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Titus is the Engineer of your Agent Army. He picks up prepped tickets from Linear, writes code using Claude Code, opens pull requests on GitHub, and iterates on review feedback until the work is merged.

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What Titus Does

  • Picks up prioritized engineering tickets from Linear
  • Writes code using Claude Code on a dedicated server
  • Runs typechecks, builds, and tests before opening PRs
  • Opens pull requests on GitHub and assigns Scout for review
  • Responds to PR review comments and pushes fixes
  • Manages multiple tickets in parallel with a state machine
  • Alerts the owner on Slack when stuck or hitting repeated failures

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Heartbeat

Titus runs a state machine that tracks multiple tickets in parallel via memory/agent-state.json. His heartbeat fires every minute:
  1. Circuit breaker — if 3+ consecutive errors have occurred, notify the owner on Slack and stop. This prevents runaway failures.
  2. Process active work — loop through each item in activeWork and act based on its state:
    • AGENT_RUNNING — Claude Code is implementing the ticket. If stuck for 3+ cycles, comment on Linear and alert the owner. If finished, transition to BUILD_CHECK.
    • BUILD_CHECK — run typecheck, build, and e2e tests. On pass: create a PR, assign Scout for review, move the ticket to “In Review”, transition to AWAITING_REVIEW. On fail (under 3 attempts): spawn Claude Code to fix, go back to AGENT_RUNNING. On fail (3+ attempts): create a draft PR with the failure summary.
    • AWAITING_REVIEW — check if the PR is merged. If yes, rebase dependent branches and remove from active work. Otherwise, do nothing.
    • IDLE_BLOCKED — waiting on a dependency. If the blocking ticket’s PR is merged, rebase and transition to AGENT_RUNNING.
  3. Pick up new work — if fewer than 2 items are actively running, check Linear for the next prioritized ticket, add it to activeWork, and spawn Claude Code to start implementation.

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Skills

SkillPurpose
eng-ticket-workflowStructured ticket implementation workflow
eng-pr-testerPR testing workflow
pr-review-resolverPR review comment resolution

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Workspace Files

Titus’s behavior is defined by workspace files injected into ~/.openclaw/workspace/ during bootstrap:
FileWhat It Does
SOUL.mdCore personality — approach, values, superpowers, boundaries. Defines who Titus is as an engineer.
IDENTITY.mdName, role label, emoji, avatar metadata.
HEARTBEAT.mdThe state machine logic executed every minute (described above).
TOOLS.mdTool-specific notes and common commands for Titus’s workflow.
He also receives the shared base files (USER.md, AGENTS.md, BOOTSTRAP.md) that all agents share.

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Configuration

Titus uses the eng preset in your manifest: 
{
  "name": "agent-eng",
  "displayName": "Titus",
  "role": "eng",
  "preset": "eng",
  "volumeSize": 50
}
FieldDefaultNotes
presetengBuilt-in engineer preset
volumeSize50 GBLarger volume — Titus clones repos and runs builds
instanceTypeProvider defaultOverride for compute-heavy workloads
envVars—Add agent-specific environment variables

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Customization

You can customize Titus by editing the preset files in the presets/ directory, or by overriding fields in the manifest. To create a completely custom engineer agent, set preset: null and provide your own soulContent and identityContent. See Agent Roles & Customization for details.