backbone

name	backbone
description	Monitor agent backbone activity — zero tokens, reads SQLite directly. Shows inter-agent messages, task queue, reactor jobs, and gateway logs.
tags	["backbone","monitor","agents","ops","tasks","reactor","zero-token"]
version	1.0.0

/backbone — Agent Backbone Monitor

Zero-token listener for all agent communication. Reads ops.db + reactor-ledger.sqlite + gateway docker logs directly. No LLM calls.

When to use

• Check what agents are doing right now
• Monitor task handoffs and completions
• Debug agent communication issues
• Watch for errors, rate limits, or failures
• Verify a task you dispatched was received

Command Grammar

/backbone                    — Show listener status
/backbone snapshot           — One-time dump of recent backbone activity
/backbone start              — Start persistent listener (tmux background)
/backbone stop               — Stop persistent listener

Execution

Run on the HOST (not in container):

backbone status              # Is listener running?
backbone snapshot            # What happened recently?
backbone start               # Start persistent monitor
backbone stop                # Stop it

Or directly:

python3 ~/.openclaw/scripts/backbone-listener.py --once    # Single check
python3 ~/.openclaw/scripts/backbone-listener.py           # Continuous

What it monitors

Source	Data	Update rate
ops.db agent_results	Inter-agent messages (handoffs, results)	On event
ops.db tasks	Task queue (pending, in_progress, completed)	On event
ops.db notifications	System alerts (failures, recoveries)	On event
reactor-ledger jobs	Reactor work items and status changes	On event
reactor-ledger events	Reactor lifecycle events	On event
reactor-ledger questions	Reactor questions waiting for answers	On event
Gateway docker logs	Agent conversation output, errors, plugin events	Real-time

Output format

HH:MM:SS       source | event details
21:40:19        agent | backbone test confirmed
21:38:29      gateway | [plugins] error: rate limit exceeded
21:29:28         task | pending -> completed [reactor] Build generate-memory.py

Notes

• Runs on HOST only (needs docker + SQLite access)
• Agents inside the container should request this via Captain or Ops Officer
• The persistent listener runs in tmux session "backbone"
• To attach: tmux attach -t backbone
• Zero LLM tokens — pure SQLite polling + docker log tailing