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HEARTBEAT.md

Provides the agent with a recurring checklist and operating guidance for periodic heartbeat checks.

Purpose​

HEARTBEAT.md defines tasks the agent should check or perform on a schedule. The agent uses this during heartbeat runs to know what to verify, report, or act on.

Example​

# Heartbeat

## Health checks
- Verify the LLM API is reachable (send a simple ping request)
- Check that workspace files are accessible
- Confirm skill directory exists and skills are loaded

## Status report
- Log the current session count
- Note any configuration changes since last heartbeat
- Report available disk space in workspace

## Actions
- Clean up old log files (>7 days) in the logs/ directory
- Refresh the skills registry if skills have been added or modified

Notes​

  • Heartbeat checks run at the interval configured in the scheduler
  • If this file is empty or absent, no heartbeat checks are performed
  • Keep checks lightweight — they run on a timer