🦀 📦 Crabbox

Warm a box, sync the diff, run the suite.

Crabbox is an open-source remote testbox runner for maintainers and AI agents. Lease fast managed cloud capacity, or point at an existing SSH host, sync your dirty checkout, run a command remotely, stream output, and release. Local edit-save-run loop, cloud-grade compute.

crabbox run -- pnpm test

Behind that single command: a Go CLI on your laptop, a Cloudflare Worker broker that owns provider credentials and lease state, and a managed runner on Hetzner Cloud or AWS EC2. Crabbox can also wrap Blacksmith Testboxes when you choose provider: blacksmith-testbox, or use provider: ssh for existing macOS and Windows targets.

Install

brew install openclaw/tap/crabbox
crabbox --version

No Homebrew? Grab a GoReleaser archive for macOS, Linux, or Windows.

Prerequisites on the laptop: git, ssh, ssh-keygen, rsync, curl.

Quick start

# log in once per machine (stores a broker token in user config)
crabbox login

# verify local prerequisites and broker reachability
crabbox doctor

# one-shot: lease, sync, run, release
crabbox run -- pnpm test

# or warm a box once, then reuse it
crabbox warmup                                       # prints cbx_... + a slug
crabbox run --id blue-lobster -- pnpm test:changed
crabbox ssh --id blue-lobster
crabbox stop blue-lobster

Every lease has a stable cbx_... ID and a friendly crustacean slug (blue-lobster, swift-hermit, …). Either works wherever an --id is accepted.

How it works

your laptop                Cloudflare Worker            cloud provider
-------------              ------------------           --------------
crabbox CLI    -- HTTPS --> Fleet Durable Object  -->   Hetzner / AWS EC2
   |                         lease + cost state              |
   |                                                         |
   +------------ SSH + rsync to leased runner <--------------+

CLI — Go binary. Loads config, mints a per-lease SSH key, asks the broker for a lease, waits for SSH, seeds remote Git, rsyncs the dirty checkout (with fingerprint skip when nothing changed), runs the command, streams output, releases.
Broker — Cloudflare Worker at crabbox.openclaw.ai plus a single Durable Object. Owns provider credentials, serializes lease state, enforces active-lease and monthly spend caps, and expires stale leases by alarm. Auth is GitHub login or a shared bearer token.
Runner — vanilla Ubuntu prepared by cloud-init with SSH on the primary port, default 2222, plus configured fallback ports, Git, rsync, curl, jq, and /work/crabbox. No broker credentials live on the box. Project runtimes (Go, Node, Docker, services, secrets) come from your repo's GitHub Actions hydration, devcontainer, Nix, mise/asdf, or setup scripts — not from Crabbox.

A direct-provider mode (--provider hetzner|aws with local credentials) exists for debugging the broker itself; the brokered path is the default.

For the full mental model, see How Crabbox Works. For the doc-to-code map, see Source Map.

Highlights

One-shot or warm. crabbox run for fire-and-forget; crabbox warmup + --id for repeated runs against the same box.
Run observability. Every coordinator-backed run gets an early run_... handle. Use crabbox attach <run-id> while it is active, crabbox events <run-id> --after <seq> --limit <n> for durable lifecycle/output events, and crabbox logs <run-id> for retained output after completion.
Stable timing records. --timing-json on run, warmup, and actions hydrate gives scripts one machine-readable sync/command/total timing schema across AWS, Hetzner, and Blacksmith Testboxes.
Local-first sync. No clean-checkout requirement. Tracked + nonignored files only, fingerprint skip on no-op runs, sanity checks against suspicious mass deletions, optional shallow base-ref hydration for changed-test workflows.
Brokered cloud. Maintainers and agents share infra without sharing provider tokens. Hetzner and AWS EC2 are first-class managed providers; AWS also owns managed Windows and EC2 Mac targets. Linux defaults to Spot unless capacity config says otherwise. Providers fall back across compatible instance families when capacity or quota rejects a request.
macOS and Windows static hosts. provider: ssh reuses existing machines; it does not create macOS or Windows Crabbox boxes. macOS and Windows WSL2 use the POSIX rsync path; native Windows uses PowerShell plus tar archive sync.
Blacksmith Testbox wrapper. Set provider: blacksmith-testbox to delegate warmup/run/list/status/stop to the Blacksmith CLI while Crabbox keeps local slugs, repo claims, timing summaries, and config conventions.
Trusted AWS images. Operators can create AMIs from active brokered AWS leases and promote a known-good image as the coordinator default.
Cost guardrails. Per-lease and monthly spend caps. Live pricing from EC2 Spot history or Hetzner server-type prices, with static fallbacks. crabbox usage summarizes spend by user, org, provider, and type.
GitHub Actions hydration. crabbox actions hydrate registers a leased box as an ephemeral Actions runner, so the repo's own workflow installs runtimes, services, and secrets. Crabbox does not parse Actions YAML.
Interactive desktop and browser leases. --browser provisions Chrome or Chromium for headless automation, --desktop provisions visible UI with tunnel-only VNC takeover on managed Linux, AWS native Windows, and AWS EC2 Mac targets, and QA systems such as Mantis own scenario logic, screenshots, and PR evidence. Hetzner Windows is not a managed target; use AWS for managed Windows or provider: ssh for an existing Windows host.
Hardened coordinator auth. GitHub browser login, owner-scoped leases, admin-only routes, optional GitHub team allowlists, Cloudflare Access JWT verification, and service-token support keep normal use and operator automation separate.
OpenClaw plugin. The repo root is a native OpenClaw plugin for box lifecycle operations: crabbox_run, crabbox_warmup, crabbox_status, crabbox_list, and crabbox_stop. Run inspection stays in the CLI and Crabbox skill.
Operator surface. doctor, init, status, inspect, list, usage, history, logs, results, cache, admin, cleanup, plus --json output where it matters.

Machine classes

beast is the default. Both providers fall back across an ordered list of instance types.

Hetzner    standard  ccx33, cpx62, cx53
           fast      ccx43, cpx62, cx53
           large     ccx53, ccx43, cpx62, cx53
           beast     ccx63, ccx53, ccx43, cpx62, cx53

AWS Linux  standard  c7a/c7i/m7a/m7i.8xlarge family
           fast      …16xlarge family
           large     …24xlarge family
           beast     …48xlarge family, falling back to 32x/24x/16x

AWS Win    standard  m7i.large, m7a.large, t3.large
           fast      m7i.xlarge, m7a.xlarge, t3.xlarge
           large     m7i.2xlarge, m7a.2xlarge, t3.2xlarge
           beast     m7i.4xlarge, m7a.4xlarge, m7i.2xlarge

AWS WSL2   standard  m8i.large, m8i-flex.large, c8i.large, r8i.large
           fast      m8i.xlarge, m8i-flex.xlarge, c8i.xlarge, r8i.xlarge
           large     m8i.2xlarge, m8i-flex.2xlarge, c8i.2xlarge, r8i.2xlarge
           beast     m8i.4xlarge, m8i-flex.4xlarge, c8i.4xlarge, r8i.4xlarge, m8i.2xlarge

AWS macOS  all       mac2.metal unless --type is set

Override with --type or CRABBOX_SERVER_TYPE for a specific instance.

Configuration

Config resolves in order: flags → env → repo .crabbox.yaml → user ~/.config/crabbox/config.yaml → defaults.

broker:
  url: https://crabbox.openclaw.ai
  provider: aws
  token: ...
class: beast
capacity:
  market: spot
  strategy: most-available
  fallback: on-demand-after-120s
aws:
  region: eu-west-1
  rootGB: 400
lease:
  idleTimeout: 30m
  ttl: 90m
ssh:
  key: ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
  user: crabbox
  port: "2222"
  # Ordered fallback ports tried after ssh.port; use [] to disable fallback.
  fallbackPorts:
    - "22"

Optional Blacksmith Testbox wrapper:

provider: blacksmith-testbox
blacksmith:
  org: openclaw
  workflow: .github/workflows/ci-check-testbox.yml
  job: test
  ref: main
  idleTimeout: 90m

Optional static macOS or Windows target:

provider: ssh
target: windows
windows:
  mode: normal # or wsl2
static:
  host: win-dev.local
  user: Peter
  port: "22"
  workRoot: C:\crabbox

Optional Tailscale reachability for managed Linux leases:

tailscale:
  enabled: true
  network: auto
  tags:
    - tag:crabbox
  hostnameTemplate: crabbox-{slug}
  authKeyEnv: CRABBOX_TAILSCALE_AUTH_KEY

Tailscale is a network plane, not a provider. --tailscale joins new managed Linux leases to the tailnet; --network auto|tailscale|public chooses how SSH and VNC tunnel commands resolve the host. Brokered mode uses Worker OAuth secrets to mint one-off keys; direct-provider mode reads the auth key from the configured env var. See Tailscale.

Forwarded environment is intentionally narrow: NODE_OPTIONS and CI. Do not pass secrets as command-line arguments. Full env-var reference and per-command flags are in docs/cli.md and docs/commands/.

OpenClaw plugin

The repo root is a native OpenClaw plugin package. Once installed, it exposes Crabbox as agent tools:

crabbox_run, crabbox_warmup, crabbox_status, crabbox_list, crabbox_stop

The plugin shells out to the configured crabbox binary, so local config, broker login, repo claims, and sync behavior stay owned by the CLI. Set plugins.entries.crabbox.config.binary if crabbox is not on PATH.

Durable run inspection is intentionally CLI/skill-led instead of additional plugin tools: use crabbox history, crabbox events --after --limit, crabbox attach, crabbox logs, crabbox results, and crabbox usage from a shell-capable agent.

Development

# Go CLI
go build -o bin/crabbox ./cmd/crabbox
go test -race ./...
scripts/check-go-coverage.sh 85.0

# Cloudflare Worker
npm ci --prefix worker
npm test --prefix worker
npm run build --prefix worker

# Docs
npm run docs:check

# Optional live smoke, when broker/provider credentials are available
CRABBOX_LIVE=1 CRABBOX_LIVE_REPO=/path/to/openclaw scripts/live-smoke.sh
# Add Blacksmith only for repos with a Testbox workflow.
CRABBOX_LIVE=1 CRABBOX_LIVE_PROVIDERS=blacksmith-testbox scripts/live-smoke.sh

CI runs the full gate (gofmt, vet, race tests, coverage threshold, docs link/build check, GoReleaser snapshot, Worker lint/typecheck/tests/build) on every push and PR. Tagged pushes matching v* publish Go archives via GoReleaser and bump the Homebrew formula at openclaw/homebrew-tap.

Worker deployment, required secrets, and DNS routing live in docs/infrastructure.md.

Docs

Get the model: How Crabbox Works, Architecture, Orchestrator
Use the CLI: CLI, Commands, Features
Interactive QA: Interactive Desktop and VNC
Operate it: Operations, Observability, Troubleshooting
Set it up or audit it: Infrastructure, Security, Source Map, MVP Plan
Changes: CHANGELOG.md

The GitHub Pages site at https://openclaw.github.io/crabbox/ is generated from the docs/ Markdown:

npm run docs:check
open dist/docs-site/index.html

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 230 Commits
.agents/skills/crabbox		.agents/skills/crabbox
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
cmd/crabbox		cmd/crabbox
docs		docs
internal		internal
scripts		scripts
worker		worker
.gitignore		.gitignore
.goreleaser.yaml		.goreleaser.yaml
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
go.mod		go.mod
go.sum		go.sum
index.js		index.js
index.test.js		index.test.js
openclaw.plugin.json		openclaw.plugin.json
package.json		package.json

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🦀 📦 Crabbox

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