Getting Started with AOF

AOF orchestrates teams of agents the way you would orchestrate teams of people — with org charts, enforced workflows, shared memory, and collaborative task management. It works for any domain: software engineering, RevOps, operations, sales and marketing, research, or any process that needs governance across multiple agents.

This guide walks you through installing AOF, defining your first agent team, and watching the platform orchestrate work across your agents. By the end, you will have a running AOF daemon that automatically routes, assigns, and dispatches tasks through your team.

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Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Node.js >= 22.0.0 (LTS recommended)
• An OpenClaw gateway running on your machine or network

AOF is an OpenClaw plugin. It runs inside the OpenClaw gateway process and uses the gateway to dispatch work to agents. AOF brings org-chart governance, workflow enforcement, and collaborative memory to agent teams running on OpenClaw — turning a collection of individual agents into a coordinated organization.

Tip: Check your Node version with node --version. If you need to upgrade, use nvm or your system’s package manager.

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Installation

Install AOF using the one-line installer:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/d0labs/aof/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

The installer will:

1. Download the latest AOF release tarball
2. Extract it to ~/.openclaw/aof/
3. Install Node.js dependencies
4. Run aof setup to complete configuration

You can also specify a custom install path or version:

sh install.sh --prefix /custom/path --version 1.0.0

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First-time Setup

After installation, AOF runs aof setup automatically. If you need to re-run it:

aof setup

The setup command does the following:

1. Wizard (interactive) — Asks about your data directory, org chart location, and OpenClaw integration preferences. Use --auto to accept all defaults.
2. Directory scaffolding — Creates the AOF data directory structure (tasks, events, views, memory).
3. OpenClaw plugin wiring — Registers AOF in your openclaw.json gateway config. If OpenClaw is not detected, setup continues with a warning.

# Non-interactive setup with defaults
aof setup --auto --template minimal

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Create Your Org Chart

The org chart is a YAML file that defines your agents, teams, and routing rules. It is the single source of truth for “who can do what” in your organization.

Create a file called org-chart.yaml in your AOF data directory:

schemaVersion: 1
agents:
  - id: main
    name: Main Agent
    description: General-purpose agent for all tasks
    capabilities:
      tags: [general]
      concurrency: 1
    comms:
      preferred: send
      fallbacks: [spawn, cli]
    active: true

teams:
  - id: default
    name: Default Team
    lead: main

routing: []

Key fields

Field	Type	Description
schemaVersion	1 (literal)	Schema version, always 1
agents	array	List of agent definitions
agents[].id	string	Unique agent identifier (must match OpenClaw agent ID)
agents[].name	string	Human-readable display name
agents[].capabilities.tags	string[]	Capability tags used for routing
agents[].capabilities.concurrency	number	Maximum concurrent tasks (default: 1)
agents[].comms.preferred	spawn | send | cli	Preferred dispatch method (default: send)
agents[].active	boolean	Whether the dispatcher considers this agent (default: true)
teams	array	Team definitions for grouping agents
routing	array	Tag/priority-based routing rules

For a complete schema reference, see the Configuration Reference.

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Initialize AOF

Once your org chart is ready, initialize AOF:

aof init

The init command:

• Validates your org chart against the schema
• Sets up OpenClaw integration (plugin registration, memory module, skill definition)
• Creates required directory structures

Use --yes for non-interactive mode or --skip-openclaw to skip OpenClaw integration:

aof init --yes

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Start the Daemon

AOF runs as a background daemon that continuously polls for tasks and dispatches them to agents.

Install and start the daemon

aof daemon install

This writes an OS service file (launchd on macOS, systemd on Linux) and starts the daemon process. The daemon includes:

• A poll loop that scans for pending tasks on a configurable interval
• An HTTP health endpoint on a Unix domain socket
• Crash recovery with PID file locking

Check daemon status

aof daemon status

This queries the daemon’s health endpoint and displays:

• Whether the daemon is running
• Last poll time and duration
• Task counts by status
• Active leases

# JSON output for scripting
aof daemon status --json

Other daemon commands

aof daemon stop          # Stop the daemon gracefully
aof daemon uninstall     # Stop and remove the OS service file

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Create Your First Task

Tasks in AOF are Markdown files with YAML frontmatter. You can create them via the CLI.

First, check which agents are available in your org chart:

aof org show

Then create a task routed to one of your agents:

aof task create "Implement user authentication" --priority high --agent <your-agent-id>

This creates a task file with the following structure:

---
schemaVersion: 1
id: TASK-2026-02-27-001
project: _inbox
title: Implement user authentication
status: ready
priority: high
routing:
  agent: <your-agent-id>
  tags: []
createdAt: 2026-02-27T12:00:00Z
updatedAt: 2026-02-27T12:00:00Z
lastTransitionAt: 2026-02-27T12:00:00Z
createdBy: cli
dependsOn: []
---

Task ID format

Task IDs follow the pattern TASK-YYYY-MM-DD-NNN (e.g., TASK-2026-02-27-001). They are generated automatically and are globally unique within a project.

Task statuses

Status	Description
backlog	Created, not yet triaged
ready	Ready to be picked up by the scheduler
in-progress	Agent is actively working (has a lease)
blocked	Waiting on an external dependency
review	Work complete, awaiting review
done	Successfully completed
cancelled	Cancelled by user or system
deadletter	Failed dispatch 3 times, requires manual intervention

CLI options for task creation

aof task create <title> [options]

Options:
  -p, --priority <priority>   Priority: low, normal, high, critical (default: normal)
  -t, --team <team>           Target team for routing
  -a, --agent <agent>         Target agent (bypasses routing)
  --tags <tags>               Comma-separated capability tags
  --project <id>              Project ID (default: _inbox)

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Watch It Dispatch

Once the daemon is running and you have a task in ready status, the scheduler will:

1. Scan for ready tasks on each poll cycle
2. Match tasks to agents using routing rules and capability tags
3. Acquire a lease on the matched task (preventing double-dispatch)
4. Dispatch the task to the agent via the OpenClaw gateway
5. Track the task through in-progress, review, and done states

Monitor progress

# List all tasks with their current status
aof scan

# Display a Kanban board view
aof board

# View recent events (task transitions, dispatches, lease operations)
aof scan --recent

Example: watching a task flow

$ aof scan
STATUS        COUNT
─────────────────────
ready         1
in-progress   0
done          0

$ aof daemon status
Daemon: running (PID 12345)
Last poll: 2s ago (42ms)
Tasks: 1 ready, 0 in-progress, 0 done

# After the scheduler dispatches your task:
$ aof scan
STATUS        COUNT
─────────────────────
ready         0
in-progress   1
done          0

# After the agent completes the task:
$ aof scan
STATUS        COUNT
─────────────────────
ready         0
in-progress   0
done          1

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Next Steps

Now that you have AOF running with a dispatched task, explore these topics:

• Configuration Reference — Full org-chart schema, AOF config options, and OpenClaw plugin wiring
• CLI Reference — Complete command reference (auto-generated from source)
• Task Format — Full task frontmatter schema and body conventions
• Workflow DAGs — Define multi-stage review workflows
• Memory Module — Set up semantic memory with HNSW vector search
• Protocols — Inter-agent communication protocols

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Troubleshooting

Daemon won’t start

# Check if another instance is running
aof daemon status

# Check for stale PID file
ls ~/.openclaw/aof/daemon.pid

# Force stop and restart
aof daemon stop --force
aof daemon install

Task stuck in ready

• Verify the daemon is running: aof daemon status
• Check that the target agent exists in your org chart and is active: true
• Ensure the agent’s capabilities.tags match the task’s routing.tags
• Check for dispatch errors in the event log: aof scan --recent

OpenClaw integration issues

• Verify OpenClaw is running: openclaw gateway status
• Check plugin registration: look for "aof" in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json under plugins
• Re-run integration: aof init