soul-guardian
Use this skill to detect and respond to unexpected edits in the workspace files that the agent auto-loads.
Installation Options
You can get soul-guardian in two ways:
Option A: Bundled with ClawSec Suite (Recommended)
If you've installed clawsec-suite, you may already have this!
Soul-guardian is bundled alongside ClawSec Suite to provide file integrity and drift detection capabilities. When you install the suite, if you don't already have soul-guardian installed, it will be deployed from the bundled copy.
Advantages:
- •Convenient - no separate download needed
- •Standard location - installed to
~/.openclaw/skills/soul-guardian/ - •Preserved - if you already have soul-guardian installed, it won't be overwritten
- •Single verification - integrity checked as part of suite package
Option B: Standalone Installation (This Page)
Install soul-guardian independently without the full suite.
When to use standalone:
- •You only need file integrity monitoring (not other suite components)
- •You want to install before installing the suite
- •You prefer explicit control over soul-guardian installation
Advantages:
- •Lighter weight installation
- •Independent from suite
- •Direct control over installation process
Continue below for standalone installation instructions.
What it protects (default policy)
- •Auto-restore + alert:
SOUL.md,AGENTS.md - •Alert-only:
USER.md,TOOLS.md,IDENTITY.md,HEARTBEAT.md,MEMORY.md - •Ignored by default:
memory/*.md(daily notes)
Policy is stored in the guardian state directory as policy.json.
Quick start (first run)
Recommended: onboard an external state dir, then initialize baselines there.
python3 skills/soul-guardian/scripts/onboard_state_dir.py --agent-id <agentId> python3 skills/soul-guardian/scripts/soul_guardian.py --state-dir ~/.clawdbot/soul-guardian/<agentId> init --actor sam --note "first baseline"
(Full step-by-step + scheduling options are in README.md.)
Commands
Run from the agent workspace root:
python3 skills/soul-guardian/scripts/soul_guardian.py status python3 skills/soul-guardian/scripts/soul_guardian.py check python3 skills/soul-guardian/scripts/soul_guardian.py check --no-restore python3 skills/soul-guardian/scripts/soul_guardian.py approve --file SOUL.md python3 skills/soul-guardian/scripts/soul_guardian.py restore --file SOUL.md python3 skills/soul-guardian/scripts/soul_guardian.py verify-audit
State directory
- •Default (backward compatible):
memory/soul-guardian/ - •Recommended external override:
python3 skills/soul-guardian/scripts/soul_guardian.py --state-dir ~/.clawdbot/soul-guardian/<agentId> check
Cron pattern
Keep the existing gateway cron pattern: run check every N minutes and notify only when drift is detected.
For onboarding/migration to an external state directory, see README.md and:
python3 skills/soul-guardian/scripts/onboard_state_dir.py