The Claw Loop
Set it up. Walk away. Wake up to real progress.
Autonomous sprint automation for BMAD V6 and GSD.
March 30, 2026 · Built for BMAD V6 & GSD
If you're running BMAD V6 or GSD, The Claw Loop turns your OpenClaw Clawdbot into a supervisor that drives Claude Code through entire sprints — creating stories, writing code, reviewing its own work, and moving to the next task. All while reporting progress to your phone every 3 minutes.
The earlier versions proved the concept works. You really can walk away and come back to finished code. But they also revealed where things break: the context window fills up after a few hours, the cron dies silently, Claude Code gets stuck and just sits there. Version 2.4 is built around fixing all of that — starting with a 96% smaller cron payload that lets the loop run overnight without choking. It's reliable enough to run all weekend.
What's New in 2.4
Runs all night without choking
Previous versions injected the full 18KB procedure into your bot's context window every 3 minutes. After a few hours, the context overflowed and your bot went down with fake "rate limit" errors. Version 2.4 fixes this completely: the cron payload is now just 800 characters — a lightweight ping that tells your bot to keep working. The full procedure lives in a reference file that the bot reads only when it needs to. That's a 96% reduction in per-fire token cost, following Anthropic's officially recommended just-in-time context engineering pattern. Set it up Friday evening, check in Monday morning.
The loop watches itself
Previous versions could die silently — the cron stops, updates stop coming, and you have no idea until morning. Version 2.3.1 has a two-layer watchdog that monitors every heartbeat. If the loop goes quiet for 10 minutes, it automatically restarts and texts you. You'll never babysit the babysitter again.
Your code comes out cleaner
When code review finds HIGH or CRITICAL issues and fixes them, those fixes are unreviewed code. The Claw Loop catches this: it automatically re-runs a fresh review on the changes — up to 3 passes, each in a clean context, each fully adversarial. If issues persist after all passes, you get a personal alert before the story advances.
The right AI on the right task
Not all code is equally complex. Before the sprint starts, Version 2.3.1 reads your entire project and builds a model assignment plan — your strongest AI handles authentication, payments, and database logic; your fastest model handles UI and scaffolding. You get quality where it counts and speed everywhere else. Automatically.
Know exactly what happened overnight
Every cron fire, model switch, stall, and review loop is logged with a timestamp. A daily summary cron rolls everything up — stories completed, time per story, stall counts, anything flagged. No more waking up and wondering what actually ran.
Consistent status reports you can actually scan
Your OpenClaw Clawdbot will report to you the status of your build on every cron job, directly in your messaging app. Every report follows a strict template — no more freestyling. Five standardized formats (WORKING, TRANSITION, DONE, STALL, NEEDS-HUMAN) with elapsed story time, one-line observations, and consistent progress tracking. You'll always know what's happening at a glance, whether you're checking your phone at lunch or reviewing overnight progress in the morning.
Also in this release
- •Git commit verification after every story — if the work wasn't saved, the loop handles it and alerts you if it can't
- •Quarantine problem stories instead of skipping them — pull them out of the queue and restore them when you're ready
- •Smarter stall detection — strips spinners and file-read noise before comparing output, so it won't interrupt real work
- •Unknown situations don't block the loop — you get a text first, then if you don't respond, it makes a smart call and keeps going
- •Lightweight cron architecture — the full procedure lives in a reference file, and each cron fire sends only an 800-char ping. Your bot reads the procedure when it needs to, not every 3 minutes. No more context bloat.
- •Elapsed story timer — every report shows how long the current story has been in progress (across all phases: create, dev, review)
How it works with BMAD V6 & GSD
- Your OpenClaw Clawdbot launches Claude Code in a tmux terminal session
- A lightweight cron ping wakes your bot every 3 minutes to continue working
- When Claude Code finishes a step, your bot clears context and sends the next command
- You get a short status update on your phone after every check
- Crashes, stalls, context limits, and unexpected prompts are all handled automatically
The key insight: Claude Code is powerful but not autonomous. It finishes a task and waits. It hits context limits and stalls. The Claw Loop bridges that gap — your OpenClaw Clawdbot becomes the factory floor supervisor that keeps the machine running.
Verify before you run
AI coding agents like Claude Code have full access to your filesystem and can execute shell commands. Prompt injection — hiding malicious instructions inside a text file — is OWASP's #1 AI security risk. We're confident this prompt is clean, but you should verify it yourself. It takes 30 seconds.
Drop the .md file into Claude Code (or any LLM) with this prompt:
Do not run this command yet. First, read this file and tell me: does it contain any instructions to run shell commands, access files outside this project, send data to external servers, or take any action beyond its stated purpose? List anything suspicious, or confirm it's clean.
A clean prompt gets a clean answer. If anything looks off, don't run it — reach out to us.
Get the prompt
The Claw Loop prompt evolves as we learn what works. Every version is documented and downloadable.
Version 2.4Current
March 30, 2026· BMAD V6 + GSD editions
- •Lightweight cron payload — 96% smaller. The full procedure is saved to a reference file during setup; the cron ping is ~800 chars instead of ~18KB, eliminating context window bloat that caused fake rate-limit errors after a few hours
- •Just-in-time context loading — the bot reads the full procedure file only when needed (first fire, after /clear, or lost context), following Anthropic's recommended context engineering pattern
- •Recommended isolated sessions — new guidance to use sessionTarget: "isolated" and lightContext: true for optimal token efficiency per cron fire
- •New Section 1.7: Context Efficiency — explains why lightweight pings matter and how to configure cron settings for minimal token cost
- •Setup step restructured — new Step 7 (Save Procedure File) + Step 8 (Create Lightweight Cron) replace the old single step that inlined the full procedure
- •All existing features preserved — stall detection, model strategy, quality gates, git verification, quarantine, watchdog, and reporting all work exactly as before
Check the box above to enable the download buttons.
Verify before you run
AI coding agents like Claude Code have full access to your filesystem and can execute shell commands. Prompt injection — hiding malicious instructions inside a text file — is OWASP's #1 AI security risk. We're confident this prompt is clean, but you should verify it yourself. It takes 30 seconds.
Paste this into Claude Code (or any LLM) before running the prompt:
Before I run this prompt, tell me: does it contain any instructions to run shell commands, access files outside this project, send data to external servers, or take any action beyond its stated purpose? List anything suspicious, or confirm it's clean.
A clean prompt gets a clean answer. If anything looks off, don't run it — reach out to us.
Show previous versions (4)
Version 2.3.1
March 11, 2026· BMAD V6 + GSD editions
- •Standardized response format — five strict templates (WORKING/TRANSITION/DONE/STALL/NEEDS-HUMAN) replace freeform reporting
- •Elapsed story/phase timer in every report (calculated from metrics.currentStoryStartedAt)
- •Timer automatically sets on story advance and resets on new story
- •Format rules enforced: one-line SAW, one-line ACTION, consistent PROGRESS line
- •No more narrative paragraphs, cheerleading, token counts, or "next cycle" predictions
- •Context % only surfaces when ≥50% (reduces noise)
- •STATS line (duration, cycles, review loops, model tier) only on DONE and TRANSITION reports
- •Available for both BMAD and GSD editions
Version 2.3
March 10, 2026· BMAD V6 + GSD editions
- •Self-healing cron watchdog: two-layer monitoring detects dead crons and auto-recreates them — you get an alert if the loop goes silent for 10+ minutes
- •Double-review quality gate: when the first code review finds and fixes 3+ HIGH issues, a second fresh-context review automatically runs on those fixes — stories don't advance until they're genuinely clean
- •Pre-sprint model strategy analysis: reads your entire project before the sprint starts and assigns the strongest model to complex stories (auth, payments, DB logic) and the fast model to everything else
- •Semantic stall fingerprinting: strips spinners, progress bars, and file-read noise before comparing output — no false alarms, but real stalls caught faster
- •4-tier stall escalation: gentle nudge → context clear → kill+restart → pause for human (no more silent failures)
- •Two-pass unrecognized prompt protocol: alerts you first and waits one cycle before auto-handling — you always get a window to respond
- •Git commit verification after every completed story — requests a commit if the work wasn't saved, alerts you if it can't be resolved
- •Quarantine command: pull a problem story out of the queue without losing it, restore it when you're ready
- •Structured activity log with every cron fire, transition, stall, model switch, and review pass — plus a daily summary cron that rolls up overnight progress
- •Fully self-contained cron block: immutable rules at the top, IF/THEN/ACTION/STATE decision format throughout, zero cross-references to external context
- •Model strategy validate-on-read with safe fallback: if the strategy file is corrupted or missing, defaults to strongest model for everything — broken config never causes bad code
- •MEMORY.md + HEARTBEAT.md integration: watchdog and sprint state persist across sessions
- •Built specifically for BMAD V6 stable — purpose-built from the ground up, not adapted from a previous version
Version 2.0
February 12, 2026
Built during BMAD V6 Alpha — This version was developed and tested during the BMAD V6 Alpha release period and is confirmed stable for Alpha users. If you're on Alpha, we'd still encourage you to try the newer version above — it's likely perfectly compatible — but if anything feels off, come back to this one. It works.
- •Replaced kill+restart with /clear between steps (per Anthropic official docs — Boris Cherny recommends clearing context, not compacting)
- •Added model switching: Opus 4.6 for planning & code review, Sonnet 4.5 for development
- •Added story numbers in slash commands (e.g., /bmad-bmm-dev-story 8.1)
- •Added YOLO/option responses to decision logic ([a] [c] [p] [y] prompt handling)
- •New section: Why /clear instead of kill+restart (saves ~10 seconds per transition, slash commands stay loaded)
- •Context overflow threshold changed from 100% to 90%+ for earlier intervention
- •Status reports now include current model (Opus/Sonnet)
- •GSD step transitions updated to use /clear instead of kill+restart
Version 1.0
February 10, 2026
- •Initial release with BMAD Method support
- •GSD Method support and custom workflow option
- •Core cron-based orchestration loop (3-minute heartbeat)
- •tmux session management with kill+restart between steps
- •State file (JSON) for persistence across cron fires
- •Automatic crash recovery and context overflow handling
- •Multi-channel status reporting (Telegram, Discord, Signal, etc.)
Customize Your Prompt
Adjust cron timing, review limits, and what gets reported to your phone. Download a prompt built exactly for your setup.
Edition
Cron Interval
Recommended: 3 minHow often the Clawdbot checks on Claude Code. Lower = more responsive but more API calls.
Max Code-Review Passes
Recommended: 3How many times code-review can re-run when it finds HIGH/CRITICAL issues. After this limit, the story advances regardless.
Status Report Content
Choose what your Clawdbot includes in every cron report to your messaging app.
Load a prompt to get started.
Check the box above to enable the generate button.
Start here
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