# openclaw/lobster

Lobster is a Openclaw-native workflow shell: a typed, local-first “macro engine” that turns skills/tools into composable pipelines and safe automations—and lets Openclaw call those workflows in one step.

Repository: https://github.com/openclaw/lobster
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/openclaw-lobster
Homepage: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/lobster
Language: TypeScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-08-21T07:33:38+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 74/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 75, longevity 16
- inputs: {"age_days": 228, "days_push": 12, "days_rel": 84, "gap_med": 32.0, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1263, forks 286 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:10.411963+00:00)

## What it is
Lobster is an OpenClaw-native workflow shell that turns skills and tools into typed, JSON-first pipelines with built-in approval gates and resume tokens. It lets an AI agent execute multi-step automations as a single deterministic tool call instead of re-planning every step.

## Use cases
- run multi-step tool pipelines as one AI agent call
- add human approval checkpoints before side effects like sending email
- make agent workflows resumable after a halt
- reduce token usage from per-step LLM orchestration
- monitor GitHub PRs for state changes on a schedule
- turn skills and CLI tools into composable, replayable automations
- enforce sandbox checks, timeouts, and allowlists on agent workflows

## When to choose
- you use OpenClaw or any agent that can call CLI tools and want deterministic multi-step execution
- you need durable approve/resume semantics for risky side effects like send, post, or delete
- you want pipelines stored as data so they can be logged, diffed, replayed, and reviewed

## When to avoid
- you need a general-purpose scripting language with rich control flow and custom logic
- your automation is a single simple step with no orchestration or approvals needed
- you require complex branching or stateful logic beyond Lobster's deliberately constrained DSL

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: workflow-automation, cli, agent-framework
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: cli, cross-platform, windows
- tags: workflow-engine, approval-gates, resumable-workflows, pipelines, dsl, deterministic-orchestration, ai-agent-tools, json-pipelines, openclaw, local-first, automation, ai-agents, command-line, nodejs, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- openclaw/lobster (main) score 74

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:10.411963+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T05:04:09.753753+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/openclaw/lobster (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:10.411963+00:00, sha 8b4f42acc2e2)
  - homepage: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/lobster (fetched 2026-08-29T12:16:17.228723+00:00, sha 756ac9a96e19)
  - site_page: https://docs.openclaw.ai/ (fetched 2026-08-29T12:16:17.232848+00:00, sha 31c89f742fea)
  - site_page: https://docs.openclaw.ai/install (fetched 2026-08-29T12:16:17.251519+00:00, sha b75d092d7d49)
  - site_page: https://docs.openclaw.ai/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T12:16:17.283696+00:00, sha 76496a24b015)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.