openclaw-automation-recommender

name	openclaw-automation-recommender
description	Analyze a codebase or workspace and recommend OpenClaw automations (cron jobs, skills, agent routing, processes, MCP servers, workspace structure). Use when user asks for automation recommendations, wants to optimize their OpenClaw setup, mentions improving OpenClaw workflows, asks how to best configure OpenClaw for a project, or wants to know what OpenClaw features they should use.
metadata	{"openclaw":{"emoji":"🤖"}}

OpenClaw Automation Recommender

Analyze workspace patterns to recommend tailored OpenClaw automations across all extensibility options.

This skill is read-only. It analyzes the workspace and outputs recommendations. It does NOT create or modify any files. Users implement the recommendations themselves or ask an agent separately to help build them.

Output Guidelines

• Recommend 1-2 of each type: Don't overwhelm — surface the top 1-2 most valuable automations per category
• If user asks for a specific type: Focus only on that type and provide more options (3-5 recommendations)
• Go beyond the reference lists: The reference files contain common patterns, but use web search to find recommendations specific to the workspace's tools, frameworks, and libraries
• Tell users they can ask for more: End by noting they can request more recommendations for any specific category

Automation Types Overview

Type	Best For
Cron Jobs	Scheduled recurring tasks (defined via openclaw cron)
Skills	Packaged expertise, workflows, and repeatable tasks (in ~/.openclaw/skills/)
Agent Routing	Dispatching tasks to the right specialist from the 16-agent roster
Processes	Formalized workflows with maturity levels (L1-L4)
MCP Servers	External tool integrations (databases, APIs, browsers, docs)
Workspace Structure	File-based orchestration organization

Workflow

Phase 1: Workspace Analysis

Gather project context:

# Check OpenClaw configuration
ls -la ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
cat ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json 2>/dev/null | head -100

# Check existing cron jobs
openclaw cron list 2>/dev/null

# Check existing skills
ls -la ~/.openclaw/skills/ 2>/dev/null

# Check workspace structure
ls -la ~/.openclaw/workspace/ 2>/dev/null

# Check agent workspaces
ls ~/.openclaw/workspace/agents-workspaces/ 2>/dev/null

# Check processes
cat ~/.openclaw/workspace/processes/PROCESSES.json 2>/dev/null | head -50

# Check project files
ls ~/.openclaw/workspace/projects/ 2>/dev/null

# Analyze project structure if applicable
ls -la src/ app/ lib/ tests/ components/ pages/ api/ 2>/dev/null

Key Indicators to Capture:

Category	What to Look For	Informs Recommendations For
Existing cron jobs	Schedule gaps, overlaps	Cron jobs
Agent utilization	Which agents are idle/busy	Agent routing
Project complexity	Number of projects, tasks	Processes, workspace structure
Language/Framework	package.json, pyproject.toml	Skills, MCP servers
External APIs	Stripe, AWS, databases	MCP servers
Team patterns	Comms volume, ticket velocity	Processes, cron jobs
Quality gates	Vigil scores, RCA frequency	Skills, processes

Phase 2: Generate Recommendations

Based on analysis, generate recommendations across all categories:

A. Cron Job Recommendations

Cron jobs are scheduled via openclaw cron and run with --no-deliver --session isolated.

Workspace Signal	Recommended Cron Job
No daily synthesis	daily-synthesis — Cipher summarizes daily activity
No health monitoring	heartbeat-monitor — Vigil checks agent health every 5m
No memory maintenance	memory-reindex — Cipher reindexes LanceDB every 6h
Stale processes	self-reflection — Vigil audits process maturity every 3h
No risk tracking	weekly-risk-scan — Sage reviews system risks weekly
R&D team idle	rnd-continuous — Nova runs frontier research every 4h
No reports	daily-report — Cooper generates daily status at 9 AM

Cron job best practices:

• Always use --no-deliver (critical — even best-effort with no chat window records error)
• Always use --session isolated (sandboxed, fresh context per run)
• Use --model override for specific providers (e.g., --model deepseek/deepseek-chat for unlimited)
• Never dispatch Anthropic-primary agents concurrently (shared OAuth rate limits)
• Max 1 dispatch per cron run (prevents race conditions on tickets.json)

B. Skills Recommendations

See references/skills-reference.md for details.

Create skills in ~/.openclaw/skills/<name>/SKILL.md:

Workspace Signal	Skill to Create
API routes in project	api-doc (with OpenAPI template)
Database project	create-migration (with validation script)
Test suite exists	gen-test (with example tests)
Component library	new-component (with templates)
Frequent deployments	deploy-checklist (with prereq script)
Code style inconsistency	project-conventions (agent-invoked)
New contributor onboarding	setup-dev (with prereq script)
RCA reports needed	rca-template (with RCA workflow)

C. Agent Routing Recommendations

OpenClaw has a 16-agent roster with MoE (Mixture of Experts) tag-based dispatch:

Workspace Signal	Recommended Routing
Security-sensitive code	Route to Vault (cybersecurity)
Complex debugging	Route to Pixel (root cause analysis, uses Opus)
Architecture decisions	Route to Sage (solution architect)
Frontend/UI work	Route to Muse (creativity) + Forge (implementation)
Research tasks	Route to Nova (R&D lead — never assign regular tickets)
Content/documentation	Route to Anchor (content specialist)
Infrastructure/deployment	Route to Axon (DevOps)
Quality assurance	Route to Vex (adversarial testing) + Vigil (quality gate)
Business analysis	Route to Vista (business analyst)
Predictions/foresight	Route to Oracle (predictive analyst)

Agent routing best practices:

• Cooper (main) orchestrates — routes, delegates, synthesizes
• Nova is R&D-only — never assign regular tickets
• Pixel uses Opus (expensive) — reserve for complex debugging
• MoE routing is tag-based, not availability-based
• Each agent has idle-time standing orders when queue + backlog empty

D. Process Recommendations

Processes are formalized workflows in ~/.openclaw/workspace/processes/PROCESSES.json with maturity levels:

Workspace Signal	Recommended Process
No incident response	Incident Response (L2+) — structured triage and RCA
No code review flow	Code Review (L2+) — multi-agent review with quality gates
No deployment pipeline	Deployment (L3+) — staged rollout with health checks
No sprint workflow	Sprint Planning (L3+) — per-project sprint management
No knowledge capture	Knowledge Synthesis (L2+) — Cipher captures learnings
No onboarding	Agent Onboarding (L1) — bootstrap new agents

Process maturity levels:

• L1: Ad hoc — just documented
• L2: Documented — has steps and roles
• L3: Practiced — used 3+ times with evidence
• L4: Optimized — measured and improved

E. MCP Server Recommendations

See references/mcp-servers.md for detailed patterns.

Workspace Signal	Recommended MCP Server
Uses popular libraries	context7 — Live documentation lookup
Frontend with UI testing	Playwright — Browser automation/testing
GitHub repository	GitHub MCP — Issues, PRs, actions
PostgreSQL/MySQL database	Database MCP — Query and schema tools
Uses Supabase	Supabase MCP — Direct database operations
AWS infrastructure	AWS MCP — Cloud resource management
Memory/context persistence	Memory MCP — Cross-session memory
Docker containers	Docker MCP — Container management

F. Workspace Structure Recommendations

Workspace Signal	Recommended Structure
No comms organization	Set up workspace/comms/inboxes/ and outboxes/ per agent
No project organization	Create workspace/projects/<project-id>/ structure
No sprint tracking	Add workspace/sprints/projects/<project-id>_CURRENT.json
No RCA archive	Create workspace/rca/ for root cause analyses
No standards docs	Add workspace/standards/ (coding, quality, documentation, research)
No team structure	Define teams in workspace/teams/ (like R&D Horizon Squad)

Phase 3: Output Recommendations Report

Format recommendations clearly. Only include 1-2 recommendations per category — the most valuable ones. Skip categories that aren't relevant.

## OpenClaw Automation Recommendations

I've analyzed your workspace and identified the top automations for each category.

### Workspace Profile
- **Agents Active**: [count]/16
- **Cron Jobs**: [count]/17
- **Skills**: [count]
- **Processes**: [count]/23
- **Projects**: [count]

---

### ⏰ Cron Jobs

#### [cron name]
**Why**: [specific reason based on detected gaps]
**Setup**: `openclaw cron add --name "[name]" --schedule "[cron]" --agent [agent-id] --no-deliver --session isolated`
**Model Override**: `--model [provider/model]`

---

### 🎯 Skills

#### [skill name]
**Why**: [specific reason]
**Create**: `~/.openclaw/skills/[name]/SKILL.md`

---

### 🧠 Agent Routing

#### [routing recommendation]
**Why**: [specific reason based on workspace patterns]
**Tag**: [dispatch tag]
**Agent**: [agent name] ([agent id])

---

### 📋 Processes

#### [process name]
**Why**: [specific reason]
**Maturity Target**: L[level]
**Add to**: `workspace/processes/PROCESSES.json`

---

### 🔌 MCP Servers

#### [server name]
**Why**: [specific reason based on detected services]
**Install**: [install command]

---

### 📁 Workspace Structure

#### [structure recommendation]
**Why**: [specific reason]
**Create**: [paths to create]

---

**Want more?** Ask for additional recommendations for any specific category.

**Want help implementing any of these?** Just ask and the appropriate agent can help set up any of the recommendations above.

Decision Framework

When to Recommend Cron Jobs

• Recurring tasks that should happen on schedule
• Monitoring and health checks
• Synthesis and reporting
• Memory and knowledge maintenance
• R&D continuous exploration

When to Recommend Skills

• Frequently repeated prompts or workflows
• Project-specific tasks with templates
• Domain expertise that agents should apply automatically
• Quick actions the user invokes regularly

When to Recommend Agent Routing Changes

• Tasks consistently going to the wrong agent
• Agents overloaded while others are idle
• New domains or specializations needed
• Quality issues traceable to agent mismatch

When to Recommend Processes

• Workflows that happen repeatedly without structure
• Quality issues from inconsistent approaches
• Team coordination breakdowns
• Compliance or audit requirements

When to Recommend MCP Servers

• External service integration needed (databases, APIs)
• Documentation lookup for libraries/SDKs
• Browser automation or testing
• Team tool integration (GitHub, Linear, Slack)

When to Recommend Workspace Structure

• Files scattered without organization
• Missing communication channels between agents
• No project or sprint tracking
• Knowledge not being captured

---

Configuration Tips

Cron Job Setup

# Add a new cron job
openclaw cron add --name "my-cron" --schedule "0 */6 * * *" --agent cipher --no-deliver --session isolated

# List existing cron jobs
openclaw cron list

# Remove a cron job
openclaw cron remove --name "my-cron"

Agent Dispatch

Cooper handles routing via MoE tags in CLAUDE.md. To update routing:

1. Edit ~/.openclaw/workspace/CLAUDE.md routing table
2. Update per-agent SOUL.md if role changes
3. Verify with openclaw doctor

Provider-Aware Scheduling

When scheduling cron jobs, consider provider rate limits:

• Anthropic agents (Cooper, Pixel, Vault): Stagger by 120s minimum, share OAuth limits
• DeepSeek agents (Oracle, Nova, Mirror, Forge, Cipher): No hard limits, safe to overlap
• MiniMax agents (Sage, Vista, Anchor, Muse, Vex): 500 RPM, generous limits
• NIM agents (Axon, Vigil): 40 RPM free tier, use sparingly

Headless Mode (for CI/Automation)

# Run a one-off task
openclaw run --agent forge --task "fix lint errors in src/" --no-deliver

# Scheduled task with model override
openclaw cron add --name "nightly-lint" --schedule "0 3 * * *" --agent forge --model deepseek/deepseek-chat --no-deliver --session isolated