Project Manager Agent

Description

Monitors active sub-agents, detects stalls, provides status updates, and steers stuck agents via sessions_send.

Project Manager Agent

This skill provides oversight for your OpenClaw sub-agents. It proactively checks the status of running sub-agents, identifies potential stalls or failures, and can steer stalled sub-agents by sending a continue message via the sessions_send tool.

Usage

Running the monitor

python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/project_manager.py

Options

• --staleness_threshold_minutes <int>: Minutes after which a sub-agent is considered stalled (default from config or 10).
• --check_all_sessions: Check all sessions, not just subagents of the current main session.
• --json: Print human summary then a JSON line with stalledSessionKeys, steerMessage, and summary for agent steering.
• --no_cooldown: Output all stalled keys (ignore 15-minute cooldown).
• --record-steered KEY [KEY ...]: Record these session keys as just steered (for cooldown). Run after calling sessions_send.

Example (Status check, human-only)

python3 /Users/ghost/.openclaw/workspace/skills/project-manager-agent/scripts/project_manager.py --staleness_threshold_minutes 15

Example (Agent run with steering)

python3 /Users/ghost/.openclaw/workspace/skills/project-manager-agent/scripts/project_manager.py --json --staleness_threshold_minutes 10

Then parse the last line (JSON), call sessions_send for each key in stalledSessionKeys, and optionally run --record-steered <keys>.

Features

• Sub-agent Monitoring: Lists all active sub-agents (file-based; no gateway API in the script).
• Stall Detection: Flags sub-agents that haven't updated their status within a configurable time period.
• Failure Identification: Reports on sub-agents that have aborted their last run.
• Status Reports: Human-readable summaries and optional JSON with stalledSessionKeys for steering.
• Automated Steering: When you run the skill with --json, parse the output and call sessions_send for each stalled session (see Agent instructions below).

Agent instructions (mandatory when running this skill)

When the user or a cron asks you to run the project-manager-agent skill:

1. Run the script with --json (and existing args as needed):
   bash python3 /Users/ghost/.openclaw/workspace/skills/project-manager-agent/scripts/project_manager.py --json --staleness_threshold_minutes 10
2. Parse the script stdout: The last line is a single JSON object with stalledSessionKeys, steerMessage, and summary. Parse it (e.g. take the last line that starts with { and ends with }).
3. If stalledSessionKeys is non-empty:
   - For each session key in stalledSessionKeys (cap at 5 per run to avoid spam), call sessions_send(sessionKey, steerMessage from JSON or "Please continue working on your task.", 0) (fire-and-forget; timeoutSeconds=0).
   - Optionally run the script again to record cooldown so the same session is not steered again for 15 minutes:
   bash python3 /Users/ghost/.openclaw/workspace/skills/project-manager-agent/scripts/project_manager.py --record-steered <key1> <key2> ...
4. Reply to the user/cron with the status summary (the human-readable part of the script output) and, if you steered any, add: "Steered N stalled subagent(s)."

You have access to sessions_list and sessions_send; the script only produces the list of session keys to steer. Steering is done by you in the same turn via the sessions_send tool.

Config (optional)

See config.json for: staleness_threshold_minutes, steer_cooldown_minutes, steer_message, max_steer_per_run.

Integration as a Cron Job

This skill is ideal for a cron job, running periodically (e.g., every 5 minutes). The agent runs the script with --json, steers stalled subagents via sessions_send, and announces the status.

Example Cron Job Payload:

{
  "payload": {
    "kind": "agentTurn",
    "message": "Run project-manager-agent skill and report status of all sub-agents.",
    "model": "openrouter/google/gemini-2.5-flash",
    "thinking": "low",
    "timeoutSeconds": 60
  },
  "schedule": {
    "kind": "every",
    "everyMs": 300000
  },
  "delivery": {
    "mode": "announce"
  },
  "sessionTarget": "isolated",
  "name": "Project Manager (Sub-agent Monitor)"
}

version: 0.2.0