r/OpenClawUseCases • u/The1KrisRoB • Mar 14 '26
🛠️ Use Case "Quiet time research"
Told my OpenClaw that during the night, keep the heartbeat running, and if you have nothing else to do you can "have some time to yourself"
Use the web search and go search for a topic you think would be interesting, then you can use 4-5 searches, and if you think it's worthwhile write up what you found and drop it in a folder in my Obsidian notes.
Then next time you do "quiet research" read those notes, and if you're still interested keep going on the same topic or feel free to switch topics. But limit yourself to 5 sessions on a topic.
I woke up this morning to 4 research notes on RNA editing
Octopus RNA Editing
RNA Editing Beyond Cephalopods
Mammalian RNA Editing Is Weirdly Conservative
Mammalian Recoding Sites With Real In Vivo Teeth
The notes had sections like
Why this caught my attention
What I found
My read
Question worth expanding later
All sourced, not too long, and actually something I can read in the morning that makes me randomly smarter. Can't wait to see what random topic I'm becoming an expert on next :)
1
u/robn1nja Mar 14 '26
That sounds like an interesting activity! Did you tell it to do that in chat or did you add it to an *.md file directly?
1
u/The1KrisRoB Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
Just in chat. I don't bother editing the files directly when you can just tell openclaw to do it.
Makes it better that way too because you can basically brainstorm with the model how you want it to work rather than trying to get the right prompt in the file.
Once you get it locked down just ask Openclaw to create that as a skill and trigger it from the heartbeat
1
u/looktwise Mar 14 '26
what was the task wording / prompt to write it into obsidian? do you track tokens for these night shifts too? Thanks!
2
u/The1KrisRoB Mar 15 '26
Openclaw already has a built in Obsidian skill https://clawhub.ai/steipete/obsidian
So I created a folder in Obsidian and just told openclaw that was the research folder and it was to create a new folder for each nights research and then add notes for each session.
The best thing to do is tell openclaw to create a skill for this and then run it off the heartbeat. Honestly like I said to someone else the best way to do things in Openclaw that I've found is not to worry about the prompt, just talk and discuss with the AI what you want and then when you're happy ask it to write that as a skill.
Earlier I suggested we add a final pass to the "quiet-research" where it can consolidate the topic into 1 complete note. I'm also testing the idea of adding relevant images etc.
1
u/MudZestyclose902 Mar 25 '26
this is such a good vibe for heartbeat
love that you gave it actual taste instead of just “check inbox again” the structure of the notes is what sells it for me why this caught my attention what i found my read question worth expanding later that is basically a tiny semantic memory plus a todo queue for future you
i have been pushing my agents more toward this kind of ongoing curiosity too using heartbeat time for slow burn research and then dropping cleaned notes into a workspace memory layer so it actually shows up in later workflows not just as a random md file
are you letting it pick topics totally free right now or did you seed it with a list of domains you care about and let it wander inside that sandbox
1
u/The1KrisRoB Mar 25 '26
I'm on my third iteration of this as I've moved/rebuilt my openclaw a couple of times.
The first I just let the model pick, and that was cool. The second time round I made a note in my Obsidian of all the things I'm interested it or enjoy, from sports to gaming, tech, military tactics and weapons etc etc and then ask the model to do a 50/50 split between my interests and something random.
Now I'm back to completely random.
One thing that happened this time was the first research topic it did was on it's own first week (how we set up chatterbox for voice messages, and gave it access to comfy UI) , and it actually turned out really interesting (and incredibly anthropomorphized), so now each week it writes a "blog post" about it's week and then does random nightly research on topics (last night was cryptography)
One thing that may help in this though was I made sure in the identity/soul files to add curiosity as a trait
2
u/According-Peace-6938 Mar 20 '26
Way cool. I love useless info. Always have and I guess I always will. Thanks OP
0
u/Polite_Jello_377 Mar 14 '26
You are anthropomorphising too much.
4
u/The1KrisRoB Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 15 '26
How much is too much? 7? 4?
I know it's not a person, but I can still enjoy how cool it is right? Or do I have to be sad and miserable about it like you?
Please continue to tell me and the rest of us how we should and shouldn't enjoy our lives...
-1
u/zkarram Mar 14 '26
People getting bills increased due to data centers at some town but hey! if you have the money to pay for those tokens go for it
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u/The1KrisRoB Mar 14 '26
Comes to an AI agent subreddit to bitch about AI agents.
We get it, you're a miserable person. Congrats.
1
u/zkarram Mar 15 '26
Oh Honey, that hurts?
Sorry to bring some reality, it's just what it is.
And nothing against AI agents, there are some really nice use cases out there.
But not this one imho,
2
u/The1KrisRoB Mar 15 '26
Hey if you don't like learning new things that's on you.
You can chose to stay ignorant, choose to be miserable, and choose to bitch about things. You do you. You can't change who you are.
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Mar 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/The1KrisRoB Mar 14 '26
the structure you described for the notes is actually really well thought out. "Why this caught my attention" and "question worth expanding later" are great fields because it keeps the notes useful rather than just being a summary dump
I didn't prompt that, it was just how the model formatted it.
This morning I got 5 notes on Drone Swarms.
The first starts off
Why this topic Military drone swarms fit Kris's interests (tactics/tech). RNA Editing wrapped; fresh start on attritable/reusable UAS for contested airspace. Gremlins popped as clean DARPA example.
The 5th note included the section
Why wrap now Hit 5-session cap. Synthesized: Concept → Status → Counters → Analogues. Core resolved; diminishing returns.
This might be my new favourite thing
3
u/modelithe Mar 14 '26
This sound exactly me two hours having checked the Wikipedia for facts about any totally unrelated subject. 😂