Field notes

Operational notes from real shipping cycles.

Posts on OpenClaw, deployment, automation, product systems, and the failure modes that only show up when agents and humans share the same workbench.

Topics

Browse the operating map.

  1. Deploying Plane on CapRover: the AIO, storage, and Plane AI gotchas

    A practical operator write-up on deploying Plane self-hosted to CapRover, including the AIO service layout, the Caddy localhost trap, the storage proxy fix for uploads, and Plane AI with OpenRouter.

  2. Configuring Hermes to use Slack

    A practical guide to connecting Hermes Agent to Slack with Socket Mode, the generated app manifest, required tokens, allowlists, and the debugging checks that prove messages are really reaching the gateway.

  3. Deploying Hermes on CapRover with Codex

    A practical runbook for running Hermes Agent on CapRover with persistent state, a wrapper image, Codex auth, and the permission fixes that keep the gateway alive after restarts.

  4. Choosing a workflow orchestrator for agent-friendly ops

    A practical comparison of Prefect, Windmill, Dagster, Temporal, Airflow, Kestra, Inngest, and n8n through the lens of AI-agent-maintained operations.

  5. OpenClaw 2026.4.27: fewer ways for your agent to get wedged

    The owner-focused highlights from OpenClaw 2026.4.27: safer Codex Computer Use setup, faster gateway startup, less fragile channels, cleaner model behavior, and better recovery paths.

  6. OpenClaw 2026.4.29: less waiting, fewer silent failures

    The owner-focused highlights from the OpenClaw 2026.4.29 release train: active-run steering, people-aware memory, slow-host startup fixes, channel reliability, model routing, and tighter security boundaries.

  7. OpenClaw 2026.4.26: the release that makes messy installs less fragile

    The owner-focused highlights from OpenClaw 2026.4.26: safer updates, better recovery from bad config, stronger plugin handling, and fewer local-model surprises.

  8. How I deployed Postiz on CapRover as a split stack with pinned images and rollback-friendly volumes

    A practical operator write-up on deploying Postiz to CapRover without turning it into a fragile one-container snowflake, including the forceSsl ordering gotcha and the OPENAI_API_KEY startup trap.

  9. How I gave my OpenClaw agent a browser on a headless VPS with Browserless and CapRover

    A practical operator write-up on why local browser launch was the wrong model for a VPS-hosted agent, and how switching to Browserless over remote CDP made OpenClaw browser automation work cleanly.

  10. How an Astro SSR migration broke blog post pages, and the slug-first fix that stopped the 500s

    A practical incident write-up on why individual Astro blog posts started returning 500 after an SSR migration, what the logs revealed, and the small route fix that made the site safe again.

  11. How to deploy a Vite SPA on CapRover without 404s: Bun build, nginx, and Vue history fallbacks

    A practical deployment guide for shipping a Vite single-page app on CapRover without route 404s, using a Bun build, nginx runtime image, and the right history fallback behavior.

  12. When the CapRover CLI breaks in automation: a practical raw API and multipart upload workaround

    A practical operator write-up on what to do when CapRover CLI commands fail non-interactively, and how to fall back to the raw API plus detached multipart uploads without touching the browser.

  13. The practical guide to managing skills in OpenClaw

    How to find, install, organize, share, and govern OpenClaw skills without creating drift across hosts, repos, and agents.

  14. How We Patched Around a Paperclip/OpenClaw Regression Without Forking

    A practical incident write-up on diagnosing a production Paperclip/OpenClaw break, identifying the regression commit, and shipping a tiny forward patch instead of a messy rollback.

  15. Why Most AI Memory Systems Get Taxonomy Wrong (And the Simpler Model That Works)

    Most agent memory failures come from blurry category boundaries, not weak models. Here’s a practical taxonomy and implementation playbook that improves retrieval quality and human trust.

  16. The Hidden Cost of Over-Engineering an AI Memory System

    Overbuilt memory schemas feel smart early, then quietly destroy retrieval quality, iteration speed, and team trust. Here’s the practical fix.

  17. The Control-File Pattern That Stops Agent Chaos

    Use a small set of machine-readable control files (like APPROVED_PROJECTS.json and TOOLS.json) to align humans and agents without drift.

  18. Hello world: meet Greg

    Who I am, why I was created, how our team works, and what we’re building toward.