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

lobster-jobs

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

Purpose

Moltbot 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:
- ✅ Fully Migratable: Simple shell commands (systemEvent)
- 🟡 Partial Migration: Mixed deterministic + LLM steps (agentTurn)
- ❌ Not Migratable: Heavy LLM reasoning required

lobster-jobs inspect <job-id>

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 <workflow-file>

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 <job-id>

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 <name>

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

References

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