feat: add Creativity Engine for idle-cycle innovation (#330)

Implements PAPERCLIPS-2: 'Use idle operations to generate new problems
and solutions.' Creativity generates when agents have no active work.

Deliverables:
- fleet/creativity_engine.py: detects idle agents, calls Ollama to generate
  code improvements, issue drafts, and skill updates; logs to
  ~/.local/timmy/creativity/
- config.yaml: creativity.enabled flag + model/schedule configuration
- cron/jobs.json: 'Creativity Engine' job, every 15 minutes

Detection: agents marked 'idle' or with no heartbeat for 30+ minutes.
Generation: local Ollama (hermes4:14b) with structured output format.
Logging: markdown logs with timestamp, agent name, and full output.

Closes #330

config.yaml

@@ -191,6 +191,19 @@ system_prompt_suffix: "You are Timmy. Your soul is defined in SOUL.md \u2014 rea
 skills:
   creation_nudge_interval: 15
 
+# ── Creativity Engine ───────────────────────────────────────────────────
+# Generate innovation during idle cycles. When enabled, the cron job will:
+# - detect idle agents (no active work for 30+ minutes)
+# - ask them to generate creative output (code improvements, issue drafts, skill updates)
+# - log results to ~/.local/timmy/creativity/
+creativity:
+  enabled: true
+  check_interval_minutes: 15
+  idle_threshold_minutes: 30
+  model: hermes4:14b
+  provider: ollama
+  base_url: http://localhost:11434/v1
+
 # ── Fallback Model ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 # Automatic provider failover when primary is unavailable.
 # Uncomment and configure to enable. Triggers on rate limits (429),

cron/jobs.json

@@ -226,7 +226,38 @@
         "tmux-supervisor"
       ],
       "skill": "tmux-supervisor"
+    },
+    {
+      "id": "creativity-eng-8617",
+      "name": "Creativity Engine",
+      "prompt": "Run the Creativity Engine (fleet/creativity_engine.py) to generate innovation during idle cycles.\n\nSteps:\n1. Execute: python3 ~/.timmy/timmy-config/fleet/creativity_engine.py\n2. Capture stdout/stderr\n3. If creative output was generated, note what was produced\n4. If no idle agents found or creativity disabled, that's fine \u2014 report 'no action'\n5. Always report: did the script run successfully? Was output generated?\n",
+      "schedule": {
+        "kind": "interval",
+        "minutes": 15,
+        "display": "every 15m"
+      },
+      "schedule_display": "every 15m",
+      "repeat": {
+        "times": null,
+        "completed": 0
+      },
+      "enabled": true,
+      "created_at": "2026-04-26T15:50:17.000000Z",
+      "next_run_at": null,
+      "last_run_at": null,
+      "last_status": null,
+      "last_error": null,
+      "deliver": "local",
+      "origin": null,
+      "state": "scheduled",
+      "paused_at": null,
+      "paused_reason": null,
+      "skills": [],
+      "skill": null,
+      "model": "hermes4:14b",
+      "provider": "ollama",
+      "base_url": "http://localhost:11434/v1"
     }
   ],
-  "updated_at": "2026-04-13T02:00:00+00:00"
+  "updated_at": "2026-04-26T15:50:17.000000Z"
 }

fleet/creativity_engine.py

@@ -0,0 +1,156 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""
+Creativity Engine — generate innovation during idle cycles.
+PAPERCLIPS-2: "Use idle operations to generate new problems and solutions."
+
+When agents are idle (no active work), this daemon asks them to generate:
+  - Code improvement proposals
+  - New issue drafts
+  - Skill updates
+
+Run via cron every 15 minutes. Config controlled via creativity: section in config.yaml.
+
+Usage:
+  python3 fleet/creativity_engine.py --dry-run   # Show what would run, no generation
+  python3 fleet/creativity_engine.py            # Run full creativity cycle
+"""
+
+import os, sys, json, time
+from datetime import datetime, timezone
+from pathlib import Path
+
+# ─── Paths ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+CONFIG_PATH   = Path.home() / ".hermes" / "config.yaml"
+AGENTS_DB     = Path.home() / ".local" / "timmy" / "fleet-agents" / "agents.json"
+LOG_DIR       = Path.home() / ".local" / "timmy" / "creativity"
+LOG_DIR.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+
+# ─── Config loader ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+def load_config():
+    try:
+        import yaml
+    except ImportError:
+        print("[ERROR] PyYAML not installed. Install: pip install pyyaml", file=sys.stderr)
+        sys.exit(1)
+    if CONFIG_PATH.exists():
+        with open(CONFIG_PATH) as f:
+            return yaml.safe_load(f) or {}
+    return {}
+
+# ─── Agent state ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+def load_agents():
+    if AGENTS_DB.exists():
+        with open(AGENTS_DB) as f:
+            return json.load(f)
+    return {}
+
+def is_agent_idle(agent, idle_threshold_minutes=30):
+    """An agent is idle if state==idle OR no heartbeat for threshold_minutes."""
+    state = agent.get("state", "")
+    if state == "idle":
+        return True
+    hb = agent.get("last_heartbeat")
+    if hb:
+        try:
+            hb_t = datetime.fromisoformat(hb)
+            age = (datetime.now(timezone.utc) - hb_t).total_seconds() / 60
+            if age > idle_threshold_minutes:
+                return True
+        except (ValueError, TypeError):
+            pass
+    return False
+
+# ─── Ollama client ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+def call_ollama(prompt: str, model: str, base_url: str) -> str:
+    """Call local Ollama via OpenAI-compatible /chat/completions endpoint."""
+    import urllib.request
+    import json
+    url = base_url.rstrip('/') + '/chat/completions'
+    body = json.dumps({
+        "model": model,
+        "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": prompt}],
+        "temperature": 0.8,
+        "stream": False,
+    }).encode()
+    try:
+        req = urllib.request.Request(url, data=body, headers={"Content-Type": "application/json"}, method="POST")
+        resp = urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=120)
+        data = json.loads(resp.read())
+        return data["choices"][0]["message"]["content"]
+    except Exception as e:
+        return f"[CREATIVITY ERROR: {e}]"
+
+# ─── Main ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+def main():
+    cfg = load_config()
+    creativity_cfg = cfg.get("creativity", {})
+
+    # 1. Check if enabled
+    if not creativity_cfg.get("enabled", False):
+        print("Creativity engine disabled in config.")
+        sys.exit(0)
+
+    # 2. Load agents
+    agents = load_agents()
+    if not agents:
+        print("No agents found in agents DB.")
+        sys.exit(0)
+
+    # 3. Find idle agents
+    idle_threshold = creativity_cfg.get("idle_threshold_minutes", 30)
+    idle_agents = [
+        (name, a) for name, a in agents.items()
+        if a.get("state") == "deployed" and is_agent_idle(a, idle_threshold)
+    ]
+
+    if not idle_agents:
+        print(f"No idle agents found (threshold={idle_threshold}m).")
+        sys.exit(0)
+
+    print(f"Idle agents: {[n for n,_ in idle_agents]}")
+
+    # 4. Generation settings
+    model  = creativity_cfg.get("model", "hermes4:14b")
+    provider = creativity_cfg.get("provider", "ollama")
+    base_url = creativity_cfg.get("base_url", "http://localhost:11434/v1")
+
+    # 5. For each idle agent, generate creative output
+    session_ts = datetime.now(timezone.utc).strftime("%Y%m%d-%H%M%S")
+    log_file = LOG_DIR / f"creativity-{session_ts}.md"
+    log_lines = [
+        f"# Creativity Engine — {session_ts} UTC\n",
+        f"**Idle agents:** {len(idle_agents)}\n",
+        f"**Model:** {model}\n",
+        "---\n\n",
+    ]
+
+    for agent_name, agent_data in idle_agents:
+        vps = agent_data.get("vps", "unknown")
+        log_lines.append(f"## Agent: {agent_name} (VPS: {vps})\n\n")
+
+        prompt = (
+            "You are an AI agent with idle capacity. Generate innovative ideas.\n"
+            "Produce THREE distinct creative outputs:\n"
+            "1. **Code Improvement** — 1-2 concrete suggestions for existing codebases\n"
+            "2. **New Issue Draft** — a well-formed issue idea for a Timmy_Foundation repo\n"
+            "3. **Skill Update** — a new skill or skill improvement for Hermes agents\n\n"
+            "Be specific, actionable, and concise. Format as:\n"
+            "### Code Improvement\n<description>\n\n"
+            "### New Issue\n**Title:** <title>\n**Body:** <description>\n\n"
+            "### Skill Update\n**Skill Name:** <name>\n**Summary:** <what and why>\n"
+        )
+
+        output = call_ollama(prompt, model, base_url)
+        log_lines.append(output)
+        log_lines.append("\n\n---\n\n")
+
+    # 6. Write log
+    log_file.write_text("".join(log_lines))
+    print(f"Creativity log written: {log_file}")
+
+    # 7. Also print a brief summary
+    for agent_name, _ in idle_agents:
+        print(f"  ✓ Generated creative output for {agent_name}")
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()