An Autonomous 24/7 On-Call Engineer, Powered by AI
clopus-watcher is an open-source, autonomous on-call engineering system designed to monitor production environments continuously and respond to incidents without human intervention. Built as a Claude Code–powered agent running inside a cronjob, it acts as a persistent reliability engineer that watches, diagnoses, and reacts around the clock.
Instead of relying solely on alerts and manual triage, clopus-watcher brings intelligence directly into operational workflows, enabling faster response times and reduced operational load for engineering teams.
What Makes clopus-watcher Different
clopus-watcher is not a passive monitoring tool. It behaves like a living on-call engineer that reasons about system state, evaluates incidents, and takes action when issues arise. By embedding an AI coding agent into a scheduled execution loop, it continuously evaluates logs, signals, and system conditions without requiring constant human supervision.
This approach transforms traditional on-call processes into an automated, self-sustaining system that never sleeps.
How clopus-watcher Works
clopus-watcher runs as a cronjob that periodically executes an AI agent capable of reasoning about operational data. It inspects system signals, analyzes failures, and determines appropriate next steps using Claude Code as its decision engine. When issues are detected, it can investigate root causes, generate insights, and assist with remediation actions.
Because it operates autonomously, clopus-watcher reduces the need for engineers to respond immediately to every alert, reserving human intervention for only the most critical or complex cases.
Who It Is For
clopus-watcher is ideal for DevOps teams, platform engineers, and infrastructure-focused organizations that want to reduce on-call fatigue. It is especially useful for teams managing complex systems where alerts are frequent and manual triage is costly. Open-source teams can also extend or customize it to fit their operational needs.
It works well for teams that already rely on cron-based automation and want to introduce AI-driven reasoning into their reliability workflows.
Real-World Use Cases
clopus-watcher can be used to monitor production services, analyze recurring failures, investigate anomalous behavior, and assist with incident response. It serves as a safety net for off-hours coverage, ensuring that systems are continuously observed even when engineers are unavailable.
By acting as a first responder, it helps teams move from reactive firefighting to proactive reliability management.
Technical Foundation
The system is built around Claude Code as its reasoning engine and is designed to run in lightweight environments via cron. Its architecture makes it easy to deploy alongside existing infrastructure without introducing heavy dependencies or complex orchestration layers.
Because it is open source, teams can inspect, modify, and extend its behavior to match their operational standards and tooling.
A New Model for On-Call Engineering
clopus-watcher represents a shift in how on-call responsibilities can be handled. Instead of humans being the first line of defense, AI agents take on continuous monitoring and initial response duties. This reduces burnout, improves response times, and allows engineers to focus on higher-impact work.
For teams looking to experiment with autonomous operations and AI-driven reliability, clopus-watcher offers a practical and transparent starting point.
Get Started with clopus-watcher
clopus-watcher is available as an open-source project on GitHub and can be deployed using a simple cron-based setup. Teams can begin experimenting immediately and evolve the system as their operational needs grow.