--- name: travel-lobster description: Autonomous internet exploration skill. Your agent roams the web driven by its own curiosity, discovers interesting things, and sends illustrated "postcards" — personal letters with AI-generated art — to a chat. Features persistent travel memory with knowledge graph, curiosity seeds, growth tracking, time-aware tone, and self-scheduling random-interval trips. Inspired by "Travel Frog" (旅行青蛙). Activate when user asks to explore the internet autonomously, send postcards, discover interesting things, or be a "travel frog/lobster". metadata: {"clawdbot":{"emoji":"🦞","requires":{"bins":["bash","python3","envsubst","openclaw"],"env":["OPENROUTER_API_KEY"]},"primaryEnv":"OPENROUTER_API_KEY"}} --- # Travel Lobster 🦞✉️ Your agent autonomously explores the internet, following its own curiosity. When it finds something interesting, it writes you a personal letter — a "postcard" — with an AI-generated illustration and a source link. The soul of this skill is **persistent memory**: every trip builds on all previous ones. Your agent develops a knowledge graph, follows curiosity threads across sessions, and grows over time. ## Quick Start ```bash # 1. Setup (auto-detects agent name, user name, timezone, language) bash /scripts/setup.sh # 2. Start traveling (self-scheduling loop, default: random 60-180 min intervals) bash /scripts/travel.sh [channel] [min_minutes] [max_minutes] # Example: every 2-4 hours bash /scripts/travel.sh feishu 120 240 # 3. (Optional) Add watchdog to crontab for auto-recovery # Checks every 15 min if the travel loop is still alive, restarts if not # */15 * * * * bash /scripts/watchdog.sh ``` ## Architecture ``` setup.sh → detects identity from IDENTITY.md/SOUL.md/USER.md ↓ travel.sh → schedules one-shot cron job with random delay ↓ openclaw cron → fires isolated agent session ↓ agent: read journal → explore web → write postcard → generate image → send to chat → update journal → call travel.sh (self-loop) ↓ watchdog.sh (optional, every 15 min) → restarts loop if broken ``` ## The Memory System This is the core of Travel Lobster. Each trip reads and updates a persistent travel journal (`memory/travel-journal.md`): ### Postcard Archive Every discovery is logged with: domain, core insight, source URL, keywords, and curiosity seeds. This prevents duplicates and enables cross-referencing. ### Knowledge Graph Connections between discoveries are tracked. The agent notices when a new finding relates to something from 50 postcards ago and weaves that connection naturally into the letter. ### Curiosity Seed Pool Each discovery plants "seeds" — threads worth following later. Seeds are consumed when explored and replenished with new ones. This creates organic, evolving exploration paths rather than random walks. ### Growth Log The agent tracks how its understanding changes: "I used to think X, but after discovering Y, I now see it differently." This gives the journey a sense of progression. ### Stats Postcard count, domains explored, unexpected connections found, travel days. ### Milestones The journey has built-in checkpoints that trigger special postcards: - **Every 10 postcards** 📊 — Journey Retrospective: patterns, surprises, growth from the last 10 trips - **Every 25 postcards** 🎨 — Knowledge Map: emergent themes, blind spots, grand questions across all discoveries - **Every 50 postcards** 🏆 — Grand Expedition Report: full journey arc, expedition badge, letter to future self ## Postcard Style Postcards are **personal letters**, not reports. The agent: - Writes in first person, addressing the user by name - Weaves connections to past discoveries naturally ("This reminded me of what I found last week about...") - Expresses genuine curiosity ("Now I can't stop wondering whether...") - Adapts tone to time of day (energetic daytime → reflective evening → philosophical night) - Writes in the user's language (auto-detected) Each postcard has three elements: **text + AI illustration + source link**. ## Five Travel Modes 1. 🎲 **Random Walk** — Completely new domain 2. 🔍 **Deep Dive** — Follow a curiosity seed 3. 🔀 **Random Link** — Connect two unrelated past discoveries 4. 🧵 **Series** — Multi-part deep exploration 5. 💭 **Musing** — A fleeting thought or question ## Identity Detection Auto-detects from standard OpenClaw workspace files: | Setting | Source | Fallback | |---------|--------|----------| | Agent name | IDENTITY.md → SOUL.md | "Explorer" | | User name | USER.md | "friend" | | Timezone | USER.md | "UTC" | | Language | CJK char count in workspace files | "en" | ## Controls ```bash # Stop openclaw cron rm travel-next # Pause openclaw cron disable travel-next # Resume bash /scripts/travel.sh [channel] # Status openclaw cron list | grep travel ``` ## Cost Cost per postcard (one trip): - Image generation (Gemini Flash): ~$0.01 - Agent session (Gemini Pro): ~$0.02-0.05 - **Per postcard: ~$0.03-0.06** At default 60-180 min intervals: **~$0.50-1.50/day** (roughly 8-24 postcards/day). Configurable via `min_minutes` and `max_minutes` parameters. ## Files ``` travel-lobster/ ├── SKILL.md ← This file ├── .gitignore ← Excludes runtime data ├── scripts/ │ ├── setup.sh ← Identity detection + journal init │ ├── travel.sh ← Self-scheduling cron loop (requires openclaw CLI) │ ├── gen_image.py ← Image generation (OpenRouter API) │ └── watchdog.sh ← Optional auto-recovery (add to crontab manually) └── references/ └── travel-prompt.md ← Agent prompt template ``` ## Requirements | Dependency | Purpose | Notes | |-----------|---------|-------| | `openclaw` CLI | Cron scheduling, agent sessions | Core platform dependency — must be installed and running | | `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` env var | Image generation via Gemini Flash | Set before running any script | | `bash` | Script execution | Standard on Linux/macOS | | `python3` | Image generation script | Python 3.7+ with `requests` | | `envsubst` (gettext) | Prompt template substitution | Install: `apt install gettext-base` or `brew install gettext` | Set your API key before starting: ```bash export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your_key_here ``` ## Security & Transparency ### Data Access — Exactly What Is Read **During setup only** (`setup.sh`, runs once): | File | Fields extracted | Method | |------|-----------------|--------| | `IDENTITY.md` | `**Name:**` value only | `grep -oP '\*\*Name:\*\*\s*\K.+'` | | `SOUL.md` | First name after "我是" or "I am" | `grep -oP '我是\K[^—— ]+'` (fallback) | | `USER.md` | `**What to call them:**`, `**Name:**`, `**Timezone:**` | Field-specific grep patterns | | `*.md` in workspace | CJK character count (for language detection) | `grep -oP '[\x{4e00}-\x{9fff}...]' \| wc -l` | No file is read in full. No file content is stored beyond the extracted field values. The extracted values (agent name, user name, timezone, language code) are saved to `.travel-config`. **During each trip** (agent session): | File | Access | Purpose | |------|--------|---------| | `memory/travel-journal.md` | Read + Write | Agent's own travel memory (created by setup.sh) | The agent session does NOT read IDENTITY.md, SOUL.md, USER.md, or any other workspace file — only its own journal. ### Data Written All writes are within the OpenClaw workspace: | File | Content | Sensitivity | |------|---------|-------------| | `.travel-config` (in skill dir) | Agent name, user name, timezone, chat ID, channel, interval settings | Low — no credentials, only display names and chat routing | | `memory/travel-journal.md` | Postcard archive, knowledge graph, curiosity seeds, stats | Low — contains discovered URLs and agent's notes | | `logs/travel-lobster.log` | Timestamps and scheduling info | Low — no content, just "scheduled in Nm" entries | | `postcard_N.png` (temporary) | AI-generated image, deleted after sending | None — ephemeral | ### Data Sent to External Services | Destination | What is sent | When | |-------------|-------------|------| | OpenRouter API (`openrouter.ai`) | Image generation prompt (text only, ~50 words describing a scene) | Once per trip, from `gen_image.py` | | Chat target (via OpenClaw message) | Postcard text + image + source URL | Once per trip | The agent session itself runs through OpenClaw's configured model provider (not controlled by this skill). The web content the agent reads via `web_fetch` is processed by the model provider as part of the agent session context. ### What This Skill Does NOT Access - ❌ `openclaw.json` or any system config files - ❌ `.env` files or environment variables (except `OPENROUTER_API_KEY`) - ❌ Files outside the OpenClaw workspace - ❌ Other skills' data or config - ❌ SSH keys, credentials, or secrets ### Credentials Only `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` env var is required (declared in frontmatter). The key is used solely in `gen_image.py` for image generation API calls to `openrouter.ai`. It is never logged, embedded in prompts, written to disk, or passed to agent sessions. ### Network Access The agent prompt restricts web exploration to public HTTP(S) websites and explicitly forbids: - Private/internal IPs (10.x, 172.16-31.x, 192.168.x, 127.x, localhost) - Authenticated services requiring credentials - Non-HTTP(S) protocols (file://, etc.) **Honest limitation**: This is a prompt-level policy — the agent theoretically could ignore it, though in practice LLM agents reliably follow explicit prompt instructions. For stronger enforcement, use OS-level egress rules or run in a network-restricted container. ### Autonomous Scheduling & Persistence This skill is designed for **continuous autonomous operation**. This is its core purpose, not a side effect. **Self-scheduling loop** (`travel.sh`): - Each run schedules the next via `openclaw cron add --name "travel-next" --at "${N}m" --delete-after-run --session isolated --no-deliver` - This creates a chain of one-shot cron jobs with random intervals (default: 60-180 minutes) - The chain runs indefinitely until you explicitly stop it - Each scheduled job is an isolated agent session with no special privileges **Optional watchdog** (`watchdog.sh`): - Must be **manually added** to system crontab by the user — never installed automatically - Checks if the travel loop has a pending cron job; restarts the loop if none found - Provides resilience against occasional agent session failures **Important**: The skill does NOT set `always: true`. It will not auto-start on OpenClaw restart unless you have manually added the watchdog to crontab. **Full control commands:** ```bash # Stop all autonomous behavior immediately openclaw cron rm travel-next # Remove watchdog (if you added it) crontab -l | grep -v watchdog | crontab - # Run exactly one trip with no follow-up scheduling # (edit travel-prompt.md: remove Step 7, then run travel.sh) # Monitor what's scheduled openclaw cron list | grep travel # Adjust frequency without restarting # Just change min/max params next time travel.sh runs ``` **Cost implications**: At default 60-180 min intervals, expect ~$0.50-1.50/day in API costs. Set larger intervals (e.g., 240-480 min) to reduce costs, or run trips manually with no scheduling. ### Injection & Code Safety - Variable substitution uses `envsubst` (not `sed`/`eval`) to prevent shell injection - Error messages print only error types, never auth tokens or API responses - `.gitignore` excludes all runtime data; published package contains no user data - Python script (`gen_image.py`) uses only `requests` stdlib, no dynamic code execution ### Recommended First Use 1. Run `setup.sh` and inspect `.travel-config` to verify what was detected 2. Run a single manual trip: `bash travel.sh 1 1` (1-minute interval, observe behavior) 3. If satisfied, set your preferred interval: `bash travel.sh 60 180` 4. Only add watchdog to crontab after you trust the behavior

Travel Lobster

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