clawdbot/docs/concepts/agent-loop.md

summary, read_when

summary	read_when
Agent loop lifecycle, streams, and wait semantics	You need an exact walkthrough of the agent loop or lifecycle events

Agent Loop (Clawdbot)

Short, exact flow of one agent run.

Entry points

• Gateway RPC: agent and agent.wait.
• CLI: agent command.

High-level flow

1. agent RPC validates params, resolves session (sessionKey/sessionId), persists session metadata, returns { runId, acceptedAt } immediately.
2. agentCommand runs the agent:
   • resolves model + thinking/verbose defaults
   • loads skills snapshot
   • calls runEmbeddedPiAgent (pi-agent-core runtime)
   • emits lifecycle end/error if the embedded loop does not emit one
3. runEmbeddedPiAgent:
   • builds AgentSession and subscribes to pi events
   • streams assistant deltas + tool events
   • enforces timeout -> aborts run if exceeded
   • returns payloads + usage metadata
4. subscribeEmbeddedPiSession bridges pi-agent-core events to Clawdbot agent stream:
   • tool events => stream: "tool"
   • assistant deltas => stream: "assistant"
   • lifecycle events => stream: "lifecycle" (phase: "start" | "end" | "error")
5. agent.wait uses waitForAgentJob:
   • waits for lifecycle end/error for runId
   • returns { status: ok|error|timeout, startedAt, endedAt, error? }

Event streams (today)

• lifecycle: emitted by subscribeEmbeddedPiSession (and as a fallback by agentCommand)
• assistant: streamed deltas from pi-agent-core
• tool: streamed tool events from pi-agent-core

Chat channel handling

• Assistant deltas are buffered into chat delta messages.
• A chat final is emitted on lifecycle end/error.

Timeouts

• agent.wait default: 30s (just the wait). timeoutMs param overrides.
• Agent runtime: agents.defaults.timeoutSeconds default 600s; enforced in runEmbeddedPiAgent abort timer.

Where things can end early

• Agent timeout (abort)
• AbortSignal (cancel)
• Gateway disconnect or RPC timeout
• agent.wait timeout (wait-only, does not stop agent)