telos

openclaw-telos

TELOS (Telic Evolution and Life Operating System) — A personal life OS skill for OpenClaw and Claude Code.

Captures who you are across missions, goals, beliefs, challenges, and wisdom. Gives your AI a persistent understanding of you — so it can give life-aligned advice, not just generic answers.

Based on Daniel Miessler's PAI Framework.

---

What It Does

---

Quick Start

1. Install

OpenClaw:

openclaw skills install ./telos.skill

Claude Code:

git clone https://github.com/sauldataman/openclaw-telos.git
cp -r openclaw-telos ~/.claude/skills/telos

2. Initialize

Say:

setup telos

This runs the init script, copies all 20 templates to ~/clawd/telos/, and walks you through filling the core files.

Or initialize manually:

bun ~/.claude/skills/telos/scripts/init-telos.ts

3. Start Filling

The AI guides you through the essentials:

1. Missions — What are you ultimately trying to achieve?
2. Goals — Specific objectives supporting your missions
3. Beliefs — Core beliefs that guide your decisions

No pressure to fill everything at once — TELOS grows with you. The AI learns from your conversations and suggests additions over time.

4. Use It

Once set up, the AI automatically:

• Reads your telos at session start
• References your goals and beliefs when advising on decisions
• Flags conflicts between suggestions and your stated missions
• Suggests telos additions when relevant topics come up naturally

Trigger updates anytime:

add this book to telos — The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
I learned something, add to telos — consistency beats intensity
add to my wisdom — [principle or insight]
I was wrong about [X]
update my goals
telos status

---

Skill Structure

openclaw-telos/
├── SKILL.md                    ← Main skill instructions
├── telos.skill                 ← OpenClaw package
├── assets/templates/           ← 20 template files
├── references/
│   ├── onboarding.md           ← Guided setup workflow
│   └── update-workflow.md      ← Update format rules per file
├── scripts/
│   ├── init-telos.ts           ← Initialize ~/clawd/telos/ from templates
│   └── update-telos.ts         ← Safe update: backup → append → changelog
└── evals/
    └── evals.json              ← Test cases for skill evaluation

Scripts

init-telos.ts — Copies templates to ~/clawd/telos/. Skips files that already exist (safe to rerun).

bun scripts/init-telos.ts

update-telos.ts — Updates a telos file with automatic backup and changelog.

bun scripts/update-telos.ts <file> "<content>" "<description>"

# Example:
bun scripts/update-telos.ts BOOKS.md \
  "- *Dune* by Frank Herbert — power, ecology, and the danger of messiahs" \
  "Added book: Dune"

The script:

1. Validates the filename against the allowed list
2. Creates a timestamped backup in ~/clawd/telos/backups/
3. Appends content (never overwrites)
4. Logs the change in ~/clawd/telos/updates.md

---

User Data Structure

~/clawd/telos/              ← Your personal data (never shared)
├── TELOS.md                ← Master overview (start here)
├── MISSION.md              ← M0, M1, M2...
├── GOALS.md                ← G0, G1, G2...
├── BELIEFS.md              ← B0, B1, B2...
├── CHALLENGES.md           ← C0, C1...
├── STRATEGIES.md           ← S0, S1...
├── FRAMES.md               ← FR0, FR1...
├── MODELS.md               ← MO0, MO1...
├── NARRATIVES.md           ← N0, N1...
├── PROBLEMS.md             ← P0, P1...
├── PREDICTIONS.md
├── PROJECTS.md
├── TRAUMAS.md              ← TR0, TR1...
├── IDEAS.md                ← I0, I1...
├── BOOKS.md
├── MOVIES.md
├── STATUS.md
├── LEARNED.md
├── WISDOM.md
├── WRONG.md
├── updates.md              ← Append-only changelog
└── backups/                ← Auto-created timestamped backups

Priority Guide

Start with these, fill the rest over time:

---

Numbering System

All entries use cross-referenceable prefixes:

M#   Missions      G#   Goals         C#   Challenges
S#   Strategies    B#   Beliefs       FR#  Frames
MO#  Models        N#   Narratives    P#   Problems
TR#  Traumas       I#   Ideas

Relationships:

MISSIONS (M#)
    └─ supported by → GOALS (G#)
                          └─ blocked by → CHALLENGES (C#)
                                              └─ solved by → STRATEGIES (S#)

BELIEFS (B#)  → guide all decisions
PROBLEMS (P#) → drive GOALS
MODELS (MO#)  → shape understanding

---

OpenClaw Hook (Optional)

For automatic context injection, install the included hook:

cp hooks/telos-context.js ~/.openclaw/hooks/

This gives you:

• Session start: AI automatically knows your missions, goals, beliefs from the first message
• Personal questions: Relevant TELOS files injected before the AI responds (career question → loads STRATEGIES, book question → loads BOOKS.md, coding question → nothing loaded)
• Zero overhead: Non-personal conversations get no TELOS context at all

Without the hook, the skill still works — the AI follows the SKILL.md instructions to load files on demand. The hook just makes it seamless.

---

Privacy

• ~/clawd/telos/ is never committed to git by default
• Templates in this repo contain no personal data
• All personal data stays local on your machine

---

Compatibility

• OpenClaw — Primary target (.skill install format)
• Claude Code — Copy to ~/.claude/skills/telos/; compatible with the Agent Skills specification
• PAI — Templates can be used directly in ~/.claude/PAI/USER/TELOS/

---

Credits

• Original concept: Daniel Miessler — Personal_AI_Infrastructure
• OpenClaw adaptation: Saul Dataman (@sauldataman)

---

License

MIT — see LICENSE

---

"Most people don't believe they have valuable contributions to make. They've never asked who they are, what they're about, and have never articulated or written it down."

— Daniel Miessler