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BytesAgain β€Ί Skills β€Ί Lobster Workflows
πŸ¦€ ClawHub

Lobster Workflows

by @kesslerio

Transform OpenClaw cron jobs into Lobster workflows. Analyze, inspect, and validate job migrations. Use when converting automations to deterministic, approval-gated workflows with resume capabilities.

Versionv1.0.0
Installs5
#database#legal#hr#automation
TERMINAL
clawhub install lobster-jobs

πŸ“– About This Skill

name: lobster-jobs description: Transform OpenClaw cron jobs into Lobster workflows. Analyze, inspect, and validate job migrations. Use when converting automations to deterministic, approval-gated workflows with resume capabilities. metadata: openclaw: emoji: 🦞 requires: bins: ["openclaw", "python3"]

lobster-jobs

Transform OpenClaw cron jobs into Lobster workflows with approval gates and resumable execution.

Purpose

OpenClaw cron jobs are either:

  • systemEvent: Simple shell commands (fully deterministic)
  • agentTurn: Natural language instructions spawning AI agents (flexible but token-heavy)

    • Lobster workflows offer:

  • Deterministic execution: No LLM re-planning each step
  • Approval gates: Hard stops requiring explicit user approval
  • Stateful execution: Remembers cursors/checkpoints
  • Resumability: Pauses and resumes exactly where left off

    • This skill helps analyze existing cron jobs and transform them into Lobster workflows.

    Commands

    Tier 1 (Available Now)

    #### lobster-jobs list List all cron jobs with their Lobster readiness score.

    Output categories:

  • βœ… Fully Migratable: Simple shell commands (systemEvent)
  • 🟑 Partial Migration: Mixed deterministic + LLM steps (agentTurn)
  • ❌ Not Migratable: Heavy LLM reasoning required

    • #### lobster-jobs inspect Inspect a specific cron job with detailed migration assessment.

    Shows:

  • Job metadata (schedule, target, payload type)
  • Lobster migration status and reason
  • Payload preview
  • Migration recommendation

    • #### lobster-jobs validate Validate a Lobster workflow YAML file against schema.

    Checks:

  • Required fields (name, steps)
  • Step structure (id, command)
  • Approval gate syntax
  • Condition syntax

    • Tier 2 (Available Now)

    #### lobster-jobs convert Transform a cron job into a Lobster workflow.

    lobster-jobs convert 17fe68ca
lobster-jobs convert 17fe68ca --output-dir ~/workflows
lobster-jobs convert 17fe68ca --force  # Overwrite existing

    Generates:

  • .lobster workflow file in ~/.lobster/workflows/
  • Extracts commands from systemEvent or agentTurn payloads
  • Auto-validates generated workflow

    • Options:

  • --output-dir, -o: Custom output directory
  • --force, -f: Overwrite existing workflow
  • --keep-on-error: Keep file even if validation fails

    • #### lobster-jobs new Create a new Lobster workflow from scratch using templates.

    lobster-jobs new my-workflow
lobster-jobs new my-workflow --template with-approval
lobster-jobs new my-workflow --template stateful

    Templates:

  • simple-shell: Basic command execution
  • with-approval: Approval gate workflow
  • stateful: Workflow with cursor/state tracking

    • Installation

    # Add to PATH
export PATH="$PATH:/home/art/niemand/skills/lobster-jobs/bin"
    Or create symlink
    
ln -s /home/art/niemand/skills/lobster-jobs/bin/lobster-jobs ~/.local/bin/

    Quick Start

    # See all your cron jobs and their migration status
lobster-jobs list
    Inspect a specific job
    
lobster-jobs inspect 17fe68ca
    Convert a job to Lobster workflow
    
lobster-jobs convert 17fe68ca
    Create a new workflow from template
    
lobster-jobs new my-workflow --template with-approval
    Validate a workflow file
    
lobster-jobs validate ~/.lobster/workflows/my-workflow.lobster

    Workflow File Format

    name: my-workflow
description: Optional description
    steps:
  - id: fetch_data
    command: some-cli fetch --json
    
  - id: process
    command: some-cli process
    stdin: $fetch_data.stdout
    
  - id: approve_send
    command: approve --prompt "Send notification?"
    approval: required
    
  - id: send
    command: message.send --channel telegram --text "Done!"
    condition: $approve_send.approved

    Migration Strategy

    Wrapper Approach (Recommended)

    Keep cron as scheduler, change payload to call Lobster:

    {
  "payload": {
    "kind": "systemEvent",
    "text": "lobster run ~/.lobster/workflows/my-workflow.lobster"
  }
}

    Benefits:

  • Rollback is trivial (revert payload)
  • Incremental migration
  • Cron scheduling already works

    • Handling LLM Judgment

    For jobs needing both deterministic steps and LLM reasoning:

    steps:
  - id: gather
    command: gh issue list --json title,body
    
  - id: triage
    command: clawd.invoke
    prompt: "Classify these issues by urgency"
    
  - id: notify
    command: telegram-send

    The workflow is deterministic; the LLM is a black-box step.

    Edge Cases

    | Issue | Handling | |-------|----------| | Idempotency | Workflows track step completion; restart-safe | | Approval timeouts | Configurable timeout with default action | | Secret handling | Environment variables or 1Password refs | | Partial failures | convert validates before writing |

    References

  • Lobster: https://github.com/openclaw/lobster
  • Lobster VISION: https://github.com/openclaw/lobster/blob/main/VISION.md

    • πŸ’‘ Examples

    # See all your cron jobs and their migration status
lobster-jobs list
    Inspect a specific job
    
lobster-jobs inspect 17fe68ca
    Convert a job to Lobster workflow
    
lobster-jobs convert 17fe68ca
    Create a new workflow from template
    
lobster-jobs new my-workflow --template with-approval
    Validate a workflow file
    
lobster-jobs validate ~/.lobster/workflows/my-workflow.lobster