Heartbeat in Agentic Systems
Last updated: 2026-03-31
Definition
The heartbeat is the orchestration cycle that repeatedly checks state, decides next action, executes through tools, and evaluates outcomes.
When to use
Use a heartbeat model when multi-agent workflows need predictable cadence, checkpointing, and adaptive retry behavior.
When not to use
Do not force strict heartbeat loops for purely event-driven systems where push-based orchestration is more natural.
Example
In Open Claw, the planner agent updates task state each cycle, routes work to specialist agents, then validates against policy and quality gates.
Failure modes
Overly frequent cycles can thrash tools; overly slow cycles can degrade responsiveness. Tune cadence by workload criticality.