joelclaw

Create new joelclaw skills with the idiomatic process — repo-canonical, symlinked, git-tracked, slogged. Triggers on 'add a skill', 'create skill', 'new skill', 'canonical skill', 'make a skill for', or any request to formalize a process or domain into a reusable skill.

Create and maintain Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) optimized for agentic coding workflows. Use when you need to propose, write, update, accept/reject, deprecate, or supersede an ADR; bootstrap an adr folder and index; consult existing ADRs before implementing changes; or enforce ADR conventions. This skill uses Socratic questioning to capture intent before drafting, and validates output against an agent-readiness checklist.

Optimize websites, docs, and product surfaces for agent discoverability and operator UX. Use when working on agent SEO/AEO/GEO, crawl policy, markdown or JSON projections, llms.txt, sitemap.md, AGENTS.md guidance, content negotiation, accessibility for browser agents, or any request to make a site easier for pi, OpenCode, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Perplexity, or other agent harnesses to find and use.

Start, monitor, and cancel durable multi-agent coding loops via Inngest. Use when the user wants to run autonomous coding workloads, execute a PRD with multiple stories, kick off an AFK coding session, have agents implement features from a plan, or manage running loops. Triggers on "start a coding loop", "run this PRD", "implement these stories", "go AFK and code this", "check loop status", "cancel the loop", "joelclaw loop", or any request for autonomous multi-story code execution.

Backward-compatible alias for the canonical clawmail protocol. Use when older prompts mention 'agent-mail'. For full, current coordination rules load the `clawmail` skill.

Verify, repair, backfill, and back up Pi/Claude/Codex session capture across Flagg, Blaine, and Panda. Use when checking whether agent activity is captured, clearing joelclaw outbox backlogs, backing transcripts up to three-body NAS, or scheduling capture verification.

Compatibility alias for the canonical `workflow-rig` front door. Use when older prompts mention `agent-workloads` or when you need the legacy workload-planning guidance; for new work, load `workflow-rig` first.

Query Ahrefs SEO data via their MCP server — keyword research, site explorer, SERP analysis, competitor research, backlink analysis, and Brand Radar AI visibility. Use when researching keywords, analyzing competitors, checking backlinks, auditing sites, or any SEO data task. Triggers on 'keyword research', 'check backlinks', 'competitor analysis', 'ahrefs', 'search volume', 'keyword difficulty', 'domain rating', 'SERP analysis', 'SEO data', 'brand radar', or any request needing search engine optimization data.

Vercel AI Gateway expert guidance. Use when configuring model routing, provider failover, cost tracking, or managing multiple AI providers through a unified API.

Turn ephemeral discussion into durable truth in the right artifact. Use when Joel says "capture this", "note this", "write this down", "make this durable", "put this in the doc", or whenever a conversation conclusion should be preserved in project docs, launch plans, lat.md, ADRs, tasks, or memory.

Canonical joelclaw mail coordination protocol for all agents. Use when announcing work, checking inboxes, reserving files, releasing locks, handling task handoffs, triaging stale reservations, or auditing coordination quality. Triggers on: 'clawmail', 'agent mail', 'joelclaw mail', 'reserve files', 'release locks', 'handoff', 'agent coordination', 'mail status', or any multi-agent collaboration workflow.

Design and build agent-first CLIs with HATEOAS JSON responses, context-protecting output, and self-documenting command trees. Use when creating new CLI tools, adding commands to existing CLIs such as joelclaw, or reviewing CLI design for agent-friendliness. Triggers on 'build a CLI', 'add a command', 'CLI design', 'agent-friendly output', or any task involving command-line tool creation.

Capture interesting finds to the Vault via Inngest. Triggers when the user shares a URL, repo, or idea with signal words like "interesting", "cool", "neat", "check this out", "look at this", "came across", or when sharing content with minimal context that implies it should be remembered. Also triggers on bare URL drops with no explicit ask. Fires a discovery/noted event and continues the conversation — the pipeline handles everything else.

Create, manage, and execute agent tools (claude, codex) inside Docker sandboxes for isolated code execution. Use when running agent loops, spawning tool subprocesses, or any task requiring process isolation. Triggers on "sandbox", "isolated execution", "docker sandbox", "safe agent execution", or when working on agent loop infrastructure.

Triage Joel's email inboxes via the joelclaw email CLI. Scan, categorize, archive noise, surface actionable items, and draft replies. Use when: 'check my email', 'scan inbox', 'triage email', 'what needs a reply', 'clean up inbox', 'archive junk', 'email summary', 'anything important in email', or any request involving email inbox review or cleanup.

Operate the joelclaw gateway daemon — the always-on pi session that receives events, notifications, and messages. Use the joelclaw CLI for ALL gateway operations. Use when: 'restart gateway', 'gateway status', 'is gateway healthy', 'push to gateway', 'gateway not responding', 'telegram not working', 'messages not going through', 'gateway stuck', 'gateway debug', 'check gateway', 'drain queue', 'test gateway', 'stream events', or any task involving the gateway daemon.

Diagnose gateway failures by reading daemon logs, session transcripts, Redis state, and OTEL telemetry. Full Telegram path triage: daemon process → Redis channel → command queue → pi session → model API → Telegram delivery. Use when: 'gateway broken', 'telegram not working', 'why is gateway down', 'gateway not responding', 'check gateway logs', 'what happened to gateway', 'gateway diagnose', 'gateway errors', 'review gateway logs', 'fallback activated', 'gateway stuck', or any request to understand why the gateway failed. Distinct from the gateway skill (operations) — this skill is diagnostic.

Set up a persistent AI agent gateway on macOS with Redis event bridge, heartbeat monitoring, and multi-session routing. Interactive Q&A to match your intent — from minimal (Redis + extension) to full (embedded daemon + Telegram + watchdog). Use when: 'set up a gateway', 'I want my agent always on', 'event bridge', 'heartbeat monitoring', 'agent notifications', or any request to make an AI agent persistent and reachable.

iMessage/SMS CLI for listing chats, reading message history, watching for new messages, and sending messages. Triggers on: check messages, read imessage, send text, imsg, message history, sms, who texted me.

Set up, maintain, and debug the imsg-rpc Unix socket daemon that gives the gateway iMessage access via JSON-RPC. Covers FDA setup, code signing, launchd service, and the imsg source repo.

Set up self-hosted Inngest on macOS as a durable background task manager for AI agents. Interactive Q&A to match intent — from Docker one-liner to full k8s deployment with persistent state. Use when: 'set up inngest', 'background tasks', 'durable workflows', 'self-host inngest', 'event-driven functions', 'cron jobs', or any request for a local workflow engine.

Run comprehensive joelclaw health checks, including postboot/daily checks for NAS, MinIO, Convex, Postgres, Typesense, Inngest, Panda/Flagg authority split, k8s, worker, Redis, OTEL, tests, repo sync, memory pipeline, and disk. Use when: 'system health', 'postboot check', 'daily system check', 'health check', 'is everything working', 'system status', 'how's the system', 'check everything', or at session start to orient.

Update and maintain joelclaw.com — the Next.js web app at apps/web/. Use when writing blog posts, editing pages, updating the network page, changing layout/header/footer, adding components, or fixing anything on the site. Hard content triggers: 'write article about X' (draft in Convex), 'publish article <slug>' (set draft=false + revalidate tags/paths). Also triggers on: 'update the site', 'write a post', 'fix the blog', 'joelclaw.com', 'update network page', 'add a page', 'change the header', or any task involving the public-facing web app.

Operate the joelclaw Kubernetes cluster — Talos Linux on Colima (Mac Mini). Deploy services, check health, debug pods, recover from restarts, add ports, manage Helm releases, inspect logs, fix networking. Triggers on: 'kubectl', 'pods', 'deploy to k8s', 'cluster health', 'restart pod', 'helm install', 'talosctl', 'colima', 'nodeport', 'flannel', 'port mapping', 'k8s down', 'cluster not working', 'add a port', 'PVC', 'storage', any k8s/Talos/Colima infrastructure task. Also triggers on service-specific deploy: 'deploy redis', 'redeploy inngest', 'livekit helm', 'pds not responding'.

Static-first Next.js 16 architecture patterns: cached shells with dynamic slots, provider islands, 'use cache' boundaries, and link preloading strategy. Use when building or refactoring Next.js routes to maximize static rendering, implementing 'use cache' with dynamic personalization, splitting entry vs static renderers, scoping client providers, or tuning prefetch behavior. Triggers on 'static shell', 'use cache pattern', 'dynamic slots', 'provider island', 'prefetch strategy', 'static first', 'cache boundary', 'route goes dynamic unexpectedly', or any Next.js architecture work involving mixed static/dynamic rendering.