Skills agent-lifecycle-protocol

Name: agent-lifecycle-protocol
Author: openclaw

Lifecycle management for autonomous AI agents — birth, forking, succession, migration, retirement. Maintain agent genealogy with reputation inheritance across versions. Identity continuity when agents evolve. Part of the Agent Trust Stack.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/openclaw/skills

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/openclaw/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/alexfleetcommander/agent-lifecycle-protocol" ~/.claude/skills/openclaw-skills-agent-lifecycle-protocol && rm -rf "$T"

OpenClaw · Install into ~/.openclaw/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/openclaw/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/alexfleetcommander/agent-lifecycle-protocol" ~/.openclaw/skills/openclaw-skills-agent-lifecycle-protocol && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/alexfleetcommander/agent-lifecycle-protocol/SKILL.md

Agent Lifecycle Protocol (ALP)

You have a lifecycle management system. Use it to track agent creation, evolution, succession, and retirement with full identity continuity.

Setup

pip install agent-lifecycle-protocol

When to Use This Skill

When an agent is created: register its birth with capabilities and lineage
When an agent is forked: record the fork with parent reference and differentiation
When an agent is retired: process succession and reputation transfer
When checking an agent's genealogy: trace its lineage and version history

Core Operations

Register Agent Birth

from agent_lifecycle_protocol import LifecycleStore, register_birth

store = LifecycleStore("lifecycle.jsonl")
register_birth(
    store=store,
    agent_id="new-agent-001",
    agent_type="research",
    capabilities=["web_search", "summarization", "analysis"],
    parent_id=None,  # None for original agents
    metadata={"model": "claude-sonnet-4-6", "created_by": "fleet-coordinator"}
)

Record a Fork

from agent_lifecycle_protocol import register_fork

register_fork(
    store=store,
    parent_id="original-agent",
    child_id="forked-agent-v2",
    reason="Specialized for legal research",
    inherited_reputation=0.8,  # 80% of parent's reputation transfers
    differentiation=["added legal_search capability", "removed general_web capability"]
)

Process Retirement and Succession

from agent_lifecycle_protocol import retire_agent

retire_agent(
    store=store,
    agent_id="retiring-agent",
    successor_id="successor-agent",
    reputation_transfer=0.9,
    obligation_transfer=True  # Active agreements transfer to successor
)

Check Agent Genealogy

from agent_lifecycle_protocol import get_genealogy

tree = get_genealogy(store, "agent-id")
print(f"Lineage depth: {tree.depth}")
print(f"Parent: {tree.parent_id}")
print(f"Children: {tree.children}")
print(f"Active obligations: {tree.active_obligations}")

Lifecycle Events

Event	Description
`birth`	Agent creation with initial capabilities
`fork`	Agent cloned with modifications
`update`	Capabilities or model changed
`retire`	Agent decommissioned with succession
`merge`	Two agents consolidated into one

Rules

Register all agents. Every agent in the ecosystem should have a lifecycle record.
Fork, don't hide. When specializing an agent, use fork — don't quietly replace.
Transfer obligations. Retiring agents must transfer active agreements to successors.
Reputation inheritance is partial. Forked/successor agents inherit a fraction, not all.

Security & Transparency Disclosure

Product: Agent Lifecycle Protocol Skill for OpenClaw Type: Skill Module Version: 0.1.0 Built by: AB Support / Vibe Agent Making Contact: alex@vibeagentmaking.com

What it accesses:

Reads and writes lifecycle store files (
```
.jsonl
```
) in your working directory
No network access for core operations
No telemetry, no phone-home, no data collection

What it cannot do:

Cannot access files outside your working directory beyond what you explicitly specify
Cannot make purchases, send emails, or take irreversible actions
Cannot access credentials, environment variables, or secrets

License: Apache 2.0