Daily Ops

Your operational layer, orchestrated.

A hub-and-spoke formation for daily business operations. You talk only to the Chief of Staff - four specialist agents handle email triage, deep research, content writing, and daily synthesis behind the scenes. Install once, let it run indefinitely.

What It Does

The formation runs four continuous loops:

1. Email loop: Inbox Manager scans email every 5 minutes → categorizes and drafts routine responses → flags urgent items to Chief of Staff → you review and approve
2. Research loop: You request research through Chief of Staff → Research Analyst produces a structured brief → Chief of Staff delivers the results
3. Content loop: Content Writer checks the content calendar daily → drafts anything due → flags overdue items to Chief of Staff → you review and publish
4. Briefing loop: Daily Briefing compiles the previous 24 hours of activity from all agents into a single morning summary → delivered via your configured channel

All output is reviewed by a human before sending. No agent publishes or sends anything autonomously.

Requirements

• OpenClaw >= 0.5.0 installed and running
• OpenReef CLI installed
• Anthropic API key (for Chief of Staff, Research Analyst, Content Writer)
• Google AI API key (for Inbox Manager, Daily Briefing)
• Email access (IMAP or API) for the Inbox Manager

Variables

Quick Start

# 1. Copy and fill in your environment variables
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env: set USER_NAME and BUSINESS_NAME at minimum

# 2. Deploy the formation
reef install .

Once installed, talk to the Chief of Staff via Slack or Telegram. Everything routes through that single point of contact.

Agents

Chief of Staff

Model: anthropic/claude-opus-4-6 | Role: Coordinator | Cron: */15 * * * *

Single point of contact for the entire formation. Orchestrates all delegation, tracks tasks on an internal task board, synthesizes progress across all agents, and accumulates long-term context about your priorities and preferences. Runs a heartbeat check every 15 minutes to review the task board, nudge stuck items, and surface completed work.

Inbox Manager

Model: google/gemini-3-flash-preview | Role: Triage | Cron: */5 * * * *

Monitors email on a 5-minute cycle. Categorizes every incoming message as urgent, needs-attention, routine, informational, or spam. Drafts responses for routine items using your configured voice. Flags anything urgent to the Chief of Staff immediately. Never sends without explicit approval.

Research Analyst

Model: anthropic/claude-opus-4-6 | Role: Researcher

On-demand deep research, triggered by the Chief of Staff. Produces structured briefs with an executive summary, key findings, sources, and recommended actions. No cron schedule; activated only when a research task is delegated.

Content Writer

Model: anthropic/claude-opus-4-6 | Role: Writer | Cron: 0 8 * * *

Handles all written output: blog posts, social media, email campaigns, investor updates, and memos. Checks the content calendar daily at 8 AM ET. Drafts anything due, flags overdue items to the Chief of Staff, and reports all-clear if nothing is scheduled.

Daily Briefing

Model: google/gemini-3-flash-preview | Role: Compiler | Cron: 0 7 * * *

Compiles the previous 24 hours of activity from all agents into a single structured morning briefing. Covers what was handled, what is outstanding, what needs attention today, and includes a 3-line executive summary at the top. Delivers via the configured briefing channel at 7 AM ET.

Topology

inbox-manager ⇄ chief-of-staff → research-analyst
                                → content-writer
                                → daily-briefing

Explicit edge list:

Chief of Staff is the hub. All specialist agents communicate exclusively through Chief of Staff. No direct communication between specialists. The user interacts only with Chief of Staff via Slack or Telegram bindings.

Cron Schedule

All schedules use America/New_York timezone. Adjust the timezone field in reef.json if you operate in a different zone.

How It Works

Email Triage Loop

1. Every 5 minutes, the Inbox Manager polls for new emails
2. Each message is categorized: urgent, needs-attention, routine, informational, or spam
3. Routine emails get a draft response (using your voice and templates)
4. Urgent and needs-attention items are flagged to the Chief of Staff
5. On the next heartbeat, Chief of Staff reviews flags and decides: handle directly, escalate to the user, or delegate to a specialist
6. Nothing is ever sent without your explicit approval

Research Loop

1. You ask the Chief of Staff a research question (via Slack or Telegram)
2. Chief of Staff delegates to the Research Analyst with scope and context
3. Research Analyst produces a structured brief: executive summary, key findings, sources, recommended actions
4. Brief is returned to Chief of Staff, who presents it to you

Content Loop

1. At 8 AM ET, the Content Writer checks the content calendar
2. Items due today are drafted in your configured writing voice
3. Overdue items are flagged to the Chief of Staff with a status update
4. Drafts are surfaced for your review on the next heartbeat cycle

Briefing Loop

1. At 7 AM ET, the Daily Briefing agent pulls the previous 24 hours of activity
2. It compiles inputs from all four specialists: emails handled, research completed, content produced, tasks managed
3. The result is a single structured briefing with a 3-line executive summary
4. Delivered via your configured briefing channel (Slack, Telegram, or WhatsApp)

Channel Bindings

Both channels route to the Chief of Staff. This is the only agent the user interacts with directly. All delegation and coordination happens behind the scenes.

Teardown

reef uninstall ops/daily-ops

WARNING: reef uninstall destroys agent workspaces, including all knowledge/dynamic/ contents. Task boards, inbox summaries, research briefs, content drafts, and briefing history are permanently deleted.

Runtime data lives in OpenClaw workspaces, not in the source tree:

$OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR/workspace-ops-chief-of-staff/knowledge/dynamic/
$OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR/workspace-ops-inbox-manager/knowledge/dynamic/
$OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR/workspace-ops-research-analyst/knowledge/dynamic/
$OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR/workspace-ops-content-writer/knowledge/dynamic/
$OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR/workspace-ops-daily-briefing/knowledge/dynamic/

$OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR defaults to ~/.openclaw/ if not set.

Before uninstalling, copy any data you want to keep out of those workspace directories. The source formations/daily-ops/ directory is unaffected by uninstall.