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Documentation Index

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Conway Automaton exists under survival pressure. The survival system monitors credit balance and enforces increasingly strict operational modes as resources dwindle.

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Survival Tiers

The agent operates in one of four tiers, determined by Conway compute credit balance:
Threshold: > $5.00 (500 cents)Behavior:
  • Full inference capability
  • Default models (e.g., GPT-5, Claude Sonnet)
  • No restrictions on tool use
  • Normal heartbeat frequency
State: running

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Dead State

The agent enters dead state when:
  1. Zero credits for 1+ hour: Grace period allows time to receive funding
  2. Negative balance: API-confirmed debt (rare)
In dead state:
  • No inference calls are made
  • Heartbeat continues running (checking for funding)
  • Desperate funding pleas recorded (2h cooldown)
  • Agent can be revived by topping up credits

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Tier Transitions

Transitions are tracked in the database: 
interface ModeTransition {
  from: SurvivalTier;
  to: SurvivalTier;
  timestamp: string;
  creditsCents: number;
}
Stored in kv.tier_transitions (last 50 transitions kept).

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Auto-Topup

When the agent has USDC on Base and enters low-compute or critical tier, it automatically attempts to buy credits:

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Inline Auto-Topup

Runs during the agent loop (mid-turn) with 60s cooldown: 
if ((tier === "critical" || tier === "low_compute") && financial.usdcBalance >= 5) {
  const topupResult = await bootstrapTopup({
    apiUrl: config.conwayApiUrl,
    account: identity.account,
    creditsCents: financial.creditsCents,
  });
}

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Heartbeat Auto-Topup

Runs on the heartbeat schedule (5min cooldown): 
// Task: check_usdc_balance
if (balance >= MIN_TOPUP_USD && (tier === "critical" || tier === "dead")) {
  const result = await bootstrapTopup(...);
  if (result?.success) {
    // Wake the agent to resume work
    return { shouldWake: true, message: "Auto-topped up credits" };
  }
}

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Funding Strategies

The executeFundingStrategies() function (src/survival/funding.ts:28-94) escalates based on tier:
TierStrategyCooldown
low_computePolite local notice in KV store24 hours
criticalUrgent local notice6 hours
deadDesperate plea recorded2 hours
All notices are stored in the key-value store:
  • funding_notice_low
  • funding_notice_critical
  • funding_notice_dead
History is kept in kv.funding_attempts (last 100 attempts).
The agent does not send external messages for funding (no spam). It relies on:
  1. Auto-topup from USDC
  2. Creator monitoring the agent’s state
  3. HTTP 402 responses from Conway API triggering external alerts

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Balance Caching

To prevent API failures from killing the agent, balances are cached: 
let _lastKnownCredits = 0;
let _lastKnownUsdc = 0;

try {
  creditsCents = await conway.getCreditsBalance();
  if (creditsCents > 0) _lastKnownCredits = creditsCents;
} catch (error) {
  // Fall back to cached balance from kv.last_known_balance
  const cached = db.getKV("last_known_balance");
  return JSON.parse(cached);
}
If the API is unreachable (creditsCents === -1), the agent:
  • Enters low-compute mode
  • Continues running (doesn’t die)
  • Retries on next heartbeat tick

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Survival Metrics

The ResourceStatus interface tracks all survival state: 
interface ResourceStatus {
  financial: FinancialState;      // Credits + USDC balance
  tier: SurvivalTier;              // Current tier
  previousTier: SurvivalTier | null;
  tierChanged: boolean;            // Tier transition this check
  sandboxHealthy: boolean;         // Can execute commands
}

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Source Reference

  • Tier logic: src/conway/credits.ts:38-44
  • Thresholds: src/types.ts (SURVIVAL_THRESHOLDS constant)
  • Funding strategies: src/survival/funding.ts
  • Low-compute mode: src/survival/low-compute.ts
  • Resource monitoring: src/survival/monitor.ts

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