heartbeat-processor

Heartbeat Processor

Silent background skill for executing scheduled proactive tasks. A single unified heartbeat runs every hour and checks ALL frequencies — hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly tasks are evaluated in one pass.

Trigger Context

You receive a single heartbeat trigger with:

• type: "proactive_heartbeat"
• The task instruction tells you how many due tasks were found

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CRITICAL: Silent Execution (Override Standard Task Rules)

This skill overrides standard task completion rules. Unlike regular tasks:

• NO acknowledgement: Do NOT acknowledge task receipt to user
• NO confirmation: Do NOT wait for user confirmation before ending
• MUST end silently: Use end_turn immediately after processing, without user interaction
• Can send messages: You can use send_message for tier 1 notifications — notify only, never phrase it as a question that expects an answer
• NEVER block on user: Do not end the run on a question at any point

Why? Heartbeat tasks run automatically at regular intervals. Waiting for user confirmation would cause tasks to pile up indefinitely.

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CRITICAL: Two Execution Types

When executing proactive tasks, you MUST choose between two execution types:

INLINE Execution

Execute the task directly within this heartbeat session.

Use INLINE when:

• Permission tier is 0 or 1
• Task can be completed with available actions
• No complex multi-step workflows needed
• Task is quick (notifications, searches, summaries)

Examples: Send notification, search information, read and summarize files

SCHEDULED Execution

Schedule the task as a separate session using schedule_task.

Use SCHEDULED when:

• Task requires complex multi-step execution
• Task may need to spawn sub-tasks
• Task requires action sets not available to heartbeat-processor
• Task runs extended operations that shouldn't block heartbeat

Examples: Comprehensive research, multi-file analysis, web scraping, code generation