The Starkslab public library.

Agent CLI Control Surfaces: What To Compare Before You Trust a Coding Agent

The useful agent CLI comparison is not a winner ranking. It is a control-surface audit: what the tool can see, edit, execute, delegate, extend, report, and recover from before an operator trusts it.

What Is a Coding-Agent Control Plane? Skills, MCP, Config, and Safety Gates

A coding-agent control plane is the operator layer for skills, MCP servers, config, sessions, memory, routing, and safety gates around agent work.

The AI Developer Tools I Built and Open Sourced

A practical map of Starkslab's AI developer tools: x-scheduler, minimal-agent-framework, datafast-cli, trustmrr-cli, and the proof boundaries around each.

How to Build an AI Agent Beyond the Demo: The Production Stack

A practical map of the production stack behind AI agents: runtime, tools, memory, workflows, observability, evals, guardrails, deployment gates, and control-plane boundaries.

MCP Gateway for AI Agents: Why Tool Access Needs a Sandbox Contract

MCP Gateway for AI agents explained as a sandbox contract: source policies, write sinks, logs, and human gates around agent tool access.

dmux Shows the Useful Coding-Agent UI Is a Worktree Cockpit

dmux review for coding-agent operators: worktrees, tmux panes, worker metadata, review paths, and the source-read boundary.

LangSmith Observability: The Trace Layer AI Agents Need Before Production

LangSmith observability gives AI agents traces, runs, threads, dashboards, evals, and OpenTelemetry support. Here is what matters, what to steal, and where local traces still win.

The Coding Agent Harness Layer: How to Orchestrate Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, and More Without Workflow Rot

A practical field guide to the layer above the coding agent: when to use native CLIs, when wrappers help, and when a full harness is worth the complexity.

Coding Agent Wrappers: Convenience, Durability, and Policy Risk Without the Hype

A practical guide to coding agent wrappers: where they help, where they degrade workflow quality, and how to judge native CLI vs wrapper vs harness without policy melodrama.

Cross-Agent Handoff: How to Move Work Between Coding Agents Without Losing Continuity

A practical field guide to cross-agent handoff: what belongs in the packet, when to resume instead of switch, and how to move work between coding agents without turning the workflow into mush.

ClawSweeper Review: What It Actually Does

ClawSweeper is an AI repo-maintenance worker with typed decisions, durable artifacts, and a proposal/apply split. Here’s what it actually does and why the design matters.

OpenAI Symphony Review: What It Actually Does

OpenAI Symphony is an issue-driven coding-agent orchestrator with repo-owned workflow contracts, reconciliation loops, and per-issue workspaces. Here’s what it actually does and what builders should steal.

AI Agent Architecture: Build Factories, Not Fake Teams

Most AI agent architecture still imitates human teams. The better model is factories: queues, workcells, QA gates, and auditable async worker systems.

OpenClaw Architecture Explained: Gateway, Sessions, Memory, and Tools

Skimmable OpenClaw system map covering the gateway, sessions, memory files, heartbeat and cron, and the execution layer from inbound message to action.

OpenClaw Cron vs Heartbeat: When to Use Each Without Creating Noise

Practical OpenClaw scheduling guide: when heartbeat should batch recurring checks, when cron should own exact reminders, and how to avoid notification noise.

OpenClaw `HEARTBEAT.md` Example: Safe Defaults, Quiet Hours, and Real Templates

Copyable OpenClaw `HEARTBEAT.md` templates and the rules for quiet hours, `HEARTBEAT_OK`, and keeping heartbeat silent by default.

Claude Managed Agents Review: What Anthropic Actually Ships

Claude Managed Agents gives Anthropic a hosted agent runtime with sessions, environments, and tools. Here’s what it actually ships, what it gets right, and what control you give up.

How to Run Codex and Claude Code Through OpenClaw with ACP

A practical OpenClaw Codex guide for running Codex and Claude Code through ACP, with the real runtime boundary, thread workflow, permission caveats, and decision rule.

Compound Engineering Plugin Review: What It Actually Does

Compound Engineering Plugin review for builders: what the repo actually does, what is hype, what we validated, and which adapter pattern is worth stealing.

Hermes Agent Review: What It Actually Does

Hermes Agent review for builders: what the repo actually does, what we validated, what is hype, and which patterns are worth stealing.

What Karpathy’s autoresearch Actually Does

Karpathy’s autoresearch is a real autonomous experiment loop, but it is much narrower than the hype suggests. Here is what the repo actually does, what breaks when you generalize it, and the one pattern worth stealing.

AI Coding Agent Workflow: Guardrails, Delegation, Review

A practical field guide to running coding agents safely: scope, isolation, verification, and review.

Datafast CLI for AI Agent Tools: Workflow, Artifacts, Handoffs

Datafast CLI is one of the practical ai agent tools in our stack: command-level analytics workflows, JSON artifacts, referrers, timeseries, and handoffs.

SEO CLI for AI Developer Tools: SERPs, Audits, Handoffs

CLI-first SEO becomes one of the most practical ai developer tools when keywords, SERPs, audits, and ranks turn into machine-readable handoffs.

OpenClaw Mac Mini Setup Tutorial: tmux, WhatsApp, Tailscale, Termius, and Archestra

OpenClaw Mac mini setup tutorial covering tmux, WhatsApp control, Tailscale recovery, Termius, Archestra/OpenClaw context, verification checkpoints, operator boundaries, and what breaks.

Claude Agent SDK Workspace: An Open-Source Multi-Workspace Agent Dev Environment (FastAPI + Vite)

A deep, command-level teardown of claudeagentsdk (#005): an open-source agent workspace built around the Anthropic Agent SDK, with a FastAPI backend, a Vite/React frontend, and an optional Vercel Sandbox runner for async, reproducible runs.

Inbox to Execution: The Human + Agent Loop We Use to Ship Without Drift

A command-level teardown of the Starkslab inbox-to-execution loop: intake, triage, routing, artifact discipline, incidents, handoffs, metrics, and checklist controls.

OpenClaw in the AI Developer Tools Stack: When to Use It and Why

A command-level, evidence-first teardown of where OpenClaw fits in an ai developer tools stack: architecture, workflows, incidents, throughput, and adoption boundaries.

AI Developer Tools in Production: How We Run Starkslab as a Human + Agent Operating System

An operator-grade map of the AI developer tools we actually use at Starkslab: orchestration, coding, telemetry, SEO, publishing, and the incident-tested loop that ties them together.

ai agent tutorial: Build Your First Real Agent Step by Step

A practical, execution-first guide to build, run, debug, and harden your first AI agent with tools, guardrails, and production checks. If you're deciding between this tutorial-first route and the architecture-first route, use /build-ai-agent as the lane map before you branch.

How to Build CLI Tools That AI Agents Can Actually Use

I built datafast-cli and pointed an autonomous AI agent at it. 13 commands, 2 bugs found, and the 5 principles that make CLI tools genuinely useful as AI agent tools. If you're still choosing the broader first-agent path before the tooling layer, start at /build-ai-agent.

How I Built a Lightweight AI Agent Framework in Python (And Battle-Tested It in One Morning)

I built MAF — a minimal AI agent framework in Python with one core loop, typed tool schemas, and JSONL traces. If the architecture-first route is useful but you still need the broader start-here map, use /build-ai-agent before you commit.

How to Build an AI Agent That Schedules X Posts

I built an X post scheduler from scratch — Express, Postgres, cron — and had an AI coding agent write most of it. Here's the architecture, the deployment, and why simple AI agent automation beats over-engineering.

How to Build AI Agent Tools: A Revenue Data CLI from Scratch

I built trustmrr-cli — a TypeScript CLI giving AI agents access to verified revenue data for 4,900+ startups. Here's the architecture, the API workarounds, and why agent-native CLI tools are the missing layer.

OpenClaw Heartbeat: HEARTBEAT.md, Skills, service_health_urls, and Cron Wake-Ups

OpenClaw heartbeat guide for HEARTBEAT.md, heartbeat skills, service_health_urls-style checks, cron wake-ups, and the bounded loop that gives agents continuity.

OpenClaw Gateway Architecture: WebSocket Presence, Routing, and Channel Plugins

OpenClaw gateway architecture guide for the WebSocket control plane, channel plugins, routing, queue modes, and why presence beats model intelligence.

OpenClaw Self-Modification: agent_change_checklist.md, Memory, Skills, and Personality Files

OpenClaw self-modification guide for agent_change_checklist.md-style guardrails, personality files, memory flush, skill creation, and propagation rules.

OpenClaw Source Code Structure: Gateway, Heartbeat, Skills, and Runtime Architecture

OpenClaw source code teardown mapping the repo structure, gateway, heartbeat, routing, skills, self-modification, and the one trust risk behind the hype.

Escape Velocity: Ship the Smallest Working System

Acceleration comes from shipping the smallest working system, then compounding it with tight feedback loops.

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