lobsterai

LobsterAI is a desktop Agent that can operate in your real working environment: local files, terminal commands, browser workflows, documents, spreadsheets, slides, IM channels, scheduled jobs, and project workspaces.

Cowork is the LobsterAI product/session layer. OpenClaw is the runtime and gateway underneath it. That split lets LobsterAI keep local persistence, permissions, UI state, artifacts, agents, memory, and IM bindings in the desktop app while using OpenClaw for agent execution.

Features

Desktop Cowork Sessions

Run long-form Agent tasks against local projects and files. LobsterAI streams progress, keeps session history, renders tool output, and asks for approval before sensitive actions such as file operations, terminal commands, or network access.

Multi-Agent Workflows

Create custom Agents with their own identity, model choice, skills, working directory, enabled state, and IM bindings. Keep the Main Agent for general work and use specialized Agents for repeatable roles.

Expert Kits

Install scenario-oriented Expert Kits that package capability selections and references for common workflows. Kits are selected independently from direct skills, so a workflow can combine curated kits with individual tools.

Skills

LobsterAI ships with 28 built-in skills configured in SKILLs/skills.config.json, including web search, Word documents, spreadsheets, PowerPoint, PDF processing, Remotion video generation, browser automation, image/video generation, stock research, content writing, email, weather, and skill creation.

MCP Servers

Connect external tools and data sources through Model Context Protocol servers. LobsterAI stores user-configured servers locally and syncs enabled servers into OpenClaw.

Scheduled Tasks

Create recurring work either by conversation or through the scheduled task UI. Use it for daily news digests, inbox summaries, website monitoring, weekly reports, and other repeatable work.

IM Remote Control

Reach your desktop Agent from WeChat, WeCom, DingTalk, Feishu/Lark, QQ, Telegram, Discord, NetEase IM, NetEase Bee, POPO, and email. Multi-instance platforms can bind different accounts or channels to different Agents.

Rich Artifacts

Preview and manage generated HTML, SVG, images, video, Mermaid diagrams, code, Markdown, text, documents, and local service artifacts inside the desktop app.

Local Memory And Data

Sessions and app data live locally in SQLite. OpenClaw workspace memory uses files such as MEMORY.md, USER.md, SOUL.md, and daily notes, so durable preferences and project context can carry across sessions.

Real-World Prompts

Scenario	Example prompt
Build a local system	"I still track inventory and sales in Excel. Build a local inventory system that records purchases and sales, calculates stock and profit, and opens in my browser."
Analyze local data	"Use product-growth.xlsx to build a visual dashboard and summarize the main growth drivers."
Generate a deck	"Research the AI Agent market and turn the findings into a presentation."
Automate browser checks	"Open the ads dashboard every morning, check spend and conversion anomalies, and summarize likely causes."
Screen documents	"Turn the resumes in this folder into a screening sheet and shortlist the strongest candidates against the JD."
Run scheduled work	"Every weekday at 9 AM, collect yesterday's AI news and send me a concise digest."

How It Works

• Renderer: React, Redux Toolkit, Tailwind, artifact renderers, settings, agent/session UI, skills, MCP, scheduled tasks, and IM configuration.
• Main process: Electron lifecycle, IPC, SQLite persistence, auth, logging, OpenClaw startup, runtime repair, skill sync, IM gateways, and artifact services.
• OpenClaw integration: openclawEngineManager, openclawConfigSync, openclawRuntimeAdapter, and coworkEngineRouter translate LobsterAI state into OpenClaw runtime behavior.

Install

Desktop

Download the latest macOS and Windows installers from Official Website or GitHub Releases.

Run From Source

Requirements:

• Node.js >=24.15.0 <25
• npm >=11.17.0 <12 (older versions: npm install -g npm@11.17.0)
• git and pnpm, needed on the first run to build the pinned OpenClaw runtime from the sibling ../openclaw checkout

better-sqlite3@13.0.3 includes prebuilt N-API binaries for Windows, macOS, and Linux on x64/arm64. The allowScripts entry in package.json skips npm's unnecessary implicit rebuild for this version, so installing it does not require Visual Studio C++ Build Tools on Windows. Other dependencies' install scripts still run. Recheck this entry when upgrading better-sqlite3.

git clone https://github.com/netease-youdao/LobsterAI.git
cd LobsterAI
npm install

First development run:

npm run electron:dev:openclaw

Daily development after the pinned OpenClaw runtime exists:

npm run electron:dev

The renderer dev server runs at http://localhost:5175.

Developing

# Production renderer bundle
npm run build

# Electron main/preload TypeScript build
npm run compile:electron

# Official Vitest entry used by CI
npm test

# Full ESLint across src; may expose existing legacy debt
npm run lint

# CI-style lint for touched TypeScript files
npx eslint --ext ts,tsx --report-unused-disable-directives --max-warnings 0 <files>

OpenClaw Runtime

The pinned OpenClaw version and third-party plugin list live in package.json under openclaw.

# Build the current-platform runtime manually
npm run openclaw:runtime:host

# Use a custom OpenClaw source checkout
OPENCLAW_SRC=/path/to/openclaw npm run electron:dev:openclaw

# Force runtime rebuild
OPENCLAW_FORCE_BUILD=1 npm run electron:dev:openclaw

# Keep a local OpenClaw checkout on its current branch/tag
OPENCLAW_SKIP_ENSURE=1 npm run electron:dev:openclaw

DeepSeek Harness Runtime

The pinned dsh version and one archive descriptor per platform live in package.json under dsh. Development reads vendor/dsh-runtime/current; shipped apps download the archive on first use and verify it against the digest they carry.

# Build and activate the current-platform runtime
npm run dsh:runtime:host

# Boot it once and assert the web UI answers
npm run dsh:runtime:verify

# Full gate: build, pack, install over HTTP, boot, assert provider/model over RPC
npm run dsh:e2e

Each target must be built on a matching machine: native dependencies install for the host, so a cross-architecture build produces an archive that packs cleanly and only fails on users' machines. The build refuses to run on a mismatched host.

Target	Build on
mac-arm64	Apple Silicon mac
mac-x64	Intel mac
win-x64	Windows 10 1803+ (ships tar.exe)

Run these on that machine, substituting the target:

# 1. Build (applies the pinned patches, prunes to ~160 MB)
npm run dsh:runtime:mac-arm64

# 2. Pack; prints the sha256 and size
npm run dsh:runtime:pack mac-arm64

# 3. Upload vendor/dsh-dist/dsh-runtime-<version>-mac-arm64.tar.gz to the CDN,
#    then record where it landed. Digest and size come from the local manifest,
#    so they cannot drift from the bytes that were packed.
npm run dsh:runtime:url mac-arm64 "https://cdn.example.com/<uploaded>"

# 4. Confirm the URL serves exactly those bytes
npm run dsh:runtime:verify-urls mac-arm64

Step 3 writes dsh.runtimes[target] into package.json; commit that hunk so every platform's descriptor ships in one build. Each target holds one absolute URL and nothing is appended to it, so a CDN that mints an unrelated URL per file needs no shared directory.

1. Bump dsh.version in package.json.
2. Copy the patch directory to the new version: cp -R scripts/dsh-patches/<old> scripts/dsh-patches/<new>. Patches are found by version, and a missing directory applies no patches without failing — the Windows console-hiding and directory-picker fixes would vanish silently. After copying, the build's sentinels re-verify each patch still lands, and fail if upstream moved the code.
3. Empty dsh.runtimes. A descriptor left pointing at the previous archive still passes its digest check, so the old runtime would install under the new version's name.
4. Rebuild, upload, and record all three targets as above.
5. Re-run npm run dsh:runtime:verify-urls and npm run dsh:e2e.

Known gap: existing users keep the runtime they already installed. ensureRuntimeInstalled returns early whenever any runtime is present and never compares it with the pinned version, so only fresh installs pick up a new dsh. Selection among installed versions is also a lexical sort, which puts rc.6 ahead of rc.10.

Packaging

The CI workflow builds each installer on its own OS (macOS, Windows, Linux). Do the same locally: native modules are compiled for the host, and the dist:* scripts build the OpenClaw runtime for the requested target only.

Build machine prerequisites:

• Node.js >=24.15.0 <25. .npmrc sets engine-strict, so npm refuses other versions.
• npm >=11.17.0 <12, required for the dependency install-script policy.
• git and pnpm, used to build the pinned OpenClaw runtime from the sibling ../openclaw checkout (override with OPENCLAW_SRC).
• Windows: Git for Windows. The runtime build runs in its Git Bash. Without it, run npm run setup:mingit once to prepare a portable Git under resources/mingit.

Clean build: