inner-life-core

The foundation for an agent's inner life. Emotions, state, protocol.

What This Solves

Without inner-life-core, your agent:

• - Starts every session as a blank slate
• Has no emotional continuity
• Can't prioritize based on how things are going
• Doesn't know when to reach out or stay quiet

With inner-life-core, your agent:

• - Tracks 6 emotions with realistic half-life decay
• Follows a 9-step Brain Loop protocol
• Routes behavior based on emotional state
• Knows when to ask, when to act, when to stay silent

Setup

CODEBLOCK0

This creates:

• - memory/inner-state.json — 6 emotions with decay rules
• INLINECODE1 — what the agent is seeking/anticipating
• INLINECODE2 — learned habits and user patterns
• INLINECODE3 — trust levels and lessons
• INLINECODE4 — 9-step Brain Loop protocol
• INLINECODE5 — personality observation space
• INLINECODE6 — curiosity backlog
• INLINECODE7 — task queue

The Emotion Model

6 emotions with half-life decay:

Emotion	What it tracks	Decay
connection	How recently you talked to the user	-0.05 per 6h without contact
confidence

How well things are going | +0.02/6h recovery, -0.1 on mistake |
| curiosity | How stimulated you are | -0.03 per 6h without spark |
| boredom | How routine things feel | +1 day counter, reset on novelty |
| frustration | Recurring unsolved problems | Counts recurring items |
| impatience | Stale items waiting for response | Tracks days without action |

Emotions drive behavior — see BRAIN.md Step 3 (Emotion-driven routing).

Context Protocol

4 levels of state reading, so each component reads only what it needs:

• - Level 1 (Minimal): Task-specific data only
• Level 2 (Standard): inner-state + drive + daily notes + signals
• Level 3 (Full): Level 2 + habits + relationship + diary + dreams + questions
• Level 4 (Deep): Level 3 + system docs + weekly digest

Signal & Synapse Tags

Signals (inter-component communication):

• - <!-- dream-topic: topic --> — Evening → Night Dream
• INLINECODE9 — Brain Loop → next Brain Loop
• INLINECODE10 — Night Dream → Morning Brain Loop

Synapses (memory connections):

• - <!-- contradicts: ref --> — when facts conflict
• INLINECODE12 — cause and effect
• INLINECODE13 — when updating old info

Utilities

CODEBLOCK1

Works With

Best experience with the full inner-life suite:

• - inner-life-reflect — self-reflection and personality growth
• inner-life-memory — memory continuity between sessions
• inner-life-dream — creative thinking during quiet hours
• inner-life-chronicle — daily diary generation
• inner-life-evolve — self-evolution proposals

Also works with: agent-browser, web-search-plus, git, claw-backup, shellf

When Should You Install This?

Install this skill if:

• - Your agent feels robotic and stateless
• You want emotional continuity between sessions
• You want behavior that adapts to context
• You're building a long-running autonomous agent

Part of the openclaw-inner-life bundle.