Lobster

An OpenClaw-native workflow shell: typed (JSON-first) pipelines, jobs, and approval gates.

Example of Lobster at work

OpenClaw (or any other AI agent) can use lobster as a workflow engine and avoid re-planning every step — saving tokens while improving determinism and resumability.

Watching a PR that hasn't had changes

node bin/lobster.js "workflows.run --name github.pr.monitor --args-json '{\"repo\":\"openclaw/openclaw\",\"pr\":1152}'"
[
  {
    "kind": "github.pr.monitor",
    "repo": "openclaw/openclaw",
    "prNumber": 1152,
    "key": "github.pr:openclaw/openclaw#1152",
    "changed": false,
    "summary": {
      "changedFields": [],
      "changes": {}
    },
    "prSnapshot": {
      "author": {
        "id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE0MzY4NTM=",
        "is_bot": false,
        "login": "vignesh07",
        "name": "Vignesh"
      },
      "baseRefName": "main",
      "headRefName": "feat/lobster-plugin",
      "isDraft": false,
      "mergeable": "MERGEABLE",
      "number": 1152,
      "reviewDecision": "",
      "state": "OPEN",
      "title": "feat: Add optional lobster plugin tool (typed workflows, approvals/resume)",
      "updatedAt": "2026-01-18T20:16:56Z",
      "url": "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/1152"
    }
  }
]

And a PR that has a state change (in this case an approved PR)

 node bin/lobster.js "workflows.run --name github.pr.monitor --args-json '{\"repo\":\"openclaw/openclaw\",\"pr\":1200}'"
[
  {
    "kind": "github.pr.monitor",
    "repo": "openclaw/openclaw",
    "prNumber": 1200,
    "key": "github.pr:openclaw/openclaw#1200",
    "changed": true,
    "summary": {
      "changedFields": [
        "number",
        "title",
        "url",
        "state",
        "isDraft",
        "mergeable",
        "reviewDecision",
        "updatedAt",
        "baseRefName",
        "headRefName"
      ],
      "changes": {
        "number": {
          "from": null,
          "to": 1200
        },
        "title": {
          "from": null,
          "to": "feat(tui): add syntax highlighting for code blocks"
        },
        "url": {
          "from": null,
          "to": "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/1200"
        },
        "state": {
          "from": null,
          "to": "MERGED"
        },
        "isDraft": {
          "from": null,
          "to": false
        },
        "mergeable": {
          "from": null,
          "to": "UNKNOWN"
        },
        "reviewDecision": {
          "from": null,
          "to": ""
        },
        "updatedAt": {
          "from": null,
          "to": "2026-01-19T05:06:09Z"
        },
        "baseRefName": {
          "from": null,
          "to": "main"
        },
        "headRefName": {
          "from": null,
          "to": "feat/tui-syntax-highlighting"
        }
      }
    },
    "prSnapshot": {
      "author": {
        "id": "MDQ6VXNlcjE0MzY4NTM=",
        "is_bot": false,
        "login": "vignesh07",
        "name": "Vignesh"
      },
      "baseRefName": "main",
      "headRefName": "feat/tui-syntax-highlighting",
      "isDraft": false,
      "mergeable": "UNKNOWN",
      "number": 1200,
      "reviewDecision": "",
      "state": "MERGED",
      "title": "feat(tui): add syntax highlighting for code blocks",
      "updatedAt": "2026-01-19T05:06:09Z",
      "url": "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/pull/1200"
    }
  }
]

Goals

• Typed pipelines (objects/arrays), not text pipes.
• Local-first execution.
• No new auth surface: Lobster must not own OAuth/tokens.
• Composable macros that OpenClaw (or any agent) can invoke in one step to save tokens.

Quick start

From this folder:

• pnpm install
• pnpm test
• pnpm lint
• node ./bin/lobster.js --help
• node ./bin/lobster.js doctor
• node ./bin/lobster.js "exec --json --shell 'echo [1,2,3]' | where '0>=0' | json"

Notes

• pnpm test runs tsc and then executes tests against dist/.
• bin/lobster.js prefers the compiled entrypoint in dist/ when present.

Commands

• exec: run OS commands
• exec --stdin raw|json|jsonl: feed pipeline input into subprocess stdin
• where, pick, head: data shaping
• json, table: renderers
• approve: approval gate (TTY prompt or --emit for OpenClaw integration)

Next steps

• OpenClaw integration: ship as an optional OpenClaw plugin tool.

Workflow files

Lobster can run YAML/JSON workflow files with steps, env, condition, and approval gates.

lobster run path/to/workflow.lobster
lobster run --file path/to/workflow.lobster --args-json '{"tag":"family"}'

Example file:

name: inbox-triage
steps:
  - id: collect
    command: inbox list --json
  - id: categorize
    command: inbox categorize --json
    stdin: $collect.stdout
  - id: approve
    command: inbox apply --approve
    stdin: $categorize.stdout
    approval: required
  - id: execute
    command: inbox apply --execute
    stdin: $categorize.stdout
    condition: $approve.approved

Calling OpenClaw tools from workflows

Workflow steps[].command runs in /bin/sh, so tool calls must be real executables.

If you install Lobster via npm/pnpm, it installs a small shim executable named:

• openclaw.invoke (preferred)
• clawd.invoke (alias)

These shims forward to the Lobster pipeline command of the same name.

Example: invoke llm-task

Prereqs:

• OPENCLAW_URL points at a running OpenClaw gateway
• optionally OPENCLAW_TOKEN if auth is enabled

export OPENCLAW_URL=http://127.0.0.1:18789
# export OPENCLAW_TOKEN=...

In a workflow:

name: hello-world
steps:
  - id: greeting
    command: >
      openclaw.invoke --tool llm-task --action json --args-json '{"prompt":"Hello"}'

Passing data between steps (no temp files)

Use stdin: $stepId.stdout to pipe output from one step into the next.

Args and shell-safety

${arg} substitution is a raw string replace into the shell command text.

For anything that may contain quotes, $, backticks, or newlines, prefer env vars:

• every resolved workflow arg is exposed as LOBSTER_ARG_<NAME> (uppercased, non-alnum → _)
• the full args object is also available as LOBSTER_ARGS_JSON

Example:

args:
  text:
    default: ""
steps:
  - id: safe
    env:
      TEXT: "$LOBSTER_ARG_TEXT"
    command: |
      jq -n --arg text "$TEXT" '{"result": $text}'