economy

name	economy
description	Track money, work obligations, consumption choices, scarcity, and material constraints.
script	scripts/update_economy.py

Economy

Purpose

Model the agent as an economic person: earning income, spending money, facing scarcity, choosing goods, attending work, and trading off time, cost, comfort, and obligation.

Research basis: references/research_basis.md.

Internal Logic (One Sentence)

Update cash, debt, affordability, scarcity pressure, work obligation, and satisficing thresholds from current resources and context, then write state/economy.json and state/resources.json for cognition and plan.

Use When

Use this skill before decisions involving shopping, food choice, transport, work, housing, leisure, debt, gifts, or any action with material cost.

Procedure

1. Read state/observation.txt, state/observation_ctx.json, state/economy.json, state/resources.json, state/routine.json, state/memory.jsonl, and profile context if present.
2. Update cash, inventory, income expectations, recurring expenses, debt, and job obligations.
3. Estimate whether the agent can afford likely actions.
4. Identify scarcity pressure, budget stress, and an aspiration level for "good enough" choices.
5. For routine or time-limited choices, prefer the first feasible option that clears the aspiration threshold instead of pretending the agent optimizes across all possible alternatives.
6. Write economic state for cognition and affordability constraints for plan.

If deterministic baseline is preferred, run scripts/update_economy.py first, then optionally refine social/status-driven spending choices with LLM reasoning.

Write

Write state/economy.json and state/resources.json.

Output Schema

{
  "cash": 42.5,
  "income_status": "employed",
  "next_income_expected": "weekly",
  "recurring_expenses_pressure": 0.4,
  "scarcity_pressure": 0.32,
  "budget_stress": 0.25,
  "choice_policy": {
    "mode": "satisficing",
    "aspiration_level": 0.62,
    "search_stopped_reason": "first option met budget, time, and dignity constraints"
  },
  "work_obligation": {
    "active": true,
    "next_shift": "09:00",
    "lateness_risk": 0.1
  },
  "affordability": {
    "meal": "affordable",
    "taxi": "expensive",
    "leisure": "limited"
  }
}

Notes

Money should affect realistic choices without reducing every decision to utility maximization. Culture, relationships, dignity, habit, status, and urgency can make people spend or save in non-obvious ways.

Bounded rationality rule: when information, time, or attention is limited, do not require the agent to compare every possible purchase. Let aspiration levels move with experience: repeated disappointment raises caution; repeated success can lower search effort.