| name | fleet-helper |
| description | Shared, dependency-free Python helpers for the agent fleet - dashboard API (memory, messages, kanban), Telegram MarkdownV2 escaping, and rule-based Mail.app triage. Use to do deterministic work (fetch/filter/SQL/format/escape) in Python instead of burning model tokens doing it in the LLM turn. The dashboard token is read from store/.dashboard-token at call time, never hardcoded. |
fleet-helper
Move deterministic work (fetch / filter / SQL / format / escape) out of the model
and into Python, so heartbeats and scheduled tasks stop spending tokens
re-deriving the same plumbing each cycle. Python 3 stdlib only, no pip deps.
No secrets or personal data are baked in: the dashboard token is read from
store/.dashboard-token at call time, the project root comes from CLAW_DIR
(or is auto-detected), and any personal sender/keyword lists live in a gitignored
mail_rules.json (see scripts/mail_rules.example.json).
When to use
- Saving/searching memory, posting daily-log, sending inter-agent messages.
- Reading kanban (due today / stuck / by status) without writing SQL by hand.
- Escaping text for a Telegram MarkdownV2 message.
- An email heartbeat: pre-filter unread mail to a compact JSON before the model
reasons about it.
- Building a token-cheap heartbeat gate (see "The heartbeat gate pattern" below).
Scripts
scripts/fleet.py - dashboard API + kanban read helpers + MarkdownV2 escaper
(CLI and importable module).scripts/mail_triage.py - rule-based unread Mail.app filter (macOS), JSON out,
never sends and never marks read.scripts/gate_example.py - reference heartbeat gate; its shell invocation IS
the mandatory keep-alive tool call (the LLM turn is not skipped, just cheap).scripts/mail_rules.example.json - copy to mail_rules.json (gitignored) with
your real senders/keywords.scripts/README.md - full usage and the heartbeat gate pattern write-up.
Quick start
🛑 USE A ../../-RELATIVE PATH, NOT A BARE RELATIVE PATH -- your shell's
CWD is your own agent directory (<project-root>/agents/<name>/), NOT the
repo root, so a bare relative path below resolves to nothing there. A
sub-agent's CWD is always exactly two levels under the project root
(agentDir() in src/web/agent-config.ts: PROJECT_ROOT/agents/<name>), so
../../ reaches the root from ANY agent, on ANY machine -- no hardcoded
absolute path needed. ($CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR, used elsewhere for hook
command fields, does NOT help here: it is unset in a normal agent Bash
call, measured empty.) (Bitten twice in one night, 2026-08-17: two fleet
agents each ran a root-level find / -iname fleet.py trying to locate this
script -- a 10+ minute runaway search under macOS/iCloud folders.)
P=../../seed-skills/fleet-helper/scripts
python3 $P/fleet.py mdv2 "Tomorrow (8:00) - report!"
python3 $P/fleet.py kanban-due
python3 $P/mail_triage.py 90
The heartbeat gate pattern (the high-value idea)
Frequent heartbeats often wake the model just to run deterministic checks and
then stay silent - wasted tokens. Naively skipping the turn can be unsafe if your
channel transport (e.g. a Telegram MCP over a stdio pipe) relies on a periodic
local tool call to stay connected. The safe pattern: keep the turn but make it
cheap - the heartbeat's first action runs a gate.py via the shell (that one
Bash call IS the keep-alive), the gate does the deterministic checks and prints a
has_signal flag; on false the model writes one line and stops, on true it
only does the judgment + notification. Zero scheduler/runner changes. See
scripts/README.md for the full rationale and two hard-won scheduling lessons
(avoid cron collisions with other heartbeats; skipIfBusy trade-off).
Safety
- Token is read from
store/.dashboard-token at call time; never printed or committed.
- Kanban helpers are READ-ONLY; mutations stay in your own audited flows.
mail_rules.json (your real senders) is gitignored.
