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OpenProse

docs/prose.md

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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.

<CardGroup cols={3}> <Card title="Install" icon="download" href="#install"> Enable the OpenProse plugin and restart the Gateway. </Card> <Card title="Run a program" icon="play" href="#slash-command"> Use `/prose run` to execute a `.prose` file or remote program. </Card> <Card title="Write programs" icon="pencil" href="#example"> Author multi-agent workflows with parallel and sequential steps. </Card> </CardGroup>

Install

<Steps> <Step title="Enable the plugin"> Bundled plugins are disabled by default. Enable OpenProse: 
```bash
openclaw plugins enable open-prose
```
</Step> <Step title="Restart the Gateway"> ```bash openclaw gateway restart ``` </Step> <Step title="Verify"> ```bash openclaw plugins list | grep prose ``` 
You should see `open-prose` as enabled. The `/prose` skill command is now
available in chat.
</Step> </Steps>

For a local checkout: openclaw plugins install ./path/to/local/open-prose-plugin

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.

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 conceptOpenClaw tool
Spawn session / Task toolsessions_spawn
File read / writeread / write
Web fetchweb_fetch
<Warning> If your tool allowlist blocks `sessions_spawn`, `read`, `write`, or `web_fetch`, OpenProse programs will fail. Check your [tools allowlist config](/gateway/config-tools). </Warning>

File locations

OpenProse keeps state under .prose/ in your workspace:

text
.prose/
├── .env
├── runs/
│   └── {YYYYMMDD}-{HHMMSS}-{random}/
│       ├── program.prose
│       ├── state.md
│       ├── bindings/
│       └── agents/
└── agents/

User-level persistent agents live at:

text
~/.prose/agents/

State backends

<AccordionGroup> <Accordion title="filesystem (default)"> State is written to `.prose/runs/...` in the workspace. No extra dependencies required. </Accordion> <Accordion title="in-context"> Transient state kept in the context window. Suitable for small, short-lived programs. </Accordion> <Accordion title="sqlite (experimental)"> Requires the `sqlite3` binary on `PATH`. </Accordion> <Accordion title="postgres (experimental)"> Requires `psql` and a connection string. 
<Warning>
  Postgres credentials flow into sub-agent logs. Use a dedicated,
  least-privileged database.
</Warning>
</Accordion> </AccordionGroup>

Security

Treat .prose files like code. Review them before running. Use OpenClaw tool allowlists and approval gates to control side effects. For deterministic, approval-gated workflows, compare with Lobster.

<CardGroup cols={2}> <Card title="Skills reference" href="/tools/skills" icon="puzzle-piece"> How OpenProse's skill pack loads and what gates apply. </Card> <Card title="Subagents" href="/tools/subagents" icon="users"> OpenClaw's native multi-agent coordination layer. </Card> <Card title="Text-to-speech" href="/tools/tts" icon="volume-high"> Add audio output to your workflows. </Card> <Card title="Slash commands" href="/tools/slash-commands" icon="terminal"> All available chat commands including /prose. </Card> </CardGroup>

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