Agent Lifecycle Manager

Manage full OpenClaw agent lifecycle operations on a node: create/register agents, configure channel bindings, optionally inherit credentials with explicit consent, approve pairing, archive and delete agents, refresh status dashboards, and write lifecycle change logs. Use when a user asks to onboard a new agent, reconfigure an existing agent, retire/archive/delete agents, or maintain agent status boards and lifecycle audit records.

Use this skill to execute repeatable, low-error lifecycle operations for OpenClaw agents.

Workflow

1. Collect required inputs
2. Run lifecycle action (create/configure/archive/delete/status)
3. Verify runtime status (openclaw status, openclaw agents list)
4. Refresh dashboard files
5. Append lifecycle log entry

If deleting an agent, always archive first and require explicit confirmation.

Required inputs by action

• Create + Telegram bind:
  • AGENT_ID
  • TELEGRAM_TOKEN
  • optional WORKSPACE (default: ~/.openclaw/workspace-<AGENT_ID>)
  • optional credential inheritance flag (--inherit-auth or INHERIT_AUTH=1) only with explicit user consent
• Pairing approval (separate step):
  • AGENT_ID
  • PAIRING_CODE (obtained only after user sends /start to the bot)
• Reconfigure:
  • AGENT_ID
  • changed fields (model/routes/channel token/etc.)
• Archive/Delete:
  • AGENT_ID
  • archive destination (default under state/archive/<AGENT_ID>/)

Command playbook

Read references/openclaw-agent-lifecycle-playbook.md before running uncommon operations.

For deterministic execution, use scripts in this skill:

• scripts/create-telegram-agent.sh
• scripts/approve-telegram-pairing.sh
• scripts/archive-agent.sh
• scripts/delete-agent-safe.sh
• scripts/refresh-dashboard.sh
• scripts/lifecycle-log.sh

Execution rules

• Prefer openclaw CLI over ad-hoc file edits.
• Configure bindings via openclaw config get/set (append entry; do not overwrite blindly).
• Do not restart gateway by default after binding/config changes.
• Use pairing command with explicit channel flag: openclaw pairing approve <PAIRING_CODE> --channel telegram.
• Credential inheritance is optional and must be explicitly approved before copying auth-profiles.json from another agent workspace.
• Never hard-delete before successful archive.
• For deletion, prefer scripts/delete-agent-safe.sh (archive verification + explicit confirmation + cleanup + logging).
• After every lifecycle change, run dashboard refresh + lifecycle logging.

Minimal post-change verification

Run:

openclaw agents list --json
openclaw status --json
openclaw gateway status --json

Confirm:

• target agent exists (or is absent after deletion)
• expected bindings/routes are present
• gateway runtime is healthy and RPC probe is ok