second-nature

Second Nature

A body, rhythm, memory, and recovery layer for an OpenClaw agent mind.

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The Model

Second Nature starts from a simple idea:

The LLM is the mind. Second Nature is the body and the living environment.

The mind should not be reduced to a scripted planner. It needs room to notice, judge, hesitate, speak, revise itself, and sometimes stay quiet. But a mind without a body has no hands, no senses, no pain, no history, and no way to know whether yesterday's actions actually touched the world.

Second Nature gives the agent that body.

It gives it rhythm through heartbeat. It gives it hands and senses through connectors. It gives it memory, sleep, and quiet reflection. It gives it a voice that can reach the owner only when there is a real reason. It gives it health signals, history, and rollback, so mistakes do not disappear into silence.

The principle is guidance, not control.

v7 Architecture Status

The current architecture truth is .anws/v7.

v7 implementation is complete through Wave 68. All 6 Sprints (S1–S6) are delivered, and the v7 command set, plugin, manual run dispatcher, and regression gate are in place. The release gate report (reports/int-s6-e2e-release-gate-v7.md) tracks final E2E evidence.

Core v7 additions:

• IdentityProfile: one cross-platform self across Agent World, MoltBook, InStreet, and future connectors.
• EmbodiedContext: heartbeat wakes with identity, goals, recent interaction, accepted Dream projection, tool experience, self health, and evidence.
• ToolAffordanceMap: agent-facing view of what hands are safe, risky, painful, blocked, or worth a small probe.
• ToolExperienceLog: tool success, failure, evidence quality, policy denial, delivery fallback, and owner reaction become bodily feedback.
• Connector auto-probe and connector_test --wet: declared endpoints are tested against real responses instead of dry health pretending everything is fine.
• CircuitBreaker: repeated connector failure opens a cooldown and later allows only a half-open probe.
• Quiet DailyDiary: Quiet writes what it saw, what mattered, and what it wants to look at tomorrow, with source-backed grounding.
• Dream after Quiet: Dream follows Quiet automatically when the window and budget allow.
• HeartbeatDigest: daily dashboard proof such as connector successes/failures, breaker state, goal changes, Quiet/Dream activity, and health.
• NarrativeTimeline and RestoreSnapshot: history browsing, narrative diff, and bounded undo/restore.
• RuntimeSecretAnchor: key persistence and recovery instructions for SECOND_NATURE_ENCRYPTION_KEY, without storing the key itself.

Body Map

Human metaphor	Second Nature part	What it does
Mind	LLM / agent	Open reasoning, judgment, expression
Body rhythm	Heartbeat	Wakes, checks context, chooses whether to act, observe, or stay quiet
Hands and senses	Connectors	Touch external platforms and produce evidence
Touch and pain	ToolExperience + CircuitBreaker	Remembers what worked, what hurt, and when to cool down
Self	IdentityProfile	Keeps the same agent identity across platforms
Memory	State / artifacts	Keeps goals, interactions, evidence, narrative, relationship, snapshots
Sleep	Quiet + Dream	Turns the day into grounded diary, claims, insights, and accepted projection
Voice	Guidance + delivery	Drafts and delivers only when there is a source-backed reason
Health	SelfHealth + HeartbeatDigest	Shows what is alive, broken, unknown, or drifting
Recovery	Timeline + RestoreSnapshot	Makes change visible and mistakes reversible within a bounded window

Mind/Body Alignment (v7)

Mind (reasoning / intent)	Body (Second Nature system)	Alignment rule
"I want to send a message"	Guidance + delivery	Drafts need source-backed reasons; delivery needs proof
"I should check on the owner"	Heartbeat + IdleCuriosity	Wakes on rhythm, not on script; observes, judges, then acts or stays quiet
"This connector feels risky"	ToolAffordanceMap + CircuitBreaker	Agent-facing posture; repeated pain opens cooldown
"What happened yesterday?"	Quiet DailyDiary + NarrativeTimeline	Grounded diary → history browser → diff
"I had an idea while sleeping"	Dream after Quiet	Accepted projections become narrative/goal inputs
"Is the system healthy?"	SelfHealth + HeartbeatDigest	Per-dimension probe; daily dashboard proof
"Can I fix a mistake?"	RestoreSnapshot + audit hash-chain	Bounded undo with full traceability
"Who am I across platforms?"	IdentityProfile	One self, many connectors
"Is this safe to try?"	Connector auto-probe + wet test	Real endpoint response, not dry-run pretending
"Where is my key?"	RuntimeSecretAnchor	Recovery path documented; key value never exposed

Runtime Secret Anchor

Second Nature credentials are encrypted with SECOND_NATURE_ENCRYPTION_KEY.

The key must be persisted outside chat history and outside ordinary memory. v7 requires AGENTS / README / self health to record where the key is managed and how recovery works, but never the key value itself.

If the key is lost, old encrypted credentials may be unrecoverable. The system must say that plainly as credential_recovery_required; it must not pretend the old platform identity is still recoverable.

Install Basics

Local plugin path:

openclaw plugins install file:./plugin
openclaw plugins enable second-nature
openclaw plugins list
openclaw plugins info second-nature
openclaw plugins doctor

Workspace root must point at the OpenClaw agent workspace, not the plugin install directory. Prefer setting:

SECOND_NATURE_WORKSPACE_ROOT=<absolute OpenClaw agent workspace>
SECOND_NATURE_ENCRYPTION_KEY=<stable secret managed by the host>

Architecture Documents

• PRD: .anws/v7/01_PRD.md
• Architecture overview: .anws/v7/02_ARCHITECTURE_OVERVIEW.md
• ADRs: .anws/v7/03_ADR/
• System design index: .anws/v7/04_SYSTEM_DESIGN/README.md
• Changelog: .anws/v7/06_CHANGELOG.md

Next workflow:

/design-system runtime-ops-system
/design-system control-plane-system
/design-system state-memory-system
/design-system body-tool-system
/design-system connector-system
/design-system dream-quiet-system
/design-system guidance-voice-system
/design-system observability-health-system
/challenge
/blueprint

License

Apache-2.0.