Proposal: Character Heartbeat System for Proactive Behavior

[xuan0x0]

Content

Hi everyone,

While exploring AIRI’s architecture and roadmap, I noticed that interactions are currently mostly reactive — the character responds when the user sends a message.

For AI companion systems, it might feel more natural if the character occasionally shows proactive behavior, such as checking in after inactivity or reacting to internal state changes.

I’d like to propose introducing a lightweight Character Heartbeat System.

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Idea

Introduce a periodic heartbeat loop that allows the character to evaluate triggers and optionally perform actions.

Conceptually:

heartbeat loop
      ↓
trigger evaluation
      ↓
decision
      ↓
action execution

The heartbeat could run at a low frequency (for example every few minutes).
Most cycles would likely result in no action.

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Example triggers

• user inactivity
• time-of-day events
• memory reminders
• emotion/state transitions

Example actions

• sending a proactive message
• updating character mood/state
• writing a memory entry

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Possible MVP

A minimal version could start with:

• heartbeat scheduler
• inactivity trigger
• simple decision prompt
• proactive message action

This would allow experimentation without introducing large architectural changes.

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Implementation

If this direction aligns with AIRI’s architecture, I’d be happy to work on an initial prototype / MVP implementation of this heartbeat system.

Would love to hear thoughts from maintainers and contributors.

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[0xSelenicDove]

Great idea! Lots of mainstream AI companion apps have such features where you will get a notification from one of the characters you've chatted with if you don't talk with it for a period of time, or sometimes based on a certain event. Why can't we implement a similar idea?