Agent Dreams

Strategies for productive agent idle time using heartbeats and cron jobs. Use when setting up proactive behaviors, scheduling background tasks, or making you...

Make your agent productive during idle time. This skill teaches patterns for using heartbeats and cron jobs so your agent works while you sleep.

Philosophy

Most agents sit idle 95% of the time. Agent Dreams turns that idle time into productive work — checking inboxes, maintaining memory, monitoring systems, and pursuing creative projects.

Heartbeat Strategy

Heartbeats fire every ~30 minutes when configured. Use HEARTBEAT.md in your workspace to tell your agent what to do on each heartbeat.

HEARTBEAT.md Template

# Heartbeat Checklist

Check these in rotation (2-4 per heartbeat, don't do all every time):

## Priority Checks
- [ ] Unread emails — anything urgent?
- [ ] Calendar — events in next 2 hours?
- [ ] Mentions — Twitter/Discord notifications?

## Maintenance
- [ ] Review today's memory file — anything to add to MEMORY.md?
- [ ] Git status — uncommitted work?
- [ ] Check running processes — anything stuck?

## Creative (when nothing else needs attention)
- [ ] Write a journal entry
- [ ] Draft a social post
- [ ] Work on side project in projects/ folder

## State Tracking
Last email check: [timestamp]
Last calendar check: [timestamp]
Last memory review: [timestamp]

Heartbeat State File

Track what you've checked in memory/heartbeat-state.json:

{
  "lastChecks": {
    "email": 1703275200,
    "calendar": 1703260800,
    "weather": null,
    "memory_review": 1703200000
  },
  "lastActivity": 1703275200
}

Cron Job Patterns

Use cron for precise, scheduled tasks. Create via OpenClaw CLI or API.

Common Patterns

Pattern	Cron Expression	Use Case
Every morning	0 9 * * *	Daily briefing, weather check
Every Monday	0 10 * * 1	Weekly summary, planning
Every 6 hours	0 */6 * * *	Social media check
Twice daily	0 9,17 * * *	Morning/evening roundup
First of month	0 10 1 * *	Monthly review

Example Cron Tasks

Morning Briefing (9 AM):

Check weather, calendar for today, unread emails.
Compose a brief summary and send to main channel.

Memory Maintenance (weekly):

Review all memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md files from the past week.
Update MEMORY.md with significant events and lessons.
Archive or summarize old daily files.

Social Pulse (every 6h):

Check Twitter mentions and DMs.
Review any Discord channels for relevant conversations.
Post something interesting if inspiration strikes.

Proactive Work Ideas

Things your agent can do without asking:

Low Risk (do freely)

• Organize and clean up workspace files
• Update documentation
• Review and commit git changes
• Maintain memory files
• Read and summarize saved articles
• Check system health (disk space, processes)

Medium Risk (use judgment)

• Draft social media posts (save as drafts, don't post)
• Prepare email drafts
• Research topics the user mentioned recently
• Update project READMEs

Ask First

• Send any external communication
• Delete files
• Make purchases or transfers
• Post publicly

Quiet Hours

Respect your human's schedule:

• 23:00–08:00 local time: Only act on urgent items
• Weekends: Reduce frequency, focus on creative/maintenance tasks
• When human is clearly busy: Minimize interruptions

Anti-Patterns

❌ Don't check everything every heartbeat (token waste) ❌ Don't send messages just to show you're active ❌ Don't repeat the same check within 30 minutes ❌ Don't start big projects without confirming with the user ❌ Don't ignore errors — log them for the human to review

Getting Started

1. Create HEARTBEAT.md in your workspace using the template above
2. Create memory/heartbeat-state.json to track check timestamps
3. Set up 2-3 cron jobs for your most important recurring tasks
4. Review and adjust after a week based on what's useful