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If you scaffold a team and then ask, “okay, what do we actually do now?” this is the answer.

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The core idea

A ClawRecipes team is a shared workspace with a file-first work queue. That means:
  • requests land in files
  • tickets live in files
  • agents coordinate through files
  • nothing important depends on a specific UI being available

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Team workspace layout

A scaffolded team usually looks like this: 
~/.openclaw/workspace-<teamId>/
  inbox/
  outbox/
  shared/
  notes/
  work/
    backlog/
    in-progress/
    testing/
    done/
    assignments/
  roles/
    <role>/
Common meaning:
  • inbox/ — raw incoming requests
  • work/backlog/ — ready-to-pick tickets
  • work/in-progress/ — active work
  • work/testing/ — QA / verification
  • work/done/ — completed work
  • work/assignments/ — assignment stubs / ownership breadcrumbs
  • shared/ — shared artifacts
  • notes/ — team notes, plans, status

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The normal workflow

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1) Intake

A new request lands in inbox/. This can happen by hand, or through: 
openclaw recipes dispatch \
  --team-id development-team \
  --owner lead \
  --request "Add a new clinic-team recipe"
That usually creates:
  • an inbox item
  • a numbered backlog ticket
  • an assignment stub

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2) Triage

The lead reviews new requests and turns them into clean tickets. Good tickets should include:
  • context
  • requirements
  • acceptance criteria
  • tasks
  • owner
  • status
  • verification steps
  • ## Comments
Ticket comments matter. If an agent is assigned to a ticket or mentioned in comments, that agent should respond there.

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3) Execution

A dev or devops agent picks up a backlog ticket. Typical command: 
openclaw recipes take --team-id development-team --ticket 0007 --owner dev
That assigns the ticket and moves it to in-progress. During execution, the working agent should:
  • do the work
  • update the ticket
  • leave verification notes
  • write any needed artifacts to shared/ or team files

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4) Testing

When the change is ready for QA: 
openclaw recipes handoff --team-id development-team --ticket 0007
That moves the ticket to testing and assigns it to the tester role. The tester should:
  • follow the verification steps
  • confirm expected behavior
  • move it to done if it passes
  • or bounce it back to in-progress if it fails

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5) Completion

When work is done: 
openclaw recipes complete --team-id development-team --ticket 0007
That moves the ticket to done and stamps completion metadata.

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Helpful commands

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See current tickets

openclaw recipes tickets --team-id development-team

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Move a ticket manually

openclaw recipes move-ticket --team-id development-team --ticket 0007 --to in-progress
openclaw recipes move-ticket --team-id development-team --ticket 0007 --to testing
openclaw recipes move-ticket --team-id development-team --ticket 0007 --to done --completed

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Assign without taking

openclaw recipes assign --team-id development-team --ticket 0007 --owner devops

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Clean up stale assignment stubs for closed work

openclaw recipes cleanup-closed-assignments --team-id development-team

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Who picks what up?

The simple rule:
  • backlog = ready for the implementation owner to pick up
  • lead = scope/triage/handoff
  • dev/devops/test = execute their lane of work
If a ticket is sitting in backlog, it should not need repeated human pep talks to become real.

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How agents get nudged

There are a few ways a team actually wakes up and does work:
  1. a human opens or messages the relevant agent
  2. a cron loop runs
  3. the lead sees inbox/backlog work and acts
  4. a best-effort system nudge reaches the lead session
So if you say, “I dispatched a ticket but nobody picked it up,” the real question is usually: what is waking the team up?

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Why file-first is useful

Because it gives you:
  • durable history
  • easy grep/search
  • easy git review
  • easy debugging
  • easy automation
  • less dependency on one UI or one database
Related: 
# See current workload
openclaw recipes tickets --team-id development-team

# Create work from a request
openclaw recipes dispatch --team-id development-team --owner lead --request "Do a thing"

# Start work
openclaw recipes take --team-id development-team --ticket 0001 --owner dev

# Hand off to QA
openclaw recipes handoff --team-id development-team --ticket 0001

# Complete
openclaw recipes complete --team-id development-team --ticket 0001