Agents Skill – Creating & Updating Agent Manifests

Use this skill whenever you need to onboard a new agent or modify an existing one under agents/.

Checklist Before Editing

• •Read AGENTS.md (session rules) and the current memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md.
• •Identify which skills the agent needs (each must exist under skills/<name>/).
• •Confirm transport requirements (MCP endpoint, direct channel, etc.).

Creating a New Agent

1. •Copy a template:
   bash

   cp agents/juliamcp.yml agents/<new-agent>.yml
   

2. •Set metadata:
   • •name: short handle (used in UI)
   • •kind: usually mcp-agent
   • •metadata.description: one-line summary
3. •Configure transport:
   yaml

   transport:
     type: mcp
     endpoint: http://127.0.0.1:3001
   

   Adjust endpoint/transport as needed.
4. •Wire skills:
   yaml

   skills:
     required:
       - julia-bridge/send
       - julia-bridge/receive
       - julia-bridge/health
   

5. •Behaviors: define retries, correlation IDs, pre-flight health checks, logging.
6. •Logging: point to a file in logs/ if you need persistent traces.

Updating an Existing Agent

1. •Locate the YAML under agents/.
2. •Make the edit (add/remove skills, adjust behaviors, change endpoint).
3. •Re-run any dependent MCP server to pick up config changes.
4. •Test via the OpenClaw UI or CLI (trigger the agent and watch logs).
5. •Record the change in memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md.

Validation Steps

• •yamllint agents/<agent>.yml (if available).
• •Trigger the agent once; ensure required skills resolve (no “skill not found” errors).
• •If agent uses MCP, run mcporter call <server>.bridge_health first.

Common Patterns

• •Health preflight: run a health skill before sending user messages.
• •Retry: allow one automatic retry with a short delay for MCP send failures.
• •Correlation IDs: enforce a prefix per agent (correlationIdPrefix).

Troubleshooting

Related Skills

• •skills/agents-system – bigger-picture maintenance
• •skills/mcp – MCP server operations
• •skills/julia-bridge – specific to the Julia bridge