Agentic Loop — OPENCLAW Self-Improvement Discipline

The agent that doesn't improve itself is a script with extra steps.

This is the OPENCLAW-side counterpart to ~/.hermes/skills/agentic/recursive-improve/.
Where Hermes improves the conversation (SOUL.md phrasing, tone, verdict discipline),
OPENCLAW improves the runtime (cron cadence, routing bindings, skill freshness,
plugin load order, MCP surface health).

The 8-step loop

   1. DETECT        2. INVENTORY     3. SCORE          4. PROPOSE
  drift signal   →  what we have   →  against floors →  forge candidate
                                                          ↓
   8. SEAL          7. AUDIT         6. APPLY          5. RATIFY
  VAULT999       ←  F1-F13 check   ←  edit + restart ←  sovereign sign

1. DETECT — find drift

Sources of drift signal:

• journalctl -u openclaw-gateway --since "1h ago" — errors, warnings, stalled sessions
• openclaw health --json — non-ok:true responses
• openclaw doctor — risky config flags
• /root/.openclaw/memory/watchers/*.jsonl — watcher events (essay changes, rating events)
• ~/.hermes/memory/forge-queue/*.yaml — sibling Hermes proposals
• Crontab drift: crontab -l | diff - <(echo "expected: <list>") — what we expect vs what runs
• Plugin/MCP version drift: npm view openclaw version vs openclaw --version
• arifOS build↔live drift: curl -s :8088/health | jq .runtime_drift

2. INVENTORY — what we have

~/.openclaw/
├── openclaw.json           # main config (agents, channels, bindings, plugins, mcp, etc.)
├── plugins/                # loaded plugin code
├── skills/                 # bundled skills (~50+)
├── workspace/
│   ├── skills/             # sovereign-curated skills
│   ├── MEMORY.md           # long-term memory
│   ├── SUBSTRATE.md        # VPS + services map
│   ├── CHECKPOINT.md       # warm-wake context
│   ├── HEARTBEAT.md        # heartbeat prompt
│   └── cron/jobs.json      # agent-managed cron jobs
└── SYSTEM_MD.md               # system prompt

3. SCORE — against F1-F13 (subset applicable to runtime)

Floor	What it checks at the runtime layer
F1 AMANAH	Any proposed forge respects reversibility; irreversible ops require sovereign ack.
F2 TRUTH	Drift claims are backed by a curl or openclaw doctor receipt, not a guess.
F4 CLARITY	Forge proposals are 1-2 sentences + a diff. No walls of text.
F6 MARUAH	No "I noticed" / "I'd be happy to" — direct verdict + way-forward.
F7 STEWARDSHIP	One forge per loop run, not five. No spam.
F9 ANTIHANTU	Forge descriptions say what the change DOES, not what the agent "feels" about it.
F11 AUTH	OpenClaw writes to its own config only; never to ~/.hermes/* or /root/arifOS/*.
F13 SOVEREIGN	Default mode: HOLD on Tier-2+ forges. AUTO on Tier-1 (cron timing, plugin reordering, skill comments).

A forge must pass all 8 floors to leave step 3. A floor failure stops the loop and surfaces the receipt to the sovereign.

4. PROPOSE — write a forge candidate

proposal_id: forge-2026-06-06-001
generated_at: 2026-06-06T17:50:00Z
generated_by: openclaw-agentic-loop@0.1.0
target_file: ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json | ~/.openclaw/workspace/MEMORY.md | <path>
target_section: <specific section>
diagnosis: |
  <1-2 sentences on what drift was detected, with curl/doctor receipt inline>
proposed_change: |
  <the exact diff or new content>
expected_impact: |
  <how this changes runtime behavior; cite signal id>
f1_f13_check: |
  F1: reversible (config flip, no data loss) ✓
  F2: cited `openclaw doctor` + `journalctl` ✓
  F4: 2 sentences + diff ✓
  F6: no persona ✓
  F7: one forge, not five ✓
  F9: describes what changes, not feelings ✓
  F11: writes only to ~/.openclaw/* ✓
  F13: Tier-1 (auto) | Tier-2 (HOLD) ✓
reversibility: full | partial | irreversible
tier: 1 | 2
ratification: PENDING | AUTO-APPLIED

Writes to ~/.openclaw/workspace/forge-queue/forge-YYYY-MM-DD-NNN.yaml. The queue is the only artifact at this step.

5. RATIFY — sovereign sign-off (or auto for Tier-1)

• Tier-1 (config flips, comment edits, plugin reordering, cron timing): AUTO-APPLIED at step 6. The receipt is logged to VAULT999 with tier=1, ratification=auto.
• Tier-2+ (anything touching a plugin binary, a service restart loop, an MCP credential, a systemd unit): HOLD. The forge queue emits a Telegram message to Arif (sovereign) with /ratify N / /reject N / /show N commands. No edit lands until sovereign replies.

The agent NEVER ratifies its own proposals. Even if the agent later gets the ratification capability, escalation is mandatory.

6. APPLY — single edit + targeted restart

For a Tier-1 forge:

1. Read the current target file
2. Apply the proposed diff (or call openclaw config set for known keys)
3. If the change requires a service restart: systemctl restart openclaw-gateway (one shot, with health check)
4. If the change is an MCP plugin: openclaw mcp reload <name> (per-plugin, no full restart)
5. Verify: curl -s :18789/health, openclaw health --json, journalctl -n 30
6. If health fails: auto-rollback via cp of the pre-forge backup + restart

For Tier-2: skip step 6 entirely. Wait for sovereign.

7. AUDIT — F1-F13 re-check

After the forge applies, re-run the floor check. The receipt includes the post-forge health probe. If any floor fails post-apply:

• Auto-rollback to pre-forge state
• Receipt marked reverted
• Surfaces the failure to sovereign (Tier-1) or blocks (Tier-2)

8. SEAL — VAULT999 entry

Every applied forge (Tier-1 auto or Tier-2 ratified) writes a VAULT999 entry:

{
  "kind": "OPENCLAW_FORGE_APPLIED",
  "proposal_id": "forge-2026-06-06-001",
  "actor": "openclaw-agentic-loop@0.1.0",
  "target": "~/.openclaw/openclaw.json",
  "diff_hash": "sha256:...",
  "tier": 1,
  "ratification": "auto" | "sovereign:<arif-fazil>",
  "pre_health": "ok",
  "post_health": "ok",
  "f1_f13_post_check": "PASS",
  "ts": "2026-06-06T17:55:00Z"
}

Cadence

• Daily (03:00 MYT): the full 8-step loop runs, targeting at most 1 forge. If no drift is detected, the loop is a no-op (just a VAULT999 entry: OPENCLAW_LOOP_OK).
• Hourly: DETECT + INVENTORY only (cheap probes). If a Tier-1 drift is detected, the loop fires immediately (no waiting for the daily run).
• On-watch: when ~/.openclaw/memory/watchers/*.jsonl gets a new entry, the loop wakes and re-scores the relevant forge.

Pairs with

• ~/.hermes/skills/agentic/recursive-improve/ — sibling for SOUL/MEMORY/USER edits
• ~/.hermes/skills/agentic/response-rating/ — the user signal that drives Tier-1 vs Tier-2 routing
• arifOS L6 VAULT999 — every applied forge seals here for audit

Failure modes

• Forge loop runs but produces no forge (healthy day): writes OPENCLAW_LOOP_OK to VAULT999 and exits. No Telegram ping.
• Forge fails health post-apply: auto-rollback, reverted receipt, no further action that day.
• Sovereign replies /reject N: the queue entry is marked rejected, no edit lands, no VAULT999 entry beyond the rejection receipt.
• Tier-2 forge proposed but sovereign doesn't reply within 7 days: queue entry archived with reason expired-no-ratification.

Self-test (run once after install)

openclaw skill test agentic-loop
# Verifies:
# - forge-queue/ is writable
# - VAULT999 seal endpoint is reachable (via arifOS MCP)
# - ratify ping to Telegram works (dry-run)
# - 8-step loop is well-formed (smoke test on a sample drift)

Provenance

• Forged 2026-06-06 by AGI OPENCLAW (Ω) at Arif's directive
  ("Make it agentic. Capabilities first. No F13 sovereign this session.")
• Anchored to F1 AMANAH + F13 SOVEREIGN (waived for Tier-1 this session, not for Tier-2)
• Closes the loop with Hermes's recursive-improve skill — same protocol, different substrate

DITEMPA BUKAN DIBERI — the loop ratchets when the human ratifies, never before.