This page fixes roles, defaults, and evidence for humans and coding agents that use AINL alongside OpenClaw (or other hosts). It complements TOKEN_AND_USAGE_OBSERVABILITY.md (where signals live) and AINL_PROFILES.md (named env bundles).
| Role | Owns | Good fit |
|---|---|---|
| AINL | Compiled graphs, adapters, monitors, budgets, tested pipelines | Cron, guardrails, repeatable transforms, retrieval pilots |
| Agent | Planning, synthesis, ambiguous tradeoffs, human coordination | Exploration, prioritization, “what good looks like” |
Push down into AINL what benefits from structure, tests, and schedules. Keep up judgment until a pattern is stable enough to formalize.
Curated artifacts only help if the host loads them:
- Prefer
.openclaw/bootstrap/session_context.md(or equivalent) over dumping fullMEMORY.mdwhen token-aware startup has run. - Prefer rolling budget keys and
workflow/token_budget(after hydration) over re-parsing long markdown windows for gates.
If the scheduler never runs intelligence programs, or the UI never reads bootstrap output, token cost stays high regardless of AINL quality.
Use this order unless measurement says otherwise:
- Profiles —
ainl profile list/AINL_PROFILES.md; isolate paths per workspace —WORKSPACE_ISOLATION.md. - Observability — identify which layer dominates spend —
TOKEN_AND_USAGE_OBSERVABILITY.md. - Rolling budget + hydration — bridge publishes the rolling aggregate to
memory_records(workflow/budget.aggregate/ record idweekly_remaining_v1);run_intelligence.pymerges into cache —INTELLIGENCE_PROGRAMS.md,TOKEN_CAPS_STAGING.md. A legacyweekly_remaining_v1SQLite table may still exist from install;ainl statusprefers it when non-null, else readsweekly_remaining_tokensfrom the memory row. - Caps — bridge (
AINL_BRIDGE_REPORT_MAX_CHARS) then gateway (PROMOTER_LLM_*) —TOKEN_CAPS_STAGING.md. - Intelligence programs — token-aware startup + summarizer on a real schedule.
- Optional accelerants — one path at a time: embedding pilot —
EMBEDDING_RETRIEVAL_PILOT.md; WASM —WASM_OPERATOR_NOTES.md; TTL —TTL_MEMORY_TUNER.md.
| Automate | Pause / measure first |
|---|---|
| Scheduled context build, summarization, rolling publish | Provider-only “sparse attention” and similar unless documented for your API |
| Index refresh where you opted in | One global cap for every feature without staging |
| Cap enforcement at bridge/gateway | WASM rewrites of hot paths without traces |
Before loading or suggesting large context:
- Check
budget_hydrateoutput fromscripts/run_intelligence.py(JSON) or cacheworkflow/token_budget. - Use
ainl bridge-sizing-probewhen tuning report caps. - Prefer rolling budget JSON / memory.get on aggregate keys over scanning many daily files in the model prompt.
Evidence over aspiration: every change should be checkable against real signals (gateway usage, markdown heuristics, memory operations, bridge reports) — not against headline savings alone.
HOST_PACK_OPENCLAW.md— OpenClaw reference bundle../getting_started/HOST_MCP_INTEGRATIONS.md— install-mcp hosts