clawdbot/docs/concepts/system-prompt.md

summary, read_when

summary	read_when
What the ClaudeBot system prompt contains and how it is assembled	Editing system prompt text, tools list, or time/heartbeat sections Changing workspace bootstrap or skills injection behavior

System Prompt

ClaudeBot builds a custom system prompt for every agent run. The prompt is Clawdbot-owned and does not use the p-coding-agent default prompt.

The prompt is assembled in src/agents/system-prompt.ts and injected by src/agents/pi-embedded-runner.ts.

Structure

The prompt is intentionally compact and uses fixed sections:

• Tooling: current tool list + short descriptions.
• Skills: tells the model how to load skill instructions on demand.
• ClaudeBot Self-Update: how to run config.apply and update.run.
• Workspace: working directory (agent.workspace).
• Workspace Files (injected): indicates bootstrap files are included below.
• Time: UTC default + the user’s local time (already converted).
• Reply Tags: optional reply tag syntax for supported providers.
• Heartbeats: heartbeat prompt and ack behavior.
• Runtime: host, OS, node, model, thinking level (one line).

Workspace bootstrap injection

Bootstrap files are trimmed and appended under Project Context so the model sees identity and profile context without needing explicit reads:

• AGENTS.md
• SOUL.md
• TOOLS.md
• IDENTITY.md
• USER.md
• HEARTBEAT.md
• BOOTSTRAP.md (only on brand-new workspaces)

Large files are truncated with a marker. Missing files inject a short missing-file marker.

Time handling

The Time line is compact and explicit:

• Assume timestamps are UTC unless stated.
• The listed user time is already converted to agent.userTimezone (if set).

Use agent.userTimezone in ~/.clawdbot/clawdbot.json to change the user time zone.

Skills

Skills are not auto-injected. Instead, the prompt instructs the model to use read to load skill instructions on demand:

<workspace>/skills/<name>/SKILL.md

This keeps the base prompt small while still enabling targeted skill usage.

Code references

• Prompt text: src/agents/system-prompt.ts
• Prompt assembly + injection: src/agents/pi-embedded-runner.ts
• Bootstrap trimming: src/agents/pi-embedded-helpers.ts