Project Heartbeat

Design controlled continuation loops for long-running projects. Use when a task is too large for one session, benefits from periodic wake-ups, and needs explicit continue conditions, stop boundaries, pending-decision handling, progress logging, and resume rules. Ideal for workspace refactors, long skill development, research tracks, and other cumulative engineering work.

Project heartbeat is for controlled continuation, not endless automation.

Use this skill when

• the project has a real home (for example Projects/<name>/)
• the work can continue in small, concrete steps
• progress should survive interruptions
• some blocked actions can be deferred without stopping the whole project
• you want wake-up cadence plus explicit stop conditions

Do not use this skill when

• the work is small enough for one session
• there is no canonical project state
• the only remaining step is a human approval or external action
• the project has no clear next step

v0 scope

This version focuses on what is practical now:

• fit check
• cadence recommendation
• continue conditions
• hard stop vs soft block boundary model
• pending decision backlog contract
• progress logging contract
• continuation integrity rules
• summary + handoff contract
• resume protocol

More advanced ideas such as model-routing and automatic blocked-path rerouting belong in the deferred backlog until the system has more real usage evidence.

A stronger strategic heartbeat mode is also valid when a project has many unfinished modules and should not fall into waiting-human merely because no fresh external input arrived. In that mode, each cycle should first re-evaluate the whole project against its original vision, then choose one smallest high-value move that most helps the system converge toward that vision.

Workflow

1. Fit check

   • Confirm the project is large enough and structured enough for heartbeat.

2. Choose cadence

   • Pick a wake interval that matches the project intensity.
   • 30 seconds is reasonable for active projects needing close monitoring.
   • 5–15 minutes is better for normal ongoing work.
   • 30–60 minutes is suitable for low-intensity sustained projects.
   • Prefer longer cadences for normal operation; reserve short intervals for debug/active-polish phases.

3. Define continue conditions

   • Only continue if there is a concrete next step already visible in project artifacts.

4. Define boundaries

   • Separate:
     • hard stop boundaries
     • soft block boundaries

5. Define progress artifacts

   • Every wake cycle should leave behind a durable trace.

6. Check continuation integrity

   • A cycle does not count as progress unless it produces at least one real artifact update.
   • No artifact, no progress.

7. Define summary + handoff behavior

   • Every cycle should leave a concise human-facing summary.
   • waiting-human and closed must hand work back explicitly rather than stopping silently.

8. Define resume protocol

   • Humans should be able to return and understand what moved, what blocked, and what still needs approval.

Boundary model

Hard stop boundaries

Must stop the loop:

• budget exhausted
• safety boundary reached
• explicit human-only action with no meaningful bypass path
• repeated no-progress cycles
• no clear next step for multiple wake cycles

Soft block boundaries

Do not automatically stop the whole loop if other work remains:

• repository creation pending approval
• publish pending confirmation
• one branch of work blocked while other internal improvements remain

Soft blocks should be recorded in a pending-decision backlog so they can be surfaced later.

Continuation integrity

A heartbeat loop should not be allowed to survive on continuation language alone.

False continuation

False continuation happens when the agent says it continued, started, or progressed, but the project has no real new artifact to show for that cycle.

Minimum artifact rule

A cycle should count as real progress only if it leaves at least one durable change such as:

• STATE.md updated
• task/backlog file updated
• PENDING-DECISIONS.md updated
• HEARTBEAT-LOG.md updated
• a new project/review/decision/doc artifact created
• a real tracked child task started

No-op rule

If a cycle produced no durable artifact, treat it as a no-op. Repeated no-op cycles should escalate toward stop conditions rather than being narrated as progress.

Scripts

scripts/fit_check.py

Quick fit assessment for whether a project is ready for heartbeat-style continuation.

scripts/render_plan.py

Renders a practical heartbeat plan: cadence, continue conditions, stop boundaries, backlog location, and resume guidance.

References

• references/boundaries.md
• references/examples.md
• references/pending-decisions-template.md
• references/heartbeat-log-template.md
• references/continuation-integrity.md
• references/summary-handoff.md
• references/deferred-backlog.md