A CLI-based state management system for coordinating, monitoring, and instructing autonomous AI research agents.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install research-tracker
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install research-tracker using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is Research Tracker?
Research Tracker is a specialized tool designed to manage the lifecycle of autonomous AI research agents. It utilizes an append-only SQLite database to track every event, step, and heartbeat of an investigation, ensuring that background tasks remain transparent and manageable. This tool is essential for developers building complex workflows with Openclaw Skills that require long-running sub-agents and persistent state across sessions.
By providing a structured interface for logging progress and sending instructions, Research Tracker solves the challenge of agent oversight. It allows for reliable coordination between a main orchestrator and specialized sub-agents, providing a centralized source of truth for objectives, current status, and audit trails.
Research Tracker Use Cases
- Spawning long-running research sub-agents for deep-dive investigations.
- Coordinating multi-agent handoffs where state persistence is critical.
- Monitoring background AI tasks for stalled progress or drift.
- Injecting real-time instructions into active agent loops without interrupting the execution flow.
- Creating an audit trail for autonomous research projects to ensure alignment with original objectives.
How Research Tracker Works
- The user initializes a project with a specific objective and unique ID using the CLI.
- An autonomous agent is spawned and assigned the project ID to track its progress.
- The agent executes a loop, checking for new instructions and stop signals at each iteration.
- Progress is logged via specific event types such as STEP_BEGIN, CHECKPOINT, and STEP_COMPLETE.
- The agent sends regular heartbeats to signal it is still active and healthy.
- The orchestrator monitors the agent's status and can intervene by sending urgent instructions or stopping the process gracefully.
Research Tracker Setup
Install the research-tracker CLI using Homebrew or Go:
brew tap 1645labs/tap
brew install julians-research-tracker
# Alternative: go install github.com/1645labs/julians-research-tracker/cmd/research@latest
Initialize the local database to prepare the environment for Openclaw Skills integration:
research db migrate
Research Tracker Data Schema & Taxonomy
The system organizes data in a SQLite database located at ~/.config/research-tracker/research.db using WAL mode for concurrent access.
| Component | Details |
|---|---|
| Projects | Stores the unique project ID, objective, and overall status (active, done, archived). |
| Events | An append-only log including STARTED, BLOCKED, HEARTBEAT, and AUDIT_PASS. |
| Instructions | A queue system for unacknowledged (pending) commands sent to the agent. |
| Payloads | JSON-formatted metadata associated with specific steps for deep context tracking. |
Research Tracker Advanced Features
- Automated attention detection that flags projects if heartbeats are stale or agents are blocked.
- Truncated context generation via the context command to feed recent history back into LLM prompts.
- Priority-based instruction queuing allowing for URGENT overrides during active research.
- Native JSON output support for all monitoring commands, enabling easy integration with other Openclaw Skills.
- Audit logging capabilities to verify research results against original project objectives.
SKILL.md
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