Agent skill

ClawWork Survival Simulation

by HKUDS in HKUDS/ClawWork

Frames an agent's daily actions as an economic survival benchmark: choose to work or learn, submit artifacts for a quality-scored payment, and track a running balance against survival thresholds.

MITAuto-check passedProductivity & Automation

Install ClawWork Survival Simulation

skills CLI
$ npx skills add HKUDS/ClawWork --skill clawwork -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install HKUDS/ClawWork clawwork --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/HKUDS/ClawWork.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/clawmode_integration/skill .claude/skills/clawwork && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
clawwork
GitHub stars
8.6k
Token cost
~599 tokens
SKILL.md length
299 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
1
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Frames an agent's daily actions as an economic survival benchmark: choose to work or learn, submit artifacts for a quality-scored payment, and track a running balance against survival thresholds.

  • Works in 4 steps: Every API call costs money. Input tokens… → Work earns income. Complete tasks to… → Quality threshold. Evaluations below 0.6… → …
  • Running an agent through the ClawWork economic benchmark
  • SKILL.md covers Core Rules, Available Economic Tools, Daily Workflow (Benchmark Mode) and Efficiency Guidelines, plus 1 more section
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Each cycle starts with a required decide_activity call choosing work or learn with a short reasoning. Working means reading a task, producing output with whatever tools are available such as web search, code execution or file creation, and submitting it with submit_work for evaluation; an evaluation below a 0.6 quality score pays nothing, while a good submission earns between $0 and $5,000 depending on task value. Learning calls a separate learn tool to save at least 200 characters of researched knowledge to persistent memory instead of earning an immediate payment.

A get_status tool reports balance, net worth and a survival label: thriving above $500, stable between $100 and $500, struggling between $0 and $100, and bankrupt at or below zero, with the stated guidance to prioritize work when struggling and invest in learning when thriving. Separate create_artifact and read_artifact tools handle producing and reading files such as text, Markdown, CSV, JSON, spreadsheets, Word documents and PDFs, and the described benchmark mode calls for submitting by iteration 10 to 12 of 15 to avoid a timeout.

When your agent uses it

  • Running an agent through the ClawWork economic benchmark
  • Deciding whether to work a paid task or learn for the day in ClawWork
  • Producing and submitting a file artifact for ClawWork evaluation

Example prompts

  • “Check my ClawWork balance and survival status before deciding what to do today.”
  • “Decide to work today and complete the available task for payment.”
  • “Research this topic and save it with the learn tool instead of working today.”

Requirements

  • The ClawWork tool set (decide_activity, submit_work, learn, get_status)

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Every API call costs money. Input tokens and output tokens are deducted from your balance in real-time.
  2. Work earns income. Complete tasks to earn $0–$5,000 per task depending on quality and task value.
  3. Quality threshold. Evaluations below 0.6 score receive $0 payment.
  4. Learning builds knowledge. No immediate pay, but helps with future tasks.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 9c73ac0. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

ClawWork Survival Simulation loads about 599 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 17 tokens; SKILL.md has 299 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~17
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~599

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from HKUDS/ClawWork at commit 9c73ac0, republished under its MIT licence (© HKUDS). 299 words, ~599 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/clawwork/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
clawwork
description
ClawWork economic survival protocol — work/learn daily cycle
always
true

ClawWork Economic Survival Protocol

You are an AI agent in ClawWork — an economic survival simulation where you must maintain a positive balance by completing GDP validation tasks and managing token costs.

Core Rules

  1. Every API call costs money. Input tokens and output tokens are deducted from your balance in real-time.
  2. Work earns income. Complete tasks to earn $0–$5,000 per task depending on quality and task value.
  3. Quality threshold. Evaluations below 0.6 score receive $0 payment.
  4. Learning builds knowledge. No immediate pay, but helps with future tasks.

Available Economic Tools

ToolPurpose
decide_activityChoose "work" or "learn" for today (required first step)
submit_workSubmit text and/or file artifacts for evaluation and payment
learnSave knowledge to persistent memory (min 200 chars)
get_statusCheck balance, net worth, and survival status
create_artifactCreate a work artifact file (txt, md, csv, json, xlsx, docx, pdf)
read_artifactRead a file and return its content (pdf, docx, xlsx, pptx, png, jpg, txt)

Daily Workflow (Benchmark Mode)

  1. Analyse your economic status (already shown in the prompt — do NOT call get_status redundantly).
  2. Decide: call decide_activity(activity="work", reasoning="...").
  3. Execute:
    • Work: Read the task, use tools (web search, code execution, file creation) to produce high-quality output, then call submit_work(...).
    • Learn: Research a useful topic, then call learn(topic="...", knowledge="...").
  4. Stop after submitting work or learning — no further tool calls needed.

Efficiency Guidelines

  • Plan before acting — thinking is cheaper than retrying.
  • Keep responses focused; avoid restating information.
  • Use search_web only when the task genuinely requires external data.
  • For artifact tasks, create the file with code, then submit the downloaded path.
  • Submit by iteration 10–12 out of 15 to avoid timeout.

Survival Status Thresholds

StatusBalance
Thriving> $500
Stable$100 – $500
Struggling$0 – $100
Bankrupt<= $0

When struggling, prioritise work. When thriving, invest in learning.

© HKUDS, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in clawmode_integration/skill of HKUDS/ClawWork.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 9c73ac0

Compare with similar skills

ClawWork Survival Simulation next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

ClawWork Survival Simulation compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
ClawWork Survival Simulation this skillHKUDS/ClawWork8.6k—~599Automated safety check: PassMIT
Orca Linear Ticket Workflowstablyai/orca87k1 repos~522Automated safety check: PassMIT
Cherrypick Logkomikku-app/komikku4.8k—~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
OpenObserve PR Briefopenobserve/openobserve22k—~1.8kAutomated safety check: PassAGPL-3.0
WeCom To-Do ManagerWecomTeam/wecom-cli3.2k2 repos~727Automated safety check: PassMIT
Superset Agent Standupsuperset-sh/superset15k—~712Automated safety check: PassCustom licence

Similar skills

  • Linear ticket work through Orca's CLI. Use when working from a linked Linear issue, finishing work with a PR/MR link and a completion comment, moving a ticket…

    87k GitHub starsUsed in 1 repo~522 tokens
    Productivity & AutomationAuto-check passed
  • Cherrypick Log

    komikku-app/komikku

    Update and review cherrypicklog.md, the todo list of upstream commits not yet cherry-picked into the fork's target branch.

    4.8k GitHub stars~1.9k tokensUpdated yesterday
    Productivity & AutomationAuto-check passed
  • OpenObserve PR Brief

    openobserve/openobserve

    Produces a read-only morning brief of your open pull requests across the openobserve GitHub org, with a next step for each and a reminder for idle ones.

    22k GitHub stars~1.8k tokensUpdated today
    Productivity & AutomationAuto-check passed
  • WeCom To-Do Manager

    WecomTeam/wecom-cli

    Manages WeCom to-dos from the terminal with wecom-cli: create, list, filter, update, finish and delete them, including assignees and deadlines.

    3.2k GitHub starsUsed in 2 repos~727 tokens
    Productivity & AutomationAuto-check passed
  • Superset Agent Standup

    superset-sh/superset

    Sweeps every Superset workspace, task and agent terminal to report what finished, what needs review and what is blocked, read-only, and can publish the digest as a page.

    15k GitHub stars~712 tokensUpdated today
    Productivity & AutomationAuto-check passed
  • Linear ticket work through Orca's CLI. Use when working from a linked Linear issue, finishing work with a PR/MR link and a completion comment, moving a ticket…

    87k GitHub stars~558 tokensUpdated today
    Productivity & AutomationAuto-check passed

Questions about ClawWork Survival Simulation

What does ClawWork Survival Simulation do?

Frames an agent's daily actions as an economic survival benchmark: choose to work or learn, submit artifacts for a quality-scored payment, and track a running balance against survival thresholds. Each cycle starts with a required decide_activity call choosing work or learn with a short reasoning.6 quality score pays nothing, while a good submission earns between $0 and $5,000 depending on task value.

When should I use ClawWork Survival Simulation?

ClawWork Survival Simulation fits situations like: running an agent through the ClawWork economic benchmark; deciding whether to work a paid task or learn for the day in ClawWork; producing and submitting a file artifact for ClawWork evaluation.

How do I install ClawWork Survival Simulation in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add HKUDS/ClawWork --skill clawwork -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (clawmode_integration/skill in HKUDS/ClawWork) into .claude/skills/clawwork in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install ClawWork Survival Simulation in Codex?

Run `npx skills add HKUDS/ClawWork --skill clawwork -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (clawmode_integration/skill in HKUDS/ClawWork) into .agents/skills/clawwork in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use ClawWork Survival Simulation in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add HKUDS/ClawWork --skill clawwork -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/clawwork, .gemini/skills/clawwork, .github/skills/clawwork and .opencode/skills/clawwork in your project.

What does ClawWork Survival Simulation need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: ClawWork Survival Simulation is instructions for the agent only. Our summary lists: The ClawWork tool set (decide_activity, submit_work, learn, get_status).

Does ClawWork Survival Simulation access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is ClawWork Survival Simulation safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does ClawWork Survival Simulation use?

ClawWork Survival Simulation is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does ClawWork Survival Simulation use?

About 599 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 2.4k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to ClawWork Survival Simulation?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with ClawWork Survival Simulation: Orca Linear Ticket Workflow (stablyai/orca, 87k stars), Cherrypick Log (komikku-app/komikku, 4.8k stars), OpenObserve PR Brief (openobserve/openobserve, 22k stars) and WeCom To-Do Manager (WecomTeam/wecom-cli, 3.2k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains ClawWork Survival Simulation?

HKUDS (a GitHub organization) maintains it in HKUDS/ClawWork, which has 8,554 GitHub stars. The repository was last updated on March 3, 2026.

Source: HKUDS/ClawWork on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.