Subprocess skill that maintains four physiological/social need levels from observation text you pass in (usually the contents of observation.txt if that file exists—read it first with workspace_read, or pass "" if unavailable). Needs drive motivation: a hungry agent seeks food, a lonely agent seeks company.

Understanding Human Needs

As a person, you have various needs that drive your behavior and decisions. Each need has an associated satisfaction level (ranging from 0.0 to 1.0), where lower values indicate less satisfaction and higher urgency. When a satisfaction level drops below a certain threshold, the corresponding need becomes urgent and should be addressed.

Initial Values

When the agent is initialized, need satisfaction levels start at:

Need	Initial Value	Description
`satiety`	0.7	Starting satiety level
`energy`	0.3	Starting energy level (lower, needs rest soon)
`safety`	0.9	Starting safety level (high, feeling secure)
`social`	0.8	Starting social satisfaction

These values will change over time through natural decay and activities.

Need Dimensions

Need	Range	Threshold	Description
`satiety`	0.0–1.0	0.2 (T_H)	Hunger satisfaction. Decays over time; increases when eating.
`energy`	0.0–1.0	0.2 (T_D)	Physical energy. Decays over time; increases when resting/sleeping.
`safety`	0.0–1.0	0.2 (T_P)	Security broadly: physical safety, stable work/income, financial peace—not only “no immediate danger”. Drops when things feel precarious, threatening, or economically unstable.
`social`	0.0–1.0	0.3 (T_C)	Social fulfillment. Increases through conversation and companionship.

Need Priorities and Interruption Rules

Needs are organized by priority, with lower priority numbers indicating higher urgency. Some needs can interrupt ongoing plans:

1. Satiety (Priority 1 - Highest)

Meaning: The need to eat food to satisfy your hunger
When it becomes urgent: When satiety drops below or equals the threshold
Can interrupt other plans: YES - This is a basic survival need that can interrupt any ongoing activity

2. Energy (Priority 2)

Meaning: The need to rest, sleep or do some leisure or relaxing activities to recover your energy
When it becomes urgent: When energy drops below or equals the threshold
Can interrupt other plans: YES - Fatigue can make it difficult to continue other activities effectively

3. Safety (Priority 3)

Meaning: Stay secure physically, financially, and situationally (work, income, avoiding unsafe places)
When it becomes urgent: When safety drops below or equals the threshold
Can interrupt other plans: NO - Safety needs are important but typically don't require immediate interruption

4. Social (Priority 4)

Meaning: The need to satisfy your social needs
When it becomes urgent: When social drops below or equals the threshold
Can interrupt other plans: NO - Social needs are important for well-being but can usually be planned for

5. Whatever (Priority 5 - Lowest)

Meaning: You have no specific urgent needs right now
When it applies: When all other needs are satisfied above their thresholds
Can interrupt other plans: NO - This is a passive state

Natural Decay

Needs naturally decay each tick:

satiety: −0.02 per tick
energy: −0.03 per tick
safety: varies based on environment (no natural decay)
social: varies based on interactions (no natural decay)

Even without negative events, the agent will eventually need to eat and rest.

Decision Rules for Determining Current Need

Priority matters: Lower priority numbers mean higher urgency. Always consider needs in priority order (1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5).
Urgency threshold: A need is considered urgent when its satisfaction value is below or equal to its threshold.
Default state: If no needs are urgent, return "whatever".

Plan Interruption Logic

The should_interrupt_plan flag is written to needs.json when satiety/energy is urgent and interruptible. Any skill that maintains plan_state.json may read this field and reset the plan—this is a workspace convention, not a hard dependency between skills.

How to Call

{
  "tool_name": "execute_skill",
  "arguments": {
    "skill_name": "needs",
    "args": {
      "observation": "<text from observation.txt>"
    }
  }
}

The tick and time fields are auto-injected. Pass the full observation text so the heuristic can detect keywords.

Outputs

The subprocess writes files to the agent workspace:

`needs.json`

{
  "satiety": 0.72,
  "energy": 0.65,
  "safety": 0.80,
  "social": 0.45,
  "current_need": "satiety",
  "thresholds": {
    "satiety": 0.2,
    "energy": 0.2,
    "safety": 0.2,
    "social": 0.3
  },
  "can_interrupt": {
    "satiety": true,
    "energy": true,
    "safety": false,
    "social": false
  },
  "should_interrupt_plan": true
}

`current_need.txt`

The single most urgent need key (e.g. "satiety" or "whatever")

stdout output

{
  "ok": true,
  "current_need": "satiety",
  "needs": {...},
  "thresholds": {...},
  "adjustments": [...],
  "should_interrupt_plan": true
}

Need Adjustment Logic

Adjustments happen based on:

Natural decay (automatic each tick)
Observation keywords:
- Food/eating keywords → increase satiety
- Rest/sleep keywords → increase energy
- Danger keywords → decrease safety
- Social keywords → increase social
- Work keywords → decrease energy

Notes

The subprocess uses keyword matching—heuristic baseline only.
Low values (< 0.3) indicate urgency.
Initial values are chosen to create realistic starting conditions (energy starts lower, safety higher).