I Gave an AI Agent the Keys to My Life (Here's What Happened) — Radek Sienkiewicz (@velvetshark-com)

Channel: aiDotEngineer

Published at: 2026-05-02

YouTube video id: sJ2jc7leKBk

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ2jc7leKBk

[music]
ready to go.
>> All good. Yeah.
>> Please welcome Radic, everybody.
>> Cool.
[applause]
>> Hey, I'm Radic. I'm one of the open claw
maintainers
and uh
I want to talk what happens like in my
life with open claw when I practically
gave the keys to my life to to open claw
and and like it almost like literally
and uh what that actually means so so
this happens like step by step it wasn't
all at the same time but it can access
my emails. It can access my notes,
files, calendars, tools, my operating
system, so automations and it builds on
top of like memory of everything that I
do uh at the computer. So, uh it can do
anything with it that uh that is
possible to do with the computer. But it
didn't all happen in one big like leap.
So I install OpenClaw and now I it just
like controls my life and does
everything for me. [snorts] Uh that that
would be silly to do or like even silly
to expect that this could even work.
Um so what happened is that I I tried
installing
uh just like like everybody does just
like with one channel. I think it's at
the beginning it was just WhatsApp then
I migrated to telegram now I'm on
discord but it was just uh just WhatsApp
just uh one ability to do to just like
chat okay so we are there uh what what's
next that we can do uh let's let's do
some like one simple workflow or one
very simple task that we can do once we
are there let's go to the next step so
this is how it happened where I am today
where I used to think that I have quite
a simple setup with uh my open claw and
what it does because I never did any big
change but when I
encounter different I don't know Twitter
threads uh YouTube videos or talking to
other people how they have it set up I
see that like my setup has everything
that they have more on top of that and
most also is just like more
sophisticated than what what I see out
there which was really surprising to me
because I felt that it's just like one
small step at a time. I have a pretty
like simple setup works for me but uh
that that's what I want to to show how
that happened and how it looks like
today. So you you already had like a lot
of talks about how the sausage is made,
how we are making it better. You'll have
more talks about the insides of the open
claw. I want to show how it looks from
the other side from the first the simple
user then power user. Now I'm also a
maintainer.
you don't have to go to the maintainer
route but uh when I was playing like
with one of the uh workflows I just
encountered some errors and just like
submitted first PR then the second PR
then just looked into Discord and then
you just got involved now I'm a
maintainer there so it's also was just
like one one step at a time
uh so that that's the set of these are
the steps that uh it usually happens
that I see I see the need uh I solve it
in in a very simple way uh and and then
I add more steps to it and this is also
why I usually don't have big issues that
people have that okay now it broke my
computer or it just like completely
bricked during the update because I have
all these small steps that I take if
something breaks I just like step take
one small step back fix it see what
doesn't work, understand why it didn't
work, uh have a setup that it never
happens again, and just like take one
step further again. So, [snorts]
uh where it started being
more and more helpful and kind of like
running my life is when I gave it my
knowledge base. So, I had a lot of stuff
in my Obsidian
which I built up for years. So, right
now I have like about 3,000
pages or notes, markdown files in my
Obsidian.
And this is everything. This is work
stuff, personal stuff, tasks, projects,
research.
Um, what else? Articles
kind of like an inbox of links that I'm
just putting there and it then finds the
the connections
u, and puts it in in perspective and in
context to to other stuff that I have.
So all of that is now
accessible through my open claw with a
very good search. I have search and
memory. I have like normal search. I
have QMD search for for obsidian. I have
different memory for for my workspace.
uh
and
all of that is interlin and and and that
that's where that magic happens. And
when I saw recently and that that's
where it hit me that I probably don't
have a simple setup. When I recently saw
Andre Karpat's tweet that went viral uh
where he says about LLM knowledge bases,
I was reading that and it's just like
yeah, that's exactly what I have. like
what's like super uh revolutionary about
it and then I I I understood that okay
so I got there step by step it works for
me so it's probably probably worth I
don't know sharing sharing telling more
about it u showing how it works showing
how you can get to that point as
[snorts] well uh and uh for example for
Obsidian um
do
Yeah, [snorts] this this is how this is
the real screenshot of my my vault and
all the nodes and these are different
clusters. Some are probably uh project
related like the big clusters. Some of
the one off uh these are probably more
uh kind of like bookmarks.
And one of the tasks that I'm doing and
that I have is that when I add something
uh to inbox it then takes that link that
I add there
looks what's there it could be a tweet
it could be a thread uh it could be an
article it could be a YouTube video
analyzes it adds tax to it adds context
to it looks at what's already there on
this topic in my vault, how it could be
helpful in other areas and adds
connections to it. So what previously
was just like Twitter bookmarks that you
bookmark and you never go back to that
now it just adds more context builds up
my knowledge base and is much more
helpful and even surfacing the things
for me when I add a bookmark that okay
so you already had like this and this
and this about this subject and this is
how it connects maybe you should look at
those notes and very often it's just
like yeah completely forgot about that
and and that's a good source of of
knowledge and of thinking about it. Uh
because that was the reason why I'm
adding this bookmark.
Uh so that that's where it's it's
starting to uh to be super super useful.
On top of that [snorts] also uh
at 4:00 a.m. well like 4 a.m. is just
like uh an example of that that I have.
This happens probably between 3 and 6
more or less. Um, so this is what what
is happening when I'm sleeping. So when
I'm sleeping again, my agent does
everything so that it runs well. It
indexes everything. It backs everything
so that worst case I if I lose
something, I lose maybe couple hours of
work of content of anything else.
refreshes all the indexes for for QMD
for memory for my Obsidian vault and I I
start fresh in the morning uh with uh
whatever waits for me maybe summary of
the emails of the calendar uh everything
updated the latest
uh the latest open version is waiting
for me which also took like step by step
I have some scripts around it so that it
knows what to do and what not to do when
updating what can break, why it breaks,
how to verify it before updating or
before restarting
uh your gateway so that it is able to
come back online again. So that that all
is uh also uh automated and as as I get
up it's it's already waiting for me uh
fresh and ready for me to start the day.
And each open claw is
like I'm not a big fan of sharing like
my exact setup because that exact setup
is like very specifically for me for
what I need right now uh for what I will
need in the near future for like the
errors that I encountered for issues
that I want to be solved. But to give
you some idea so that we can talk more
also about specifics and not just like
in general. So these are some like five
areas or five types of jobs that my
agent is doing. Uh the first one is is
ambient operations. So so this is what I
just uh showed you. So it it does all
the updating. It does all the plumbing.
Uh it does all all the stuff that needs
to happen. But I don't need and I don't
want to think about
um the the second is attention
filtering. So this is also super useful
that because it has access to everything
and because it has all the content
context actually uh so it knows that for
example when an email comes and uh it's
something important or urgent and it
knows from obsidian what's the context
and the background behind it. Uh yeah I
I keep everything in obsidian about
projects about everything else. So it
then can proactively tell me that
uh I think I have here. So like these
are like three very specific examples
that I had recently
that when the system notices that
something is important and urgent, it
just lets me know. So like Netflix
payment failure for some reason didn't
go through uh was fixed within five
minutes when it happened. Domain renewal
coming up. I would probably miss that
email. Uh but uh it it picked it up uh
gave me gave me a message on my discord
uh renewed my domain
uh emails uh that can already be with
enough context given about the project
for example it can already uh give like
read the email uh understand what's
happening understand what's already done
within the project and just draft the
reply and and it's already in in draft
uh folder for me to uh accept or or
delete or make some changes. So, so
these are some examples of like
potential filtering uh execution
supports. Yeah. So, that's draft
synthesize is that uh the the inbox and
these are on the right. These are the
channels that I have in my discord that
more or less relate to these types of
jobs. So general is where I have
everything. Uh I just start the
conversations uh see where it goes and
if
enough times I have a type a certain
type of conversation I added a specific
channel for it. So the these are uh like
real screenshots from from today
morning. Uh the inbox is where I just
like drop links and it builds the
knowledge base for me. Consulting is for
for for the clients and every all the
backgrounds. It knows all the projects.
It's know knows all the quotes,
deadlines, tasks, next steps, everything
else. Video research is for for YouTube
for
researching what's what's out there uh
to help me uh with with the next
episode. Uh briefing is for morning
briefings. Instagram for social posting.
YouTube is uh for for creating creating
the the videos. Open claw is for
maintainer stuff and there's also one
playground channel uh which it changes
depending on day month or the need. Uh
it's for testing. I usually test maybe a
different model, maybe a different uh
workspace, different way of setting up
uh the the important files like memory
and everything else. So I just play
there, see what works. If something
worked, uh I promote it. If if it
doesn't, uh I discard it.
Uh and all of that works because it's
not just uh
it's a system that has many moving parts
that work well together. So LLM is for
judgment like understanding the email,
understanding the context, making the
connections. Then there are all the
files the the tools the scripts that I
have built the scripts are just like if
this happens do this it's done you don't
even need judgment so LLM is even
skipped
uh and important uh thing is also to
optimize your memory file your sole
soulm file uh I have also critical rules
MD uh because even if I had something in
agents MD
or in soulm uh it it still managed to to
forget something or not do something uh
with critical rules. Having critical
rules helps and having it uh mentioned
quite high in the agent D file. Uh so
that that's also an improvement. Uh I I
went through a few different setups of
memory where I had one memory file. Now
now that uh I have like the whole memory
folder now we also have dreaming where
uh we have like promoting the memories.
So this is important to work on these
files uh and but it's easy to do in open
because everything is inspectable. These
are markdown files editable you can look
at it you can read it you can understand
it uh and it works well. Uh what gets
harder? Uh bad memory
compounds. If the memory is not set up
correctly and your vault, your nodes,
your memories grow to thousands, you're
going to have an issue. So you need to
actively work on that. Brittle
automations, especially when it's like
10step automations,
uh it can break and it probably will
break at some point. So it's again
either split it up into simpler ones or
or have uh some guard rails uh that are
more effective
uh noisy nodes I'm getting rid of them
cleaning um cleaning regularly and weak
boundaries. So so those are all the sol
everything else uh that the files that
that are important to optimize for your
needs. Uh so what I want you to take
away from this is that like do what I
did and then at some point you realize
yeah this stuff is awesome and this
stuff helps my life. Um start with one
recurring pain grow trust incrementally
build the knowledge base uh move
everything or like move as much as you
can or as you want to markdown files and
and start making those connections. Um,
inspecting system expectable is is easy
for you done for with uh with open claw
um and optimize for the future you and
this is what I want to close with. So
couple [snorts] years ago I had an
article about like the past me, the
present me and the future me and the
past me is just like this completely
stupid guy. He does nothing. He's lazy.
Uh he doesn't want to do anything. So
now I present me need to do everything
for that like past me and and the future
me the future me is just like kind some
kind of like god creature it can do
anything uh that that that creature is
like um all powerful and just like if I
don't do something today it's fine that
that other creature will do it for me.
So that that was the the issue and
[snorts]
uh the job for me is to to become
friends with the future me to to treat
that as a person that I want to help
with and that's the job of the agent. So
I don't need to do as much as I used to
because the agent just helps the future
me as much as possible so that when I
wake up tomorrow it's like as much as
could be done but someone else other
than me is done. So that's that that's
the whole purpose of of this setup at
least for me. I don't know it could be
different for you. So that's what I want
to leave you with. Thank you.
[snorts and applause]
>> [music]