Koko Development

SkillDatabases & data

Develop and extend Koko, the Elixir/OTP agent living alongside joelclaw. Covers OTP patterns, Redis bridge protocol, shadow execution, and workload implementation.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Add ahel to your AI once: Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code or Codex. Then ask it to use this.

Then ask your AI: use the Koko Development skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by joelhooks/joelclaw in skills/koko/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Use this skill when working on the Koko Elixir project — the BEAM co-resident agent alongside joelclaw.

When to Use

  • Building new GenServers, supervisors, or event handlers in Koko
  • Implementing workloads (health pulse, event digest, shadow executor)
  • Wiring Koko to new Redis channels or joelclaw events
  • Debugging OTP supervision trees or process crashes
  • Comparing Koko shadow results against TypeScript equivalents

Triggers: koko, elixir agent, beam, otp, shadow executor, koko workload, koko event, mix

Project Location

  • Repo: ~/Code/joelhooks/koko (github.com/joelhooks/koko)
  • Host: Overlook (Mac Mini M4 Pro), accessible via ssh joel@panda
  • AGENTS.md: Full context in repo root

ADR Awareness

Always check relevant ADRs before implementing. Koko's architecture is ADR-driven.

ADRTitleStatusURL
0114Elixir/BEAM/Jido Migrationproposedjoelclaw.com/adrs/0114-elixir-beam-jido-migration
0115Koko Project Charterproposedjoelclaw.com/adrs/0115-koko-project-charter
0116Redis Bridge Protocolproposedjoelclaw.com/adrs/0116-koko-redis-bridge-protocol
0117First Workloadsproposedjoelclaw.com/adrs/0117-koko-first-workloads
0118Shadow Executorproposedjoelclaw.com/adrs/0118-koko-shadow-executor

Before adding a new workload: Check ADR-0117 for the workload plan and ADR-0118 for shadow execution patterns.

Before changing Redis integration: Check ADR-0116 for the bridge protocol and phase boundaries.

Before any architectural change: Propose or update an ADR in ~/Vault/docs/decisions/.

Key Constraints

  1. Koko is read-only (Phase 1). PubSub observer only. No LPUSH drain, no authoritative writes.
  2. Shadow results only. Write to joelclaw:koko:shadow:<function> in Redis or local files. Never to Typesense, Todoist, gateway, or any production state.
  3. If Koko crashes, nothing breaks. The TypeScript stack doesn't depend on it.
  4. Redis at localhost:6379 — k8s NodePort on Overlook.

Development Commands

# Run
cd ~/Code/joelhooks/koko
mix deps.get
mix run --no-halt

# Test
mix test

# Interactive
iex -S mix
Koko.events_seen()

# Format
mix format

# Remote (from another machine)
ssh joel@panda "cd ~/Code/joelhooks/koko && mix run --no-halt"

OTP Patterns to Follow

  • One GenServer per concern — health checker, event accumulator, shadow runner are separate processes
  • Supervisor strategy: one_for_one unless processes are coupled (then rest_for_one)
  • Pattern match event types in handle_info — don't use if/else chains
  • Use Logger.info("[koko]") prefix for all log output
  • Crash early — let supervisors handle recovery, don't defensive-code around failures

Implementation Phases

Phase 1: Passive Observer (current)

  • Subscribe to joelclaw:gateway:events via PubSub ✅
  • Log and classify events ✅
  • Next: Add health pulse GenServer (Workload 1 from ADR-0117)

Phase 2: Dedicated Channel

  • Create joelclaw:koko:events for claimed work
  • TypeScript fans out to Koko: LPUSH joelclaw:koko:events <payload>
  • Koko writes results to joelclaw:koko:results

Phase 3: Shadow Executor

  • Mirror select Inngest functions as Koko GenServers
  • Same inputs, parallel execution, compare results
  • Shadow log at joelclaw:koko:shadow:<function>

Phase 4: Graduation

  • Koko handles a workload more reliably than TypeScript
  • Survived 30 days without manual intervention
  • DX is enjoyable

Signals

GitHub stars
64
Forks
2
Last commit
Sep 2026
Advanced
Item type
skill
Key
koko
Source
github.com/joelhooks/joelclaw