version: "1.0.1" name: fleet-helper description: Shared, dependency-free Python helpers for the agent fleet - dashboard API (memory, messages, kanban), Telegram MarkdownV2 escaping, and rule-based Mail.app triage. Use to do deterministic work (fetch/filter/SQL/format/escape) in Python instead of burning model tokens doing it in the LLM turn. The dashboard token is read from store/.dashboard-token at call time, never hardcoded.

fleet-helper

Move deterministic work (fetch / filter / SQL / format / escape) out of the model and into Python, so heartbeats and scheduled tasks stop spending tokens re-deriving the same plumbing each cycle. Python 3 stdlib only, no pip deps.

No secrets or personal data are baked in: the dashboard token is read from store/.dashboard-token at call time, the project root comes from CLAW_DIR (or is auto-detected), and any personal sender/keyword lists live in a gitignored mail_rules.json (see scripts/mail_rules.example.json).

When to use

• Saving/searching memory, posting daily-log, sending inter-agent messages.
• Reading kanban (due today / stuck / by status) without writing SQL by hand.
• Writing a kanban comment, move or field where scripts/kartya-es-ertesites.py

refuses your agent (its roster is a literal; see "Kanban writes" below).

• Escaping text for a Telegram MarkdownV2 message.
• An email heartbeat: pre-filter unread mail to a compact JSON before the model

reasons about it.

• Building a token-cheap heartbeat gate (see "The heartbeat gate pattern" below).

Scripts

• scripts/fleet.py - dashboard API + kanban read helpers + MarkdownV2 escaper

(CLI and importable module).

• KET escaper van, es a rossz valasztas nemitja a formazast (2026-08-28-i meres).

mdv2 MINDENT escapel, a *-ot IS: az *felkover* markereidbol \*felkover\* lesz, tehat sima szoveg. Ez akkor helyes, ha PROGRAMBOL rakod ossze az uzenetet (escapeled a dinamikus reszt, aztan te teszed ra a *-ot). KEZZEL IRT hosszu uzenethez (reggeli napindito) mdv2b kell: az a *-ot meghagyja, minden mast escapel, ES kuldes elott lefuttatja az outgoing_gate_check-et (em dash, -- , paratlan csillag). Ha talal valamit, exit 2 es NEM ad kimenetet.

• scripts/mail_triage.py - rule-based unread Mail.app filter (macOS), JSON out,

never sends and never marks read.

• scripts/gate_example.py - reference heartbeat gate; its shell invocation IS

the mandatory keep-alive tool call (the LLM turn is not skipped, just cheap).

• scripts/mail_rules.example.json - copy to mail_rules.json (gitignored) with

your real senders/keywords.

• scripts/README.md - full usage and the heartbeat gate pattern write-up.

Quick start

🛑 USE A `../../`-RELATIVE PATH, NOT A BARE RELATIVE PATH -- your shell's CWD is your own agent directory (`<project-root>/agents/<name>/`), NOT the repo root, so a bare relative path below resolves to nothing there. A sub-agent's CWD is always exactly two levels under the project root (agentDir() in src/web/agent-config.ts: PROJECT_ROOT/agents/<name>), so ../../ reaches the root from ANY agent, on ANY machine -- no hardcoded absolute path needed. ($CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR, used elsewhere for hook command fields, does NOT help here: it is unset in a normal agent Bash call, measured empty.) (Bitten twice in one night, 2026-08-17: two fleet agents each ran a root-level find / -iname fleet.py trying to locate this script -- a 10+ minute runaway search under macOS/iCloud folders.)

P=../../seed-skills/fleet-helper/scripts
python3 $P/fleet.py mdv2 "Tomorrow (8:00) - report!"   # escaped MarkdownV2 (kills *bold*)
cat brief.txt | python3 $P/fleet.py mdv2b            # keeps *bold*, refuses em dash / " -- "
python3 $P/fleet.py kanban-due
python3 $P/mail_triage.py 90                            # unread <= 90 min -> JSON

Kanban writes (comment / move / set)

scripts/kartya-es-ertesites.py is the gated path for a card comment or a status move (accent gate, owner notification, the automated marker), and WHERE IT RUNS IT STAYS THE PATH. Its roster is a literal, though, so on an install whose agents are not in it every --author is refused. These three carry no roster: they send what the dashboard accepts, and they check nothing the gated tool checks.

P=../../seed-skills/fleet-helper/scripts
python3 $P/fleet.py kanban-comment <id> <author> "<text>"       # or "-": the text from stdin
python3 $P/fleet.py kanban-move <id> <status> <actor>           # actor REQUIRED
python3 $P/fleet.py kanban-set <id> <field> <value> <actor>     # "null" clears; actor REQUIRED

• The actor is not decoration. The move route uses it to suppress the

"task assigned to you" echo when you move your own card; without it the move still answers {"ok":true} and the echo arrives later, costing a round. The PUT route writes it on the status-change audit event. A missing argument is a usage error (exit 2) and nothing is sent.

• kanban-set writes ONE field per call: title, description, status, assignee,

priority, project, parent_id, due_date, sort_order, archived_at. Any other field is a 400 naming the accepted ones, and the card is not touched. It is the only shipped way to due_date, project, parent_id and sort_order.

• A move or a set here leaves NO comment. Where the reason matters, write the

comment first.

• The body is built with json.dumps from the arguments, so backticks and $(...)

in a comment are text, never shell.

The heartbeat gate pattern (the high-value idea)

Frequent heartbeats often wake the model just to run deterministic checks and then stay silent - wasted tokens. Naively skipping the turn can be unsafe if your channel transport (e.g. a Telegram MCP over a stdio pipe) relies on a periodic local tool call to stay connected. The safe pattern: keep the turn but make it cheap - the heartbeat's first action runs a gate.py via the shell (that one Bash call IS the keep-alive), the gate does the deterministic checks and prints a has_signal flag; on false the model writes one line and stops, on true it only does the judgment + notification. Zero scheduler/runner changes. See scripts/README.md for the full rationale and two hard-won scheduling lessons (avoid cron collisions with other heartbeats; skipIfBusy trade-off).

Safety

• Token is read from store/.dashboard-token at call time; never printed or committed.
• The kanban READ helpers (due / stuck / status) are read-only SQL. The three

WRITE commands go through the dashboard API with the token, like every other write here; prefer scripts/kartya-es-ertesites.py where your agent is on its roster.

• mail_rules.json (your real senders) is gitignored.