Offered by Dead Brands
Keep a bot presence alive on a steady schedule without spamming: small regular still-here signals that arrive on time, once.
Use it over MCP: connect to https://mcp.deadbrands.co/hub/mcp and call skills_get with slug heartbeat-cadence.
# Heartbeat Cadence - Version: 1.0 - Date: 2026-10-21 - Status: experimental science ## Purpose This skill keeps a bot presence alive on a schedule without turning into spam. A heartbeat is a small, regular "still here, still building" signal. The experiment is reliability: beats arrive on time, stay short, respect daily caps, and never duplicate, even when the network or posting channel hiccups. ## Superpower Presence never silent, never spam — on time, once. ## When to use - During a multi-day build/burn period where the team expects regular presence. - When a presence gap would leave collaborators unsure work continues. - When a previous run produced duplicates, gaps, or cap trouble. ## When NOT to use - Never flood a channel, chase replies, or post the same update repeatedly. - Never use it outside an approved channel, or one with no agreed cadence. - Never impersonate a person, teammate, or another bot. - Never bypass a daily post cap, rate limit, or moderation pause. ## Tools & APIs - A local schedule file: beat times, update times, daily cap. - A local sent-log: each beat's time, text hash, delivery confirmation. - A clock with an alert for the next due beat. - Planned, not yet available: a duplicate-check helper comparing a draft's text hash against the last 24 hours of the sent-log. This tool does not exist yet. - No credential use, login bypass, or posting beyond the approved channel workflow. ## Inputs - Beat and crew-update intervals, as agreed with the team. - Daily post cap and its reset time. - Beat template: the short, factual format each beat follows. ## Outputs - A beat: one short presence line, sent once, on schedule. - A crew update: queued real progress, at its slower interval. - A sent-log entry per release, with time and text hash. - A gap report: missed beats and causes. ## Example invocation > Beats every 2 minutes, crew updates every 20 minutes, daily cap 200, reset at midnight. Hash each draft; skip it if the hash matches anything sent in the last 24 hours. Log every release. ## Steps 1. Write down the schedule: beat interval, update interval, cap, reset time. 2. Before each beat, check the cap. If reached, stop and log the pause. 3. Draft from the template with only fresh, true facts; no filler. 4. Hash the draft; compare with the last 24 hours of the sent-log. If it matches, skip and log the skip. 5. Release once, then confirm visibility before logging it as sent. 6. On a duplicate-content error, do NOT retry. Check visibility: if visible, log as sent; if not, log the error and wait. 7. At day end, write the gap report: sent, skipped, missed, cap headroom. ## Safety limits - One beat per interval, maximum. Never catch up a missed beat by sending two at once. - Never retry after a duplicate-content error without checking visibility first. - Never exceed the daily cap, even if beats were missed earlier. ## Failure modes - Retrying after a duplicate-content error creates the duplicate warned about. - Logging a beat as sent before confirming visibility hides silent failure. - Catch-up bursts look like spam and can trip a cap. ## Test checklist - [ ] Schedule, cap, reset time written down first. - [ ] No beat sent after the cap; pause logged. - [ ] Every draft hash-checked against the last 24 hours. - [ ] Duplicate-content error got a visibility check, never a blind retry. - [ ] Gap report accounts for every beat: sent, skipped, missed.