Inner Life Core

Your agent forgets who you are between sessions. It gives the same responses every day. It doesn't grow. inner-life-core fixes that. Gives your OpenClaw agent emotions with half-life decay, a 9-step Brain Loop protocol, and structured state — the foundation for an inner life. Works standalone or with inner-life-* extension skills.

The foundation for an agent's inner life. Emotions, state, protocol.

What This Solves

Without inner-life-core, your agent:

• Starts every session as a blank slate
• Has no emotional continuity
• Can't prioritize based on how things are going
• Doesn't know when to reach out or stay quiet

With inner-life-core, your agent:

• Tracks 6 emotions with realistic half-life decay
• Follows a 9-step Brain Loop protocol
• Routes behavior based on emotional state
• Knows when to ask, when to act, when to stay silent

Setup

bash

# Initialize state files
bash skills/inner-life-core/scripts/init.sh

This creates:

• memory/inner-state.json — 6 emotions with decay rules
• memory/drive.json — what the agent is seeking/anticipating
• memory/habits.json — learned habits and user patterns
• memory/relationship.json — trust levels and lessons
• BRAIN.md — 9-step Brain Loop protocol
• SELF.md — personality observation space
• memory/questions.md — curiosity backlog
• tasks/QUEUE.md — task queue

The Emotion Model

6 emotions with half-life decay:

Emotion	What it tracks	Decay
connection	How recently you talked to the user	-0.05 per 6h without contact
confidence	How well things are going	+0.02/6h recovery, -0.1 on mistake
curiosity	How stimulated you are	-0.03 per 6h without spark
boredom	How routine things feel	+1 day counter, reset on novelty
frustration	Recurring unsolved problems	Counts recurring items
impatience	Stale items waiting for response	Tracks days without action

Emotions drive behavior — see BRAIN.md Step 3 (Emotion-driven routing).

Context Protocol

4 levels of state reading, so each component reads only what it needs:

• Level 1 (Minimal): Task-specific data only
• Level 2 (Standard): inner-state + drive + daily notes + signals
• Level 3 (Full): Level 2 + habits + relationship + diary + dreams + questions
• Level 4 (Deep): Level 3 + system docs + weekly digest

Signal & Synapse Tags

Signals (inter-component communication):

• <!-- dream-topic: topic --> — Evening → Night Dream
• <!-- handoff: task, progress --> — Brain Loop → next Brain Loop
• <!-- seeking-spark: topic --> — Night Dream → Morning Brain Loop

Synapses (memory connections):

• <!-- contradicts: ref --> — when facts conflict
• <!-- caused-by: ref --> — cause and effect
• <!-- updates: ref --> — when updating old info

Utilities

bash

# Check your Inner Life Score
bash skills/inner-life-core/scripts/score.sh

# Apply emotion decay manually
source skills/inner-life-core/scripts/state.sh && state_decay

Works With

Best experience with the full inner-life suite:

• inner-life-reflect — self-reflection and personality growth
• inner-life-memory — memory continuity between sessions
• inner-life-dream — creative thinking during quiet hours
• inner-life-chronicle — daily diary generation
• inner-life-evolve — self-evolution proposals

Also works with: agent-browser, web-search-plus, git, claw-backup, shellf

When Should You Install This?

Install this skill if:

• Your agent feels robotic and stateless
• You want emotional continuity between sessions
• You want behavior that adapts to context
• You're building a long-running autonomous agent

Part of the openclaw-inner-life bundle.