# Afterself > Digital legacy agent — dead man's switch, final message executor, and ghost mode responder that preserves your digital presence. Use when the user wants to set up a dead man's switch, manage their dig - Skill: `usmanskillsmd/afterself` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add usmanskillsmd/afterself` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/usmanskillsmd/afterself/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - Author: usmanskillsmd (https://skillmd.com/u/usmanskillsmd) - Updated: 2026-09-22 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/usmanskillsmd/afterself --- # afterself Digital legacy agent — dead man's switch, final message executor, and ghost mode responder that preserves your digital presence. Use when the user wants to set up a dead man's switch, manage their dig Afterself Digital legacy agent — dead man's switch, final message executor, and ghost mode responder that preserves your digital presence. Use when the user wants to set up a dead man's switch, manage their dig Overview Afterself is a comprehensive agent skill designed for devops workflows. It provides structured guidance and automation patterns that enable AI coding agents to handle afterself tasks with precision and reliability across diverse project environments. This skill encapsulates best practices gathered from production deployments and open-source communities. It covers the complete lifecycle from initial setup through advanced configuration, ensuring consistent results whether you are working on a greenfield project or integrating into an existing codebase. Built by openclaw, this skill follows the open SKILL.md standard and is compatible with all major AI coding tools including Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex CLI, and ChatGPT. When to Use Activate this skill when the user needs to: Set up or configure afterself in a new or existing project Debug issues related to afterself implementation Follow best practices for devops workflows Automate repetitive afterself tasks Review and improve existing afterself configurations Integrate afterself with infrastructure-as-code and deployment pipelines Core Capabilities Automated Setup & Configuration Generates complete configuration files with sensible defaults, proper directory structure, and environment-specific overrides. Includes inline documentation explaining each configuration choice and its tradeoffs. Intelligent Code Generation Produces idiomatic, production-ready code following established patterns and conventions. The generated code includes proper error handling, logging, type annotations, and test scaffolding out of the box. Debugging & Troubleshooting Systematically diagnoses common issues by analyzing error messages, log output, and configuration state. Provides step-by-step resolution guides with explanations of root causes to prevent recurrence. Performance Optimization Identifies bottlenecks and applies targeted optimizations based on measured data rather than assumptions. Tracks before/after metrics and documents the rationale behind each optimization decision. Example Prompts Users might ask: "Set up afterself for my project" "Debug why afterself is failing in CI" "Optimize the afterself configuration for production" "Add afterself support to the existing codebase" "Review my afterself setup and suggest improvements" "Migrate from the old afterself approach to the latest version" Configuration ParameterDefaultDescription modeautoDeploy mode: rolling, blue-green, or canary output_dir./outputDirectory for generated files and artifacts verbosefalseEnable detailed logging for debugging stricttrueEnforce strict validation on all inputs timeout30000Maximum execution time in milliseconds retry_count3Number of retry attempts on transient failures Best Practices Start with defaults — The default configuration is optimized for the most common use cases. Override only what you need to change. Version control everything — Keep all configuration files and generated artifacts in version control for auditability and rollback capability. Test in isolation first — Validate changes in a sandboxed environment before applying them to shared or production systems. Document deviations — When you override defaults or apply custom configurations, document the reason in comments or a decisions log. Monitor after changes — After applying any configuration change, monitor system behavior for at least one full cycle to catch unexpected regressions. Keep dependencies updated — Regularly update dependencies and check for deprecation notices to avoid security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues. Common Patterns # Quick setup npx skills add openclaw/afterself # Verify installation skills verify afterself # Run with custom config skills run afterself --mode=auto --verbose Troubleshooting IssueCauseSolution Skill not foundPackage not installed or path incorrectRun npx skills add openclaw/afterself to reinstall Configuration errorInvalid parameter values or missing required fieldsRun skills validate afterself to check config Timeout exceededOperation taking longer than configured limitIncrease timeout parameter or optimize the operation Permission deniedInsufficient access to target files or directoriesCheck file permissions and ensure write access to output directory Integration Guide Follow these steps to integrate Afterself into your workflow: Install the skill using your preferred package manager (npx, bunx, or pnpm) Initialize configuration by running the setup wizard or copying the default config Customize settings based on your project requirements and team conventions Add to CI/CD by including the skill invocation in your pipeline configuration Set up monitoring to track skill execution results and catch failures early Output Format This skill produces structured output in the following format: { "status": "success", "skill": "afterself", "version": "1.0.0", "results": { "files_generated": 3, "warnings": [], "metrics": { "duration_ms": 1250, "memory_mb": 45.2 } } } Advanced Usage For power users and complex scenarios: Chaining skills — Combine this skill with related skills for end-to-end workflows using the skills chain command Custom templates — Override default templates by placing custom files in the .skills/templates/ directory Environment variables — Configure behavior via environment variables prefixed with SKILL_ for container-friendly deployments Hooks — Register pre/post execution hooks to run custom logic before or after the skill executes Dry run mode — Use --dry-run flag to preview changes without applying them Related Skills Skills that work well alongside Afterself: Browse more skills in the DevOps category Check the full category listing for complementary tools