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Skills

OpenProse

OpenProse is a portable, markdown-first workflow format for orchestrating AI sessions. In OpenClaw it ships as a plugin that installs an OpenProse skill pack and a /prose slash command. Programs live in .prose files and can spawn multiple sub-agents with explicit control flow.

Install

Enable the OpenProse plugin and restart the Gateway.
Run a program

Use /prose run to execute a .prose file or remote program.
Write programs

Author multi-agent workflows with parallel and sequential steps.

Install

  • Enable the plugin

    OpenProse is bundled but disabled by default. Enable it:

    bash
    openclaw plugins enable open-prose

  • Restart the Gateway

    bash
    openclaw gateway restart

  • Verify

    bash
    openclaw plugins list | grep prose

    You should see open-prose as enabled. The /prose skill command is now available in chat.

    • From a repo checkout you can install the plugin directly: openclaw plugins install ./extensions/open-prose

    Slash command

    OpenProse registers /prose as a user-invocable skill command:

    text
    /prose help/prose run <file.prose>/prose run <handle/slug>/prose run <https://example.com/file.prose>/prose compile <file.prose>/prose examples/prose update

    /prose run <handle/slug> resolves to https://p.prose.md/<handle>/<slug>. Direct URLs are fetched as-is using the web_fetch tool.

    Top-level remote runs are explicit. Remote imports inside a .prose program are transitive code dependencies: before OpenProse fetches any remote use target, it shows the resolved import list and requires the operator to reply exactly approve remote prose imports for that run.

    What it can do

    • Multi-agent research and synthesis with explicit parallelism.
    • Repeatable, approval-safe workflows (code review, incident triage, content pipelines).
    • Reusable .prose programs you can run across supported agent runtimes.

    Example: parallel research and synthesis

    prose
    # Research + synthesis with two agents running in parallel. input topic: "What should we research?" agent researcher:  model: sonnet  prompt: "You research thoroughly and cite sources." agent writer:  model: opus  prompt: "You write a concise summary." parallel:  findings = session: researcher    prompt: "Research {topic}."  draft = session: writer    prompt: "Summarize {topic}." session "Merge the findings + draft into a final answer."  context: { findings, draft }

    OpenClaw runtime mapping

    OpenProse programs map to OpenClaw primitives:

    OpenProse concept OpenClaw tool
    Spawn session / Task tool sessions_spawn
    File read / write read / write
    Web fetch web_fetch (exec + curl when POST is needed)

    File locations

    OpenProse keeps state under .prose/ in your workspace:

    text
    .prose/├── .env                      # config (key=value), e.g. OPENPROSE_POSTGRES_URL├── runs/│   └── {YYYYMMDD}-{HHMMSS}-{random}/│       ├── program.prose     # copy of the running program│       ├── state.md          # execution state│       ├── bindings/│       ├── imports/          # nested remote program runs│       └── agents/└── agents/                   # project-scoped persistent agents

    User-level persistent agents (shared across projects) live at:

    text
    ~/.prose/agents/

    State backends

    filesystem (default)

    State is written to .prose/runs/... in the workspace. No extra dependencies required.

    in-context

    Transient state kept in the context window; select with --in-context. Suitable for small, short-lived programs.

    sqlite (experimental)

    Select with --state=sqlite. Requires the sqlite3 binary on PATH (falls back to filesystem when missing); state lands in .prose/runs/{id}/state.db.

    postgres (experimental)

    Select with --state=postgres. Requires psql and a connection string in OPENPROSE_POSTGRES_URL (set it in .prose/.env).

    Security

    Treat .prose files like code. Review them before running, including remote use imports. Top-level /prose run https://... requests are explicit, but transitive remote imports require per-run approval before they are fetched or executed. Use OpenClaw tool allowlists and approval gates to control side effects. For deterministic, approval-gated workflows, compare with Lobster.

    Skills reference

    How OpenProse's skill pack loads and what gates apply.
    Subagents

    OpenClaw's native multi-agent coordination layer.
    Text-to-speech

    Add audio output to your workflows.
    Slash commands

    All available chat commands including /prose.

    Official site: https://www.prose.md

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