Swarm Layer

Workflows

OpenClaw Swarm Layer: spec-driven workflow orchestration with ACP-first execution, supervised autopilot control plane, manual fallback, persistent sessions, review gates, automatic retry, parallel dispatch, reject-retry workflows, ACP concurrency protection, harness patterns, cross-session continuity, and operator reporting. Covers setup, operation, diagnosis, and reporting.

Install

openclaw skills install swarm-layer

OpenClaw Swarm Layer

Turn workflow specifications into executable task graphs. Dispatch tasks through manual fallback or ACP automation. Supervise execution through an optional autopilot control plane. Track execution via persistent sessions with reuse and thread binding. Gate completion with review approval. Auto-retry on failure. Generate reports to local disk and Obsidian.

Current release baseline: openclaw-swarm-layer@0.5.3, validated on OpenClaw 2026.5.3-1 with startup tool contracts, plugin doctor checks, and runtime health smoke.

What It Does

Spec-driven planning — Write a Markdown spec with goals and phased tasks → generates a dependency-ordered task graph
Multi-runner execution — Manual (operator-driven safe fallback) and ACP (default-capable automation path)
Session management — Persistent sessions with binding-key reuse, thread-bound follow-up, and steering messages
Review gates — Tasks require explicit approve/reject; structured quality rubrics for weighted multi-dimension scoring
Sprint contracts — Negotiated verifiable acceptance criteria per task with automated evaluator injection (GAN-inspired pattern)
Cross-session continuity — Progress summary synthesis, bootstrap startup sequence, harness assumption tracking
Protective guardrails — Task field immutability guard, session budget control (duration + retries)
Automatic retry — Configurable per-task retry policy with dead letter tracking for exhausted tasks
Concurrency protection — ACP session concurrency limits with queued task scheduling (FIFO)
Reject-retry workflow — Review rejections return tasks to ready for re-run; configurable retry limits
Parallel dispatch — --parallel N and --all-ready batch dispatch with concurrency-aware slot management
Autopilot control plane — Supervised status/start/pause/resume/stop/tick flows with lease-backed decisions and degraded-mode holds
Operator reports — Status snapshots, run logs, review logs, spec archives, completion summaries → local + Obsidian sync

What It Does NOT Do

Not a distributed multi-node orchestrator — single machine, single project
Not a CI/CD pipeline — no git push, PR creation, or deployment automation
Not an autonomous PR factory — operator stays in the loop for review decisions

Install

Three installation paths:

ClawHub (skill only):

openclaw skills install swarm-layer

ClawHub package (full plugin):

openclaw plugins install clawhub:openclaw-swarm-layer

npm (full plugin):

npm install openclaw-swarm-layer
openclaw plugins install -l node_modules/openclaw-swarm-layer

GitHub (source):

git clone https://github.com/xucheng/openclaw-swarm-layer.git
cd openclaw-swarm-layer && npm install && npm run build
openclaw plugins install -l /path/to/openclaw-swarm-layer

After install, verify: openclaw plugins info openclaw-swarm-layer should show Status: loaded.

End-to-End Example

# 1. Initialize
openclaw swarm init --project /tmp/my-project

# 2. Write a spec
cat > /tmp/my-project/SPEC.md << 'EOF'
# Feature Build
## Goals
- Implement and test the new feature
## Phases
### Implement
- Write the core logic
### Test
- Run unit tests
EOF

# 3. Plan
openclaw swarm plan --project /tmp/my-project --spec /tmp/my-project/SPEC.md
# → specId: feature-build, taskCount: 2

# 4. Execute first task
openclaw swarm run --project /tmp/my-project --runner acp
# → action: dispatched, runId: implement-task-1-run-...

# 5. Poll until complete
openclaw swarm session status --project /tmp/my-project --run <runId>
# → status: completed

# 6. Approve
openclaw swarm review --project /tmp/my-project --task <taskId> --approve
# → status: done

# 7. Execute next task, repeat steps 4-6

# 8. View report
openclaw swarm report --project /tmp/my-project

Module Router

Determine which module to use based on what the user needs:

User Intent	Module	Key Commands
Install, configure, initialize	Setup	`plugins install`, `doctor`, `init`
Plan, execute, review, session ops	Operate	`plan`, `run`, `review`, `session *`
Supervised automation control	Operate	`autopilot status/start/pause/resume/stop/tick`
Something broken, stuck, or failing	Diagnose	`doctor`, `session status/cancel/cleanup`
Check progress, read reports	Report	`status`, `report`, `session list/inspect`

When unsure, start with openclaw swarm status --project . to assess the situation.

Setup

When to Use

First-time install, ACP configuration, project initialization, or config troubleshooting.

Flow

1. Prerequisites

node --version     # >= 22
openclaw --version # >= 2026.3.22

The 0.5.3 release was smoke-tested on OpenClaw 2026.5.3-1.

2. Install Plugin

openclaw plugins install clawhub:openclaw-swarm-layer   # Published package
openclaw plugins install -l /path/to/openclaw-swarm-layer
openclaw plugins info openclaw-swarm-layer   # Should show Status: loaded

3. Configure ACP Public Path

{
  "plugins": { "entries": { "openclaw-swarm-layer": { "config": {
    "defaultRunner": "auto",
    "acp": {
      "enabled": true,
      "defaultAgentId": "codex",
      "allowedAgents": ["codex"],
      "defaultMode": "run"
    }
  }}}}
}

4. Verify

openclaw swarm doctor --json
# severity should be "healthy" or "warning", not "blocked"

5. Initialize Project

openclaw swarm init --project .

6. Optional: Obsidian Sync + Journal

{
  "obsidianRoot": "/path/to/vault/reports",
  "journal": {
    "enableRunLog": true,
    "enableReviewLog": true,
    "enableSpecArchive": true,
    "enableCompletionSummary": true
  }
}

Setup Troubleshooting

Plugin not loading → openclaw plugins info openclaw-swarm-layer
ACP unavailable → openclaw swarm doctor --json, confirm public ACP export readiness and runner resolution
Legacy bridge config warning → remove bridge.acpFallbackEnabled after confirming ACP public path is ready

Operate

When to Use

Plan and execute workflows, manage sessions, complete review cycles.

Core Loop

Write Spec → Plan → Status → Run → Poll Session → Review → Repeat

Write a Spec

# My Workflow
## Goals
- What to achieve
## Phases
### Phase 1
- Task A
- Task B

Plan → Run → Review

openclaw swarm plan --project . --spec SPEC.md      # Import and generate tasks
openclaw swarm status --project .                     # See what's ready
openclaw swarm run --project . --dry-run              # Preview
openclaw swarm run --project . --runner acp           # Execute (acp/manual)
openclaw swarm run --project . --parallel 3           # Dispatch up to 3 ready tasks
openclaw swarm run --project . --all-ready             # Fill all available concurrency slots
openclaw swarm session status --project . --run <id>  # Poll until complete
openclaw swarm review --project . --task <id> --approve
openclaw swarm review --project . --task <id> --reject --retry-now  # Reject and force retry

Autopilot Control Plane

openclaw swarm autopilot status --project .           # Health + last decision
openclaw swarm autopilot start --project .            # Start supervised loop
openclaw swarm autopilot pause --project . --reason "operator review"
openclaw swarm autopilot resume --project .
openclaw swarm autopilot tick --project . --dry-run   # Inspect next actions without mutating state
openclaw swarm autopilot stop --project . --mode graceful

Use autopilot when you want the workflow to keep progressing under policy control instead of manually calling run, session status, and recovery commands one by one.

Runner Selection

Runner	Use When
`manual`	Safe explicit fallback when ACP automation is unavailable or not desired
`acp`	Default-capable automation path through the public ACP control-plane

Session Operations

session list --project .                                    # List all
session inspect --project . --session <id>                  # Details
session follow-up --project . --session <id> --task <desc>  # Inject task
session steer --project . --session <id> --message <text>   # Redirect
session cancel --project . --run <id>                       # Abort
session cleanup --project . --stale-minutes 60              # Clean orphans

Session Policies

Policy	Behavior
`none`	New session each run (default)
`create_persistent`	Creates reusable persistent session
`reuse_if_available`	Reuse idle persistent session if match found
`require_existing`	Fail if no matching session exists

Harness Enhancement (GAN-Inspired Patterns)

Enable advanced harness features for long-running agent orchestration:

{
  "enforceTaskImmutability": true,
  "bootstrap": { "enabled": true },
  "evaluator": { "enabled": true, "autoInjectAfter": ["coding"] }
}

Sprint Contracts — Add Acceptance Criteria to your spec. plan auto-generates a SprintContract with verifiable criteria attached to coding tasks.

Evaluator Injection — When evaluator.enabled, each coding task gets an auto-injected -eval task that validates the contract. Dependency chains adjust automatically:

coding-task → coding-task-eval → next-task

Quality Rubrics — Replace binary approve/reject with 4-dimension weighted scoring:

functionality (0.3) / correctness (0.3) / design (0.2) / craft (0.2)
Weighted total >= 6.0 → approve; < 6.0 → reject

Cross-Session Progress — progress.json auto-updated after each run and review. Bootstrap sequence loads progress on startup: verify env → load progress → select task → verify baseline.

Task Immutability — When enforceTaskImmutability is enabled, agents cannot mutate task definitions (title, deps, runner, etc.). Only status, review.status, and contract.criteria[].passes are mutable.

Session Budget — Set runner.budget.maxDurationSeconds and runner.budget.maxRetries per task. Exceeded budgets annotate [BUDGET EXCEEDED] on run records.

Assumption Tracking — WorkflowState.assumptions tracks model capability, environment, tooling, and workflow structure assumptions with validation lifecycle.

Conversational Patterns

User Says	Do This
"start a new workflow"	Help write spec → `plan` → `status`
"run the next task"	`status` → dry-run → `run`
"what's happening?"	`status` → `session status` for running tasks
"approve everything"	List review queue → approve each
"enable harness mode"	Add evaluator + immutability + bootstrap config
"something is stuck"	→ Diagnose module

Diagnose

When to Use

Tasks stuck, ACP readiness failures, sessions not updating, dead letters, orphans.

Diagnostic Flow

1. openclaw swarm doctor --json      → Check ACP readiness and bridge-exit health
2. openclaw swarm status --project . → Find abnormal tasks/sessions
3. Investigate specific issue (see below)

Doctor Severity

Severity	Meaning	Action
`healthy`	All good	None
`warning`	Works but risky	Address warnings when convenient
`blocked`	Cannot execute	Follow `remediation` immediately

Issue Resolution

Legacy bridge compatibility warning:

doctor --json → check warnings / remediation
Common: remove stale bridge.acpFallbackEnabled, or clean up old versionAllow/openclawRoot metadata

Stuck running task:

swarm session status --project . --run <runId>   # Check if session died
swarm session cancel --project . --run <runId>   # Force cancel if hung

Dead letter task (retries exhausted):

swarm status → find dead_letter tasks
Fix root cause → manually reset task to ready

Orphaned sessions (stale active):

swarm session cleanup --project . --stale-minutes 60

Version drift (after OpenClaw upgrade):

swarm doctor --json
# Remove stale bridge metadata if present → rerun doctor → verify runner resolution

Report

When to Use

Check progress, generate reports, understand session inventory.

Quick Check

openclaw swarm status --project .  # Structured summary
openclaw swarm report --project .  # Full Markdown report

Report Sections

Section	Content
Attention	Items needing action: review / blocked / running / dead_letter
Tasks	All tasks with current status
Review Queue	Tasks awaiting approve/reject
Highlights	Notable terminal events (completed/failed/cancelled)
Recommended Actions	What to do next
Recent Runs	Last 5 runs
Sessions	Last 5 sessions with state
Session Reuse Candidates	Which tasks can reuse which sessions

Report Files

File	Trigger	Mode
`swarm-report.md`	Every operation	Overwrite
`run-log.md`	`swarm run`	Append
`review-log.md`	`swarm review`	Append
`specs/<specId>.md`	`swarm plan`	Create once
`completion-summary.md`	All tasks done	Overwrite

Local: <project>/.openclaw/swarm/reports/ (always) Obsidian: <obsidianRoot>/<project>/ (optional async mirror)

Conversational Patterns

User Says	Do This
"what's the status?"	`status` → summarize counts + attention
"show me the report"	`report` → read and present key sections
"what needs attention?"	`status` → focus on `attention` array
"how are sessions?"	`status` → show session counts + recent

Tools Reference

For AI tool calling. All tools accept --json for structured output.

Tool	Parameters	Purpose
`swarm_status`	`project`	Workflow status with attention items
`swarm_task_plan`	`project`, `spec`	Import spec, generate task graph
`swarm_run`	`project`, `task?`, `dryRun?`, `parallel?`, `allReady?`	Dispatch runnable tasks (single or batch)
`swarm_review_gate`	`project`, `task`, `approve?`, `reject?`, `note?`	Approve/reject review (reject returns to ready by default)
`swarm_session_status`	`project`, `run`	Poll session status
`swarm_session_cancel`	`project`, `run`, `reason?`	Cancel session
`swarm_session_close`	`project`, `run`, `reason?`	Close session

Swarm Layer

Install

OpenClaw Swarm Layer

What It Does

What It Does NOT Do

Install

End-to-End Example

Links

Module Router

Setup

When to Use

Flow

1. Prerequisites

2. Install Plugin

3. Configure ACP Public Path

4. Verify

5. Initialize Project

6. Optional: Obsidian Sync + Journal

Setup Troubleshooting

Operate

When to Use

Core Loop

Write a Spec

Plan → Run → Review

Autopilot Control Plane

Runner Selection

Session Operations

Session Policies

Harness Enhancement (GAN-Inspired Patterns)

Conversational Patterns

Diagnose

When to Use

Diagnostic Flow

Doctor Severity

Issue Resolution

Report

When to Use

Quick Check

Report Sections

Report Files

Conversational Patterns

Tools Reference

Related skills