A practical guide to keeping OpenClaw AI agents running autonomously without drifting or silently failing. Key fixes include: using skill files (markdown files with identity, voice, posting, and anti-drift rules) instead of chat instructions; replacing hallucination-prone browser tools with dedicated API scripts and Puppeteer for verified actions; separating heartbeat (monitoring only) from cron jobs (actions); protecting memory from compaction loss by saving key facts to dated files; and keeping each agent focused on a single task. The post also recommends using Claude Code to build config files externally rather than having OpenClaw configure itself.