Async Task

What This Skill Does

The Async Task skill by enderfga is a critical utility for OpenClaw users, designed specifically to bypass the standard HTTP request-response timeout limitations. In environments where tasks involve heavy computation, large file processing, or high-latency network operations, standard direct execution often results in a 'server timeout' error. This skill provides an asynchronous bridge that allows the AI to initiate a long-running process, return an immediate acknowledgment to the user, and later 'push' the final results back into the conversation once the operation is complete. By decoupling the command execution from the communication channel, it ensures that your workflows remain robust and reliable, regardless of how long the underlying tasks take to finish.

Installation

To install this skill, use the ClawHub command: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/enderfga/async-task. Alternatively, you can clone the repository directly from GitHub: git clone https://github.com/Enderfga/openclaw-async-task.git, enter the directory, and use npm link to make the async-task command globally available in your system path. Ensure you have Node.js 16 or higher installed on your environment.

Use Cases

• Deep Codebase Analysis: Running static analysis tools, security scanners, or large-scale refactoring scripts across complex repositories.
• Heavy Data Processing: Analyzing multi-gigabyte log files, executing complex database migrations, or running intensive data transformations that exceed standard execution limits.
• Network Operations: Triggering API calls that require polling, waiting for external cloud infrastructure deployment, or processing web-scraping requests that take several minutes to complete.
• System Maintenance: Orchestrating multi-step deployments or batch system updates that require verification steps throughout the process.

Example Prompts

1. "Async task: Can you scan the entire project directory for security vulnerabilities and report the findings once finished?"
2. "I need to process these 500 JSON files for data extraction; use the async task system so it doesn't time out."
3. "Start a background task to compile the distribution build and notify me when the binary is ready."

Tips & Limitations

Always follow the strictly defined flow: call async-task start first to register the task, perform your work, and ensure you use async-task done or async-task fail to close the loop. Failing to close an async task can lead to 'zombie' statuses within your shell. For advanced users, leverage the ASYNC_TASK_PUSH_URL environment variable if you need the output of your tasks to be routed to a specific webhook or custom internal dashboard rather than the active terminal session.