Agent Squad
Orchestrate teams of specialized AI agents that collaborate on tasks via shared workspaces and heartbeat scheduling.
Quick Start
# Initialize your squad agent-squad init my-squad # Add agents agent-squad add researcher --role "Deep researcher. Finds sources and data." agent-squad add writer --role "Content writer. Sharp, opinionated voice." agent-squad add lead --role "Squad lead. Coordinates and reports." # Configure task system agent-squad config --tasks linear --project "Content Squad" # Start heartbeats (agents wake every 15 min) agent-squad start
What This Enables
Before: One AI doing everything. Context bloat. Generic output.
After: Specialized agents with distinct roles, shared task board, coordinated via heartbeats. Each agent:
- •Has a unique personality (SOUL.md)
- •Checks for work every 15 minutes (cron)
- •Posts updates to shared task system
- •@mentions other agents when handoffs needed
Core Concepts
Agents = OpenClaw Sessions
Each agent is an isolated OpenClaw session with:
- •Unique session key (
agent:{name}:main) - •Custom
SOUL.md(personality, role, tools) - •Heartbeat cron (wakes periodically)
- •Access to shared task system
The Heartbeat Pattern
Instead of always-on agents (expensive), agents wake on schedule:
:00 Lead checks Linear → delegates tasks :05 Researcher checks → does research, @mentions Writer :10 Writer checks → reads research, writes draft
Agents check for @mentions, assigned tasks, and activity. If nothing to do → HEARTBEAT_OK and sleep.
Shared Task Systems
Agents coordinate via task system comments:
- •Linear (recommended) — Issues, comments, states
- •Trello — Cards, lists, checklists
- •GitHub Issues — Native integration
- •Files — Markdown in git repo
Commands
Squad Management
agent-squad init <name> # Create new squad workspace agent-squad status # Show all agents and health agent-squad logs <agent> # View recent heartbeats
Agent Management
agent-squad add <name> [options] --role "Description of role" --personality "skeptical|creative|analytical" --schedule "*/15 * * * *" --model "kimi-code" agent-squad edit <name> # Edit SOUL.md agent-squad remove <name> # Remove agent and cron agent-squad disable <name> # Pause heartbeats agent-squad enable <name> # Resume heartbeats
Task System Integration
agent-squad config --tasks linear # Use Linear agent-squad config --tasks trello # Use Trello agent-squad config --tasks github # Use GitHub Issues agent-squad config --tasks file # Use local markdown files
Operations
agent-squad start # Start all heartbeats agent-squad stop # Stop all heartbeats agent-squad trigger <agent> # Manual heartbeat trigger agent-squad notify "@writer draft ready" # Send notification
Example: Content Marketing Squad
3 agents, Linear integration:
# Setup agent-squad init content-squad agent-squad add fury --role "Researcher. Every claim needs a source." agent-squad add loki --role "Writer. Sharp, anti-fluff voice." agent-squad add jarvis --role "Lead. Coordinates, reports to human." agent-squad config --tasks linear --project "Content Squad" agent-squad start
Workflow:
- •You create Linear issue: "Blog post: AI Agent Security"
- •Jarvis (lead) assigns to Fury (researcher)
- •Fury heartbeat → researches → posts findings → @mentions Loki
- •Loki heartbeat → writes draft → posts → @mentions Jarvis
- •Jarvis notifies you via Telegram: "Draft ready for review"
SOUL.md Templates
See references/personalities.md for pre-built agent personalities:
- •Researcher (Fury)
- •Writer (Loki)
- •Lead (Jarvis)
- •SEO Analyst (Vision)
- •Social Media (Quill)
- •Developer (Friday)
Advanced
Custom Heartbeat Schedules
Stagger agents to prevent all waking at once:
agent-squad add lead --schedule "0,15,30,45 * * * *" agent-squad add researcher --schedule "5,20,35,50 * * * *" agent-squad add writer --schedule "10,25,40,55 * * * *"
AGENTS.md (Shared Operations Manual)
Each agent workspace includes AGENTS.md with:
- •Squad mission
- •Communication rules (@mentions, handoffs)
- •File conventions
- •Escalation procedures
See references/agents-template.md
Multi-Model Squads
Use cheaper models for heartbeats, premium for creative work:
agent-squad add researcher --model "kimi-code" # Cheap, fast agent-squad add writer --model "claude-opus-4-5" # Premium creative
Architecture
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ OpenClaw Gateway │
│ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ │
│ │ Lead │ │Researcher│ │ Writer │ │
│ │ Session │ │ Session │ │Session │ │
│ │ (Jarvis)│ │ (Fury) │ │(Loki) │ │
│ └────┬────┘ └────┬────┘ └────┬────┘ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ └───────────┼───────────┘ │
│ │ │
│ ┌────┴────┐ │
│ │ Cron │ │
│ │ Jobs │ │
│ └────┬────┘ │
└───────────────────┼─────────────────────────┘
│
┌───────┴───────┐
│ Task System │
│ (Linear/etc) │
└───────────────┘
Requirements
- •OpenClaw gateway running
- •Task system credentials (Linear API key, Trello token, etc.)
- •Node.js (for CLI)
See Also
- •references/personalities.md — Agent personality templates
- •references/agents-template.md — AGENTS.md template
- •references/workflows.md — Common squad workflows