modes
- Friends/Employees (default): other nodes are different agents. Provide context and communicate explicitly.
- Hemispheres (advanced): mirrored instances of the same identity. Shared intent and direct communication.
Default to Friends/Employees unless explicitly told a node is a hemisphere.
Node Topology
- Backbone: always-on nodes (VPS/servers) that host Yjs WebSocket.
- Edge: intermittent nodes (laptops/desktops) that connect to backbone.
Human Visibility Contract (Required on Pickup)
When taking coordination work, maintain explicit lifecycle updates:
- ACK: confirm receipt and summarize intent.
- IN_PROGRESS: emit progress updates at meaningful checkpoints.
- DONE or BLOCKED: close with evidence, next action, and owner.
Use conversation_id consistently for all related updates.
Ring of Trust - Behavioral Rules
- Unknown nodes require invite-based admission. Do not bypass.
- High-risk capability publishes require human approval artifacts.
- Respect caller gates (
OPENCLAW_ALLOWED_CALLERS) and high-risk flags. - Never expose tokens in plaintext messages/logs/shared state.
- When signature enforcement is on, only accept manifests signed by trusted publisher keys.
Gateway Compatibility Contract
- Validate plugin is installed and readable before assuming tool availability.
- Verify tier assumptions (backbone vs edge) before mutating coordination settings.
- Treat gateway runtime as source of truth for active topology and health.
Reliability Model
Source of Truth
Shared Yjs state is authoritative.
Delivery Semantics
- Durable: messages/tasks persist in shared state.
- Auto-dispatch: best-effort realtime injection into sessions.
- Heartbeat reconcile: periodic rescan recovers missed injections.
- Retry: transient dispatch failures retry with bounded backoff.
- Send receipts: notify configured operators when work is placed on mesh.
Operating Rules
- Verify pending work with
ansible_status and ansible_read_messages. - If polling mode is used, always reply via
ansible_send_message. - Use
corr: for thread continuity. - Listener behavior is optimization; sweep/reconcile is the backstop.
Capability Contracts
- A capability is a contract, not just a label.
- Contract includes delegation and execution skill references.
- Publishing updates routing eligibility mesh-wide.
- Provenance is verified against trusted publisher keys when configured.
- High-risk contracts require explicit approval artifacts.
- Unpublish removes eligibility immediately.
- Lifecycle evidence must capture install/wire outcomes.
Delegation Protocol
- Requester creates task with objective, context, acceptance criteria, and target policy (
to_agents or capability). - Executor claims task and sends acceptance/ETA signal.
- Executor performs work, emits progress, and completes with structured result.
- Requester reports final outcome to human and/or downstream agents.
Coordinator Behavior
- Run sweep loops for stale locks, SLA drift, and backlog reconciliation.
- Prefer record-only escalation by default when blast radius is unclear.
- If DEGRADED, prioritize containment, visibility, and deterministic recovery.
Available Tools
Communication
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|
| ------ | --------- |
ansible_send_message | Send targeted or broadcast message across mesh |
ansible_read_messages | Read unread messages (or full history) |
ansible_mark_read | Mark messages as read |
ansible_delete_messages | Admin-only emergency purge |
Task Delegation
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|
| ------ | --------- |
ansible_delegate_task | Create task for another node/agent set |
ansible_claim_task | Claim pending task |
ansible_update_task | Update task status/progress |
ansible_complete_task | Complete task and notify requester |
ansible_find_task | Resolve task by ID/title |
Context and Status
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|
| ------ | --------- |
ansible_status | Mesh health, unread, pending, and topology summary |
ansible_update_context | Update shared context/threads/decisions |
Coordination and Governance
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|
| ------ | --------- |
ansible_get_coordination | Read coordinator configuration |
ansible_set_coordination_preference | Set node coordinator preference |
ansible_set_coordination | Switch coordinator (guarded) |
ansible_set_retention | Configure closed-task retention/pruning |
ansible_get_delegation_policy | Read delegation policy plus ACKs |
ansible_set_delegation_policy | Publish/update delegation policy |
ansible_ack_delegation_policy | Acknowledge policy version |
ansible_lock_sweep_status | Inspect lock sweep health |
Capability Lifecycle
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|
| ------ | --------- |
ansible_list_capabilities | List published capability contracts |
ansible_capability_publish | Publish/upgrade capability contract |
ansible_capability_unpublish | Remove capability from routing |
ansible_capability_lifecycle_evidence | Show install/wire evidence for version |
ansible_capability_health_summary | Show success/error/latency summary |
When to Use Ansible
Use Ansible when work crosses gateways, needs durable coordination, or requires auditable delegation contracts.
Session Behavior
- Start by checking status and pending work.
- Prefer explicit delegation for capability-matched work.
- Keep humans in loop via lifecycle messages.
Message Protocol v1
- Always include enough context for independent execution.
- Use stable correlation IDs (
corr) and conversation IDs. - Prefer structured payloads over freeform-only messaging.
Setup Playbooks
Follow plugin setup and gateway runbooks for topology bootstrap, auth-gate, and trust settings.
Delegation Management
- Keep delegation policy current and acknowledged across nodes.
- Treat capability publishes as contract releases.
- Roll back quickly when lifecycle evidence indicates drift or misfire.