中文版 | 日本語版 | 🏢 Corporate Edition: Become CEO | 📚 Full Docs
⚠️ Originality Notice: This project was first published on Feb 22, 2025 (promotional posts on Xiaohongshu as early as Feb 20). It is the original creator of the "Three Departments & Six Ministries × AI Multi-Agent" concept. A copycat project was created 21 hours later with 15/15 core design decisions identical, without any attribution. Full evidence: GitHub Issue. We welcome forks and derivatives — just give credit where it's due.
🏛️ Three Departments & Six Ministries ✖️ OpenClaw
One Command to Build a Dynasty. Six Ministries, All AI. Rule from Afar, Never Lift a Finger.
Modeled after the Ming Dynasty's Three Departments and Six Ministries (三省六部制), built on the OpenClaw framework. One server + OpenClaw = A 24/7 AI imperial court at your command.
👑 Become Emperor in One Click
bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wanikua/danghuangshang/main/install.sh)
One command. 5 minutes. You are the Emperor. → Quick Start
🏥 Having issues? bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wanikua/danghuangshang/main/doctor.sh) — Doctor Tool Docs
🤖 Don't want to read docs? Give this Prompt to your AI assistant (Claude / ChatGPT / DeepSeek) and let it guide you step by step.
📜 What Is This?
AI Court is a ready-to-use multi-AI-agent collaboration system that maps China's ancient Three Departments and Six Ministries (中书省 Zhongshu · 门下省 Menxia · 尚书省 Shangshu → 吏部 Personnel · 户部 Revenue · 礼部 Rites · 兵部 War · 刑部 Justice · 工部 Works) onto a modern AI agent organization.
In plain terms: You are the Emperor 👑, and AI agents are your ministers. Each minister has a clear role — one writes code, one manages finances, one handles marketing, one runs DevOps — all you do is issue an "imperial decree" (@mention an agent in Discord), and they execute immediately.
🤔 Why an Ancient Court Architecture?
The Three Departments and Six Ministries system was one of the longest-running organizational frameworks in human history (Sui/Tang to Qing dynasty, over 1,300 years). Its core design principles:
- 🏛️ Clear Separation of Duties — Each ministry handles its own domain, no overstepping (= each AI Agent has its specialty)
- 📋 Standardized Processes — Memorial submission and imperial review systems (= Prompt templates + SOUL.md persona injection)
- 🔄 Checks and Balances — Three Departments cross-verify (= Agent cross-review, multi-step confirmation)
- 📜 Record Keeping — Court diaries and historical records (= Memory persistence, Notion auto-archival)
These concepts map perfectly to modern multi-agent system design needs. Ancient governance wisdom is the best practice for modern AI team management.
🎯 Core Capabilities at a Glance
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| 🤖 Multi-Agent Collaboration | 18+ independent AI Agents, each specialized, working in concert |
| 🧠 Independent Memory | Each agent has its own workspace and memory files — the more you use it, the better it knows you |
| 🛠️ 60+ Built-in Skills | GitHub, Notion, Browser, Cron, TTS and more, ready out of the box |
| ⏰ Automated Tasks | Cron scheduling + heartbeat self-checks, 24/7 unattended operation |
| 🔒 Sandbox Isolation | Docker container isolation, agent code runs independently |
| 💬 Multi-Platform | Discord / Feishu (Lark) / Slack / Telegram / Pure WebUI |
| 🖥️ Web Dashboard | React + TypeScript dashboard for visual management |
| 🌐 OpenClaw Ecosystem | Built on OpenClaw, access the OpenClaw Hub Skill ecosystem |
📖 Deep dive → Architecture
🏢 Prefer a Corporate Edition?
If you're more familiar with modern corporate management concepts, we have an English corporate version:
👉 Become CEO — Same architecture, using CEO / CTO / CFO / CMO roles instead of imperial ministries
| 🏛️ Court Role | 🏢 Corporate Role | Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| Emperor 👑 | CEO | Ultimate decision maker |
| 司礼监 Chief Steward | COO | Daily coordination, task delegation |
| 兵部 War Ministry | CTO / VP Engineering | Software engineering, architecture |
| 户部 Revenue Ministry | CFO / VP Finance | Financial analysis, cost management |
| 礼部 Rites Ministry | CMO / VP Marketing | Brand marketing, content strategy |
| 工部 Works Ministry | VP Infra / SRE | DevOps, infrastructure |
| 吏部 Personnel Ministry | VP Product / PMO | Project management, team coordination |
| 刑部 Justice Ministry | General Counsel | Legal compliance, contract review |
💡 Both projects are built on the same OpenClaw framework with identical architecture — only the role names and cultural context differ. Pick the style you prefer!
📌 About Originality — This project was first committed on 2025-02-22 (commit history) and represents the original implementation of the concept "modeling AI multi-agent collaboration after China's imperial court system." We noticed that cft0808/edict (first committed 2025-02-23, approximately 21 hours later) shares striking similarities with this project in framework selection, SOUL.md persona files, install.sh deployment approach, and competitor comparison tables — see Issue #55 for details.
Reposts welcome — please credit the source.
📕 Original Xiaohongshu series: Day 3 of Being an AI Emperor — I'm Already Hooked | Life of a Cyber Emperor: Give Orders Before Bed, AI Cranks Out Code Overnight
Why This Setup?
| ChatGPT & Web UIs | AutoGPT / CrewAI / MetaGPT | AI Court (This Project) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multi-agent collaboration | ❌ Single generalist | ✅ Requires Python orchestration | ✅ Config files only, zero code |
| Persistent memory | ⚠️ Single shared memory | ⚠️ BYO vector database | ✅ Each agent has its own workspace + memory files |
| Tool integrations | ⚠️ Limited plugins | ⚠️ Build your own | ✅ 60+ built-in Skills (GitHub / Notion / Browser / Cron …) |
| Interface | Web | CLI / Self-hosted UI | ✅ Native Discord (works on phone & desktop) |
| Deployment difficulty | No deployment needed | Docker + coding required | ✅ One-line script, up in 5 minutes |
| 24h availability | ❌ Manual conversations only | ✅ | ✅ Cron jobs + heartbeat self-checks |
| Organizational metaphor | ❌ None | ❌ None | ✅ Six Ministries system, clear separation of duties |
| Framework ecosystem | Closed | Build your own | ✅ OpenClaw Hub Skill ecosystem |
The key advantage: it's not a framework — it's a finished product. Run a script, start chatting in Discord by @mentioning your agents.
Architecture
┌───────────────────────────┐
│ 👑 Emperor (You) │
│ Discord / Web UI │
└─────────────┬─────────────┘
│ Imperial Decree (@mention)
▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ OpenClaw Gateway (Zhongshu Province)│
│ Node.js Daemon │
│ ┌────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ 📨 Message Routing (Menxia) │ │
│ │ @mention → match → dispatch │ │
│ │ Session isolation · Auto-Thread │ │
│ │ Cron scheduling · Heartbeat │ │
│ └────────────────────────────────┘ │
└───┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬─────────┘
│ │ │ │ │ │
┌────────────┘ │ │ │ │ └────────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
┌──────────┐ ┌──────┐ ┌────┐ ┌────┐ ┌──────┐ ┌──────────┐
│ Steward │ │ War │ │Rev.│ │Rite│ │Works │ │ Justice │
│ 司礼监 │ │ 兵部 │ │户部│ │礼部│ │ 工部 │ │ 刑部 │
│Scheduler │ │Code │ │$$$│ │Mktg│ │DevOps│ │ Legal │
└──────────┘ └──────┘ └────┘ └────┘ └──────┘ └──────────┘
│ │ │ │ │ │
└──────────┴───────┴──────┴───────┴────────────┘
│
┌──────────────┴──────────────┐
│ Shangshu Province (Exec) │
│ 60+ Built-in Skills │
│ GitHub · Notion · Browser │
│ Cron · TTS · Screenshot │
│ OpenClaw Hub Extensions │
└──────────────────────────────┘
Each agent is a standalone Discord Bot bound to its own AI identity:
- Independent memory: Every agent has its own
memory/directory — the more you use it, the better it knows your projects - Independent models: Use power models for heavy lifting, fast models for light work — save money without sacrificing quality
- Sandboxed execution: Agent code runs in isolation, no cross-contamination
- Identity injection: OpenClaw automatically assembles SOUL.md + IDENTITY.md + workspace files into the system prompt
🎬 Demo: Discord Conversations
👑 Emperor: @bingbu Write me a user login REST API with Node.js + Express
🏛️ 兵部 bingbu: As Your Majesty commands. I'll get to work immediately.
📁 Created auth-api/ project structure
✅ POST /api/login — JWT authentication
✅ POST /api/register — User registration
✅ middleware/auth.js — Token verification middleware
✅ Pushed to GitHub: wanikua/auth-api#1
The work is complete. Please review, Your Majesty.
👑 Emperor: @hubu How much did we spend on APIs this month?
🏛️ 户部 hubu: Your Majesty, here is this month's API expenditure:
💰 Total: $23.47
├── 兵部 bingbu (Power Model): $15.20 (142 coding tasks)
├── 礼部 libu (Fast Model): $3.80 (89 copywriting tasks)
├── 司礼监 silijian (Fast Model): $2.12 (203 daily conversations)
└── Others: $2.35
📊 Down 12% month-over-month, mainly due to bingbu optimizing prompt length.
👑 Emperor: @libu Write a Xiaohongshu post recommending AI tool setups
🏛️ 礼部 libu: As you wish! Here's the copy:
📝 Title: "Regular People Can Be AI Emperors? I Manage My Whole Team with 6 AIs"
Body: Still chatting with AI one conversation at a time? I built an entire AI court...
🏷️ #AITools #Productivity #MultiAgent #AICourt #SixMinistries
👑 Emperor: @everyone Meeting tomorrow at 3 PM — all departments prepare weekly reports
🏛️ 司礼监: As commanded. Meeting scheduled.
🏛️ 兵部: Acknowledged. Will compile this week's code output.
🏛️ 户部: Acknowledged. Will prepare financial statements.
🏛️ 礼部: Acknowledged. Will summarize marketing metrics.
🏛️ 工部: Acknowledged. Will prepare server status report.
Quick Start (Three Steps to the Throne)
🔴 Beginners: use a cloud server, not your personal computer. See Security Guide.
📍 Step 0: Already Have OpenClaw?
Already running OpenClaw? No need to reinstall. Use the lite script to initialize the court workspace and config template:
bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wanikua/danghuangshang/main/install-lite.sh)Then skip to Step 3 to fill in your keys. New users: ignore this, start from Step 1.
📍 Step 1: Got a Server?
| Situation | Action |
|---|---|
| ✅ Have a Linux server | Go to Step 2 |
| ✅ Have a Mac | Go to Step 2 |
| ❌ No server | → Get a free server (Oracle Cloud: free 4-core 24GB) |
📍 Step 2: Choose Your Platform
| Path | Platform | Best For | Deploy Method | Docs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Discord | Global users / Beginners | Linux one-line script | → Path A |
| B | Any | Docker experienced | Docker container | → Path B |
| C | Any | Mac users | macOS Homebrew | → Path C |
| D | Feishu (Lark) | China users | Linux one-line script | → Path D |
| E | Pure WebUI | No Bot needed | Just API Key | → Path E |
| W | Any | Windows users | WSL2 | → WSL2 Guide |
💡 Not sure? China users → D (Feishu). Global users → A (Discord).
📍 Step 3: Install → Add Keys → Start
# 1️⃣ One-line install (Linux example)
bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wanikua/danghuangshang/main/install-lite.sh)
# 2️⃣ Add API Key and Bot Token
nano ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json
# 3️⃣ Start
systemctl --user start openclaw-gateway
@mention your Bot, get a reply = you're on the throne! 🎉
📖 Full step-by-step tutorial → Basics Tutorial (Chinese)
🔧 Troubleshooting Installation Issues?
If you encounter any problems during installation:
- npm install fails? → Script now checks for
package.jsonand skips if missing - Permission errors? → Use
sudo npm install -g openclaw@latest - Network issues? → Use Git clone method or check Troubleshooting Guide
- Missing personas? → Ensure you cloned the full repository with
configs/*/agents/directory
👉 Complete Installation Troubleshooting Guide
📍 Optional Enhancements (Add anytime after install)
| Enhancement | Description | Required? | Docs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📝 Notion | Auto daily/weekly reports | Optional | → Notion Guide |
| 🖥️ Web GUI | Visual management dashboard | Optional | → GUI Docs |
| ⏰ Cron Tasks | Automated scheduling | Optional | → Advanced Tutorial |
| 🛡️ Security | Sandbox configuration | Recommended | → Security Guide |
| 🏥 Diagnostics | One-click troubleshooting | When needed | → Doctor Tool |
Hanlin Academy OpenViking Integration
OpenViking is now an optional plugin for enhanced 3D persistent memory. The default memory system is file-based, provided by the novel-memory skill. To install OpenViking as an optional upgrade:
openclaw plugins install ./extensions/novel-openviking
Once installed, OpenViking provides the following MCP server modules:
| OpenViking Module | Function | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Memories | Static knowledge + dynamic logs | Chapter summaries, character states, foreshadowing tracking |
| Resources | Reference material library | Reference novels, style samples |
| Skills | Structured knowledge graph | Character relationships, world settings |
Without the OpenViking plugin, all memory operations use the built-in file-based
novel-memoryskill, which stores data in the agent'smemory/directory. OpenViking is recommended for large-scale novels (100+ chapters) where structured graph queries become beneficial.
Core Capabilities
🤖 Multi-Agent Collaboration
Each department is its own Bot. @mention one and it responds; @everyone triggers all of them. Large tasks automatically spawn Threads to keep channels tidy.
⚠️ To enable Bot-to-Bot interactions (e.g., word chain games, multi-Bot discussions), add
"allowBots": "mentions"in thechannels.discordsection ofopenclaw.json. This ensures Bots only respond when @mentioned by other Bots, preventing infinite reply loops. Without this, Bots ignore messages from other Bots by default. Each account also needs"groupPolicy": "open", otherwise group messages will be silently dropped.
🧠 Independent Memory System
Each agent has its own workspace and memory/ directory. Project knowledge accumulated through conversations is persisted to files and retained across sessions. The more you use an agent, the better it understands your project.
🛠️ 60+ Built-in Skills (Powered by OpenClaw Ecosystem)
It's not just a chatbot — the built-in toolset covers the entire development lifecycle, and you can extend with more Skills from OpenClaw Hub:
| Category | Skills |
|---|---|
| Development | GitHub (Issues/PRs/CI), Coding Agent |
| Documentation | Notion (databases/pages/automated reporting) |
| Information | Browser automation, Web search, Web scraping |
| Automation | Cron scheduled tasks, Heartbeat self-checks |
| Media | TTS voice, Screenshots, Video frame extraction |
| Operations | tmux remote control, Shell command execution |
| Communication | Discord, Slack, Lark (Feishu), Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal… |
| Extensions | OpenClaw Hub community Skills, Custom Skills |
⏰ Scheduled Tasks (Cron)
Built-in Cron scheduler lets agents run tasks on autopilot:
- Auto-generate daily reports, post to Discord + save to Notion
- Weekly summary roll-ups
- Scheduled health checks and code backups
- Any custom recurring task you can think of
👥 Team Collaboration
Invite friends to your Discord server — everyone can @mention department Bots to issue commands. No interference between users, and results are visible to all.
🔒 Sandbox Isolation
Agents can run inside Docker sandboxes with isolated code execution. Supports configurable isolation levels for networking, filesystem, and environment variables.
🖥️ GUI Management Interface
Beyond Discord command-line interaction, the AI Court also offers multiple graphical interface (GUI) management options:
Web Dashboard (Boluo Dynasty Dashboard)
This project includes a built-in Web management dashboard (in the gui/ directory), built with React + TypeScript + Vite:
Court Overview — Throne, Six Ministries, and Auxiliary Offices with live status
Session Management — 88 sessions, 9008 messages, 87.34M tokens tracked in real-time
Features include:
- Dashboard: Real-time view of department status, token consumption, system load
- Court Hall: Chat directly with department Bots from the web interface
- Session Management: Browse all historical sessions, message details, token stats
- Cron Jobs: Visual management of scheduled tasks (enable/disable/manual trigger)
- Token Analytics: Token consumption breakdown by department and date
- System Health: CPU/memory/disk monitoring, Gateway status
How to start:
# Build the frontend
cd gui && npm install && npm run build
# Start the backend API server (default port 18795)
cd server && npm install && node index.js
Access at: http://your-server-ip:18795
💡 For production, use Nginx reverse proxy + HTTPS instead of exposing the port directly.
Discord as GUI
Discord itself is the best GUI management interface:
- Phone + Desktop sync — manage from anywhere
- Channel categories naturally map to departments (兵部, 户部, 礼部…)
- Message history permanently saved with built-in search
- Permission management with fine-grained control over who sees and does what
- @mention any agent to invoke it — zero learning curve
Notion as Data Visualization
Through OpenClaw's Notion Skill integration, court data auto-syncs to Notion:
- Daily Reports and Weekly Summaries auto-generated
- Finance Tracking automatically records API consumption
- Project Archives track progress across all projects
- Notion's kanban, calendar, and table views provide rich data visualization
💡 Three-tier GUI: Web Dashboard for system status → Discord for issuing commands → Notion for reports and historical data.
Detailed Tutorials
For the basics (server provisioning → installation → configuration → first run) and advanced topics (tmux, GitHub, Notion, Cron, Discord, prompt engineering tips), check out the Xiaohongshu tutorial series.
FAQ
Q: Do I need to know how to code? → No. One-line script installs everything. Natural language interaction in Discord.
Q: How is this different from ChatGPT? → ChatGPT = one generalist, forgets everything. This = multiple specialists with persistent memory, tools, and automation.
Q: Can I use other models? → Yes. OpenClaw supports Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, and any OpenAI API-compatible provider. Different departments can use different models.
Q: Monthly API cost? → Light: $10-15. Moderate: $20-30. Use power models for heavy tasks, fast models for light tasks (5× savings).
Q: What's the relationship with Become CEO? → Same OpenClaw framework and architecture, but with modern corporate roles (CTO, CFO, etc.) instead of imperial court titles.
Q: @everyone doesn't trigger responses?
Q: Bot replies ping @everyone? → Server Settings → Roles → @everyone → disable "Mention @everyone, @here, and All Roles" (Server Owner is unaffected) → Enable Message Content Intent + Server Members Intent for each Bot. See Diagnostics.
Q: Agent reports permission errors after enabling sandbox?
→ Sandbox mode all uses a Docker container with restricted defaults. Set workspaceAccess: "rw", docker.network: "bridge", and pass API keys via docker.env.
Q: Will multiple users @mentioning the same agent cause conflicts? → No. OpenClaw maintains independent sessions per user × agent combination.
Q: Can agents call each other?
→ Yes. Use sessions_spawn to delegate sub-tasks or sessions_send to message another agent's session.
Q: How do I create custom Skills?
→ Each Skill is a directory with SKILL.md + scripts. Place it in skills/ and agents can use it immediately. Community Skills available on OpenClaw Hub.
Q: How do I connect private models (Ollama, etc.)?
→ Add an OpenAI API-compatible provider in models.providers of openclaw.json, pointing baseUrl to your Ollama address.
Q: How do I troubleshoot Gateway startup failures?
→ Run journalctl --user -u openclaw-gateway --since today --no-pager or openclaw doctor. Common causes: missing API Key, malformed JSON, invalid Bot Token.
📖 Full FAQ → FAQ
🏛️ Join the Court
| Xiaohongshu (小红书) | WeChat Official: 菠言菠语 | WeChat Group: OpenClaw Emperors |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
| @菠萝菠菠🍍 | Follow for tutorials & updates | If QR expired, follow the official account for latest link |
🤝 Recommendations
- 🎁 MiniMax Coding Plan — Exclusive 12% discount + Builder benefits
Related Links
- 🏢 Become CEO — Corporate Edition — Same architecture, modern corporate roles
- 🎭 AI Court Skill — Chinese
- 🔧 OpenClaw Framework — The underlying framework for this project
- 📖 OpenClaw Official Documentation
- 📚 Full Documentation Index
⚠️ Originality & Rights Notice
This project was first published on February 22, 2025. Full evidence: GitHub Issue | Rights Article. Forks welcome — please credit the source.
🛡️ Security Guide
Full details → Security Guide
- 🔴 Don't install on personal computers — use a cloud server
- 🔴 Set workspace to a dedicated directory (e.g.,
/home/ubuntu/clawd) - 🔴 Never commit API keys to public repos
- 💡 Non-coding departments: sandbox
"off". Coding departments: sandbox"all"
🔄 Already Installed? One-Click Update
💡 Safe to run — won't overwrite your SOUL.md, USER.md, IDENTITY.md, or openclaw.json.
# Re-run install script (auto-preserves your config)
bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wanikua/danghuangshang/main/install.sh)
# Docker users
docker pull boluobobo/ai-court:latest && docker compose up -d
# Manual update
npm update -g openclaw && systemctl --user restart openclaw-gateway
Disclaimer
This project is provided "as is" without any warranties. AI-generated content is for reference only — review before production use. Human review required for financial/security-sensitive operations.
v3.5.3 | MIT License
📜 Licensed under MIT. Derivative works please credit: danghuangshang by @wanikua