Sub-Agent Overseer

Lightweight pull-based daemon that monitors sub-agent health. Writes a status file every N seconds. The heartbeat handler reads it — no push, no noise.

Architecture

overseer.sh (bash, runs in background)
    ├── /proc/<pid>  → gateway alive? CPU? threads?
    ├── openclaw sessions list  → sub-agent count + ages
    ├── find -newer marker  → filesystem activity
    └── writes /tmp/overseer/status.json  (atomic mv)

heartbeat (agent, every 3min)
    └── reads /tmp/overseer/status.json → summarize or HEARTBEAT_OK

Key principle: The overseer does all data collection. The heartbeat handler does zero tool calls if the status file is fresh and healthy.

Quick Start

1. Start the overseer when spawning sub-agents

setsid scripts/overseer.sh \
  --workdir /path/to/repo \
  --interval 180 \
  --max-stale 4 \
  --voice \
  &>/dev/null &

2. Heartbeat reads the status file

cat /tmp/overseer/status.json

3. Interpret the status

4. Staleness thresholds (at 180s interval)

Heartbeat Handler Protocol

When HEARTBEAT.md fires:

• Read /tmp/overseer/status.json — if missing or stale (>10 min), restart overseer
• If subagents.count == 0 for 2+ cycles → overseer auto-exits → reply HEARTBEAT_OK
• If all agents active → brief one-line status → HEARTBEAT_OK
• If any stuck → report which labels are stuck → consider killing via subagents kill
• Never cache a previous heartbeat response. Always read the status file fresh.

Flags

How It Works (No AI Tokens)

• Gateway health: Reads /proc//status for CPU, memory, threads, FD count. Pure kernel data.
• Sub-agent list: Single openclaw sessions list call per cycle. Parses grep output.
• Filesystem diff: find -newer marker — detects any file writes in the workdir.
• Status file: JSON written atomically (write to temp, mv into place). Any reader sees a complete file.
• Self-exit: If no sub-agents for 2 consecutive cycles, the overseer stops itself.
• Dedup: flock ensures only one overseer instance runs at a time.

Cost

• Overseer: $0.00 (bash + /proc + one CLI call per cycle)
• Voice alerts: $0.00 (local sherpa-onnx via jarvis)
• Heartbeat reads status file: $0.00 (one cat command)
• Only cost is the heartbeat model itself (qwen3 local = free)

Pairs Well With

• agent-superpowers — the three-agent review pipeline that Overseer was built to monitor
• smart-model-router — auto-select models for each sub-agent role

_Clone it. Fork it. Break it. Make it yours._