Crabbox

Crabbox

Use Crabbox when OpenClaw needs remote Linux proof for broad tests, CI-parity checks, secrets, hosted services, Docker/E2E/package lanes, warmed reusable boxes, sync timing, logs/results, cache inspection, or lease cleanup.

Default backend: blacksmith-testbox. The separate blacksmith-testbox skill has been removed; this skill owns both the normal Crabbox path and the direct Blacksmith fallback playbook.

First Checks

• Run from the repo root. Crabbox sync mirrors the current checkout.
• Check the wrapper and providers before remote work:

command -v crabbox
../crabbox/bin/crabbox --version
pnpm crabbox:run -- --help | sed -n '1,120p'
../crabbox/bin/crabbox desktop launch --help
../crabbox/bin/crabbox webvnc --help

• OpenClaw scripts prefer ../crabbox/bin/crabbox when present. The user PATH shim can be stale.
• Check .crabbox.yaml for repo defaults, but override provider explicitly. Even if config still says AWS, maintainer validation should normally pass --provider blacksmith-testbox.
• Prefer local targeted tests for tight edit loops. Broad gates belong remote.

macOS And Windows Targets

Use these only when the task needs an existing non-Linux host. OpenClaw broad validation still defaults to blacksmith-testbox.

Crabbox supports static SSH targets:

../crabbox/bin/crabbox run --provider ssh --target macos --static-host mac-studio.local -- xcodebuild test
../crabbox/bin/crabbox run --provider ssh --target windows --windows-mode normal --static-host win-dev.local -- pwsh -NoProfile -Command "dotnet test"
../crabbox/bin/crabbox run --provider ssh --target windows --windows-mode wsl2 --static-host win-dev.local -- pnpm test

• target=macos and target=windows --windows-mode wsl2 use the POSIX SSH, bash, Git, rsync, and tar contract.
• Native Windows uses OpenSSH, PowerShell, Git, and tar; sync is manifest tar archive transfer into static.workRoot.
• crabbox actions hydrate/register are Linux-only today; use plain crabbox run loops for static macOS and Windows hosts.
• Live proof needs a reachable, operator-managed SSH host. Without one, verify with ../crabbox/bin/crabbox run --help, config/flag tests, and the Crabbox Go test suite.

Default Blacksmith Backend

Use this for pnpm check, pnpm check:changed, pnpm test, pnpm test:changed, Docker/E2E/live/package gates, or anything likely to fan out across many Vitest projects.

Changed gate:

pnpm crabbox:run -- --provider blacksmith-testbox \
  --blacksmith-org openclaw \
  --blacksmith-workflow .github/workflows/ci-check-testbox.yml \
  --blacksmith-job check \
  --blacksmith-ref main \
  --idle-timeout 90m \
  --ttl 240m \
  --timing-json \
  --shell -- \
  "env CI=1 NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096 OPENCLAW_TEST_PROJECTS_PARALLEL=6 OPENCLAW_VITEST_MAX_WORKERS=1 OPENCLAW_VITEST_NO_OUTPUT_TIMEOUT_MS=900000 pnpm test:changed"

Full suite:

pnpm crabbox:run -- --provider blacksmith-testbox \
  --blacksmith-org openclaw \
  --blacksmith-workflow .github/workflows/ci-check-testbox.yml \
  --blacksmith-job check \
  --blacksmith-ref main \
  --idle-timeout 90m \
  --ttl 240m \
  --timing-json \
  --shell -- \
  "env CI=1 NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096 OPENCLAW_TEST_PROJECTS_PARALLEL=6 OPENCLAW_VITEST_MAX_WORKERS=1 OPENCLAW_VITEST_NO_OUTPUT_TIMEOUT_MS=900000 pnpm test"

Focused rerun:

pnpm crabbox:run -- --provider blacksmith-testbox \
  --blacksmith-org openclaw \
  --blacksmith-workflow .github/workflows/ci-check-testbox.yml \
  --blacksmith-job check \
  --blacksmith-ref main \
  --idle-timeout 90m \
  --ttl 240m \
  --timing-json \
  --shell -- \
  "env CI=1 NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096 OPENCLAW_VITEST_MAX_WORKERS=1 OPENCLAW_VITEST_NO_OUTPUT_TIMEOUT_MS=900000 pnpm test <path-or-filter>"

Read the JSON summary. Useful fields:

• provider: should be blacksmith-testbox
• leaseId: tbx_...
• syncDelegated: should be true
• commandMs / totalMs
• exitCode

Crabbox should stop one-shot Blacksmith Testboxes automatically after the run. Verify cleanup when a run fails, is interrupted, or the command output is unclear:

blacksmith testbox list

Reuse And Keepalive

For most Blacksmith-backed Crabbox calls, one-shot is enough. Use reuse only when you need multiple manual commands on the same hydrated box.

If Crabbox returns a reusable id or you intentionally keep a lease:

pnpm crabbox:run -- --provider blacksmith-testbox --id <tbx_id> --no-sync --timing-json --shell -- "pnpm test <path>"

Stop boxes you created before handoff:

pnpm crabbox:stop -- <id-or-slug>
blacksmith testbox stop --id <tbx_id>

Interactive Desktop And WebVNC

Prefer WebVNC for human inspection because the browser portal can preload the lease VNC password and avoids a native VNC client's copy/paste/password dance. Use native crabbox vnc only when WebVNC is unavailable, the browser portal is broken, or the user explicitly wants a local VNC client.

Common desktop flow:

../crabbox/bin/crabbox warmup --provider hetzner --desktop --browser --class standard --idle-timeout 60m --ttl 240m
../crabbox/bin/crabbox desktop launch --provider hetzner --id <cbx_id-or-slug> --browser --url https://example.com --webvnc --open

Useful WebVNC commands:

../crabbox/bin/crabbox webvnc --provider hetzner --id <cbx_id-or-slug> --open
../crabbox/bin/crabbox webvnc --provider hetzner --id <cbx_id-or-slug> --daemon --open
../crabbox/bin/crabbox webvnc --provider hetzner --id <cbx_id-or-slug> --status
../crabbox/bin/crabbox webvnc --provider hetzner --id <cbx_id-or-slug> --stop
../crabbox/bin/crabbox screenshot --provider hetzner --id <cbx_id-or-slug> --output desktop.png

desktop launch --webvnc --open is usually the nicest one-shot: it starts the browser/app inside the visible session, bridges the lease into the authenticated WebVNC portal, and opens the portal. Keep browsers windowed for human QA; use --fullscreen only for capture/video workflows.

If Crabbox Fails

Keep the fallback narrow. First decide whether the failure is Crabbox itself, Blacksmith/Testbox, repo hydration, sync, or the test command.

Fast checks:

command -v crabbox
../crabbox/bin/crabbox --version
crabbox run --provider blacksmith-testbox --help | sed -n '1,140p'
command -v blacksmith
blacksmith --version
blacksmith testbox list

Common Crabbox-only failures:

• Provider missing or old CLI: use ../crabbox/bin/crabbox from the sibling repo, or update/install Crabbox before retrying.
• Bad local config: pass --provider blacksmith-testbox plus explicit --blacksmith-* flags instead of relying on .crabbox.yaml.
• Slug/claim confusion: use the raw tbx_... id, or run one-shot without --id.
• Sync/timing bug: add --debug --timing-json; capture the final JSON and the printed Actions URL.
• Cleanup uncertainty: run blacksmith testbox list and stop only boxes you created.

If Crabbox cannot dispatch, sync, attach, or stop but Blacksmith itself works, use direct Blacksmith from the repo root:

blacksmith testbox warmup ci-check-testbox.yml --ref main --idle-timeout 90
blacksmith testbox run --id <tbx_id> "env CI=1 NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096 OPENCLAW_TEST_PROJECTS_PARALLEL=6 OPENCLAW_VITEST_MAX_WORKERS=1 OPENCLAW_VITEST_NO_OUTPUT_TIMEOUT_MS=900000 pnpm test:changed"
blacksmith testbox stop --id <tbx_id>

Direct full suite:

blacksmith testbox run --id <tbx_id> "env CI=1 NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096 OPENCLAW_TEST_PROJECTS_PARALLEL=6 OPENCLAW_VITEST_MAX_WORKERS=1 OPENCLAW_VITEST_NO_OUTPUT_TIMEOUT_MS=900000 pnpm test"

Auth fallback, only when blacksmith says auth is missing:

blacksmith auth login --non-interactive --organization openclaw

Raw Blacksmith footguns:

• Run from repo root. The CLI syncs the current directory.
• Save the returned tbx_... id in the session.
• Reuse that id for focused reruns; stop it before handoff.
• Raw commit SHAs are not reliable warmup --ref refs; use a branch or tag.
• Treat blacksmith testbox list as cleanup diagnostics, not a shared reusable queue.

Blacksmith queue/outage mode:

blacksmith --version
blacksmith testbox list --all
blacksmith testbox status --id <tbx_id>

If the CLI can list/status boxes but new warmups stay queued with no IP or Actions run URL after a couple of minutes, treat it as Blacksmith provider, org-limit, billing, or queue pressure. Stop the queued ids you created and do not warm more boxes into the same stalled queue. Check the Blacksmith dashboard, billing, and org limits out-of-band, then use Owned Cloud Fallback below for maintainer proof.

Escalate to owned AWS/Hetzner only when Blacksmith is down, quota-limited, missing the needed environment, or owned capacity is the explicit goal. Use the Owned Cloud Fallback section below.

Blacksmith Backend Notes

Crabbox Blacksmith backend delegates setup to:

• org: openclaw
• workflow: .github/workflows/ci-check-testbox.yml
• job: check
• ref: main unless testing a branch/tag intentionally

The hydration workflow owns checkout, Node/pnpm setup, dependency install, secrets, ready marker, and keepalive. Crabbox owns dispatch, sync, SSH command execution, timing, logs/results, and cleanup.

Minimal direct Blacksmith fallback, from repo root:

blacksmith testbox warmup ci-check-testbox.yml --ref main --idle-timeout 90
blacksmith testbox run --id <tbx_id> "env CI=1 NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096 OPENCLAW_TEST_PROJECTS_PARALLEL=6 OPENCLAW_VITEST_MAX_WORKERS=1 pnpm test:changed"
blacksmith testbox stop --id <tbx_id>

Use direct Blacksmith only when Crabbox is the broken layer and Blacksmith itself still works. Prefer direct blacksmith testbox list for cleanup diagnostics, not as a reusable work queue.

Important Blacksmith footguns:

• Always run from repo root. The CLI syncs the current directory.
• Raw commit SHAs are not reliable warmup --ref refs; use a branch or tag.
• If blacksmith testbox list --all works but warmups stay queued, this is not a Crabbox bug. Stop the queued ids and switch to owned AWS/Hetzner instead of retrying.
• If auth is missing and browser auth is acceptable:

blacksmith auth login --non-interactive --organization openclaw

Owned Cloud Fallback

Use AWS/Hetzner only when Blacksmith is down, quota-limited, missing the needed environment, or owned capacity is explicitly the goal.

When AWS capacity is under pressure, do not start with class=beast. beast begins at 48xlarge instances and can burn 192 vCPU quota per request. OpenClaw's owned-cloud default is standard; escalate to fast, then large, and only use beast when the work is explicitly CPU-bound and the smaller class already failed the goal. Keep capacity hints enabled so brokered AWS leases print selected region/market, quota pressure, Spot fallback, and high-pressure class warnings. The OpenClaw repo config sets capacity.hints: true; use CRABBOX_CAPACITY_HINTS=0 only when debugging hint rendering itself.

Use beast only for exceptional lanes:

• full-suite or all-plugin Docker matrices where wall time is dominated by CPU, not dependency install or network;
• release/blocker validation where a maintainer explicitly asks for the largest owned AWS class;
• performance profiling where the point is to compare high-core behavior.

Do not use beast for pnpm check:changed, focused tests, docs-only work, ordinary lint/typecheck, small E2E repros, or Blacksmith outage triage. Those should use standard first and fast only when the extra cores materially help.

Preferred AWS pressure-relief flow:

CRABBOX_CAPACITY_REGIONS=eu-west-1,eu-west-2,eu-central-1,us-east-1,us-west-2 \
  pnpm crabbox:warmup -- --provider aws --class standard --market on-demand --idle-timeout 90m
pnpm crabbox:hydrate -- --id <cbx_id-or-slug>
pnpm crabbox:run -- --id <cbx_id-or-slug> --timing-json --shell -- "env NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096 OPENCLAW_TEST_PROJECTS_PARALLEL=6 OPENCLAW_VITEST_MAX_WORKERS=1 OPENCLAW_VITEST_NO_OUTPUT_TIMEOUT_MS=900000 pnpm check:changed"
pnpm crabbox:stop -- <cbx_id-or-slug>

Use --market spot only when testing Spot behavior or saving cost matters more than launch reliability. Use --market on-demand when diagnosing quota/capacity because it removes Spot market churn from the failure.

CRABBOX_CAPACITY_REGIONS=eu-west-1,eu-west-2,eu-central-1,us-east-1,us-west-2 \
  pnpm crabbox:warmup -- --provider aws --class fast --market on-demand --idle-timeout 90m
pnpm crabbox:hydrate -- --id <cbx_id-or-slug>
pnpm crabbox:run -- --id <cbx_id-or-slug> --timing-json --shell -- "env NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096 OPENCLAW_TEST_PROJECTS_PARALLEL=6 OPENCLAW_VITEST_MAX_WORKERS=1 OPENCLAW_VITEST_NO_OUTPUT_TIMEOUT_MS=900000 pnpm test:changed"
pnpm crabbox:stop -- <cbx_id-or-slug>

Install/auth for owned Crabbox if needed:

brew install openclaw/tap/crabbox
printf '%s' "$CRABBOX_COORDINATOR_TOKEN" | crabbox login --url https://crabbox.openclaw.ai --provider aws --token-stdin

macOS config lives at:

~/Library/Application Support/crabbox/config.yaml

It should include broker.url, broker.token, and usually provider: aws for owned-cloud lanes. Do not let that config override the OpenClaw default when Blacksmith proof is requested; pass --provider blacksmith-testbox.

Interactive Desktop / WebVNC

For human desktop demos, prefer webvnc over native vnc and keep the remote desktop visible/windowed. Do not fullscreen the remote browser or hide the XFCE panel/window chrome unless the explicit goal is video/capture output. After launch, verify a screenshot shows the desktop panel plus browser title bar. If Chrome is fullscreen, toggle it back with:

crabbox run --id <lease> --shell -- 'DISPLAY=:99 xdotool search --onlyvisible --class google-chrome windowactivate key F11'

Diagnostics

crabbox status --id <id-or-slug> --wait
crabbox inspect --id <id-or-slug> --json
crabbox sync-plan
crabbox history --lease <id-or-slug>
crabbox logs <run_id>
crabbox results <run_id>
crabbox cache stats --id <id-or-slug>
crabbox ssh --id <id-or-slug>
blacksmith testbox list

Use --debug on run when measuring sync timing. Use --timing-json on warmup, hydrate, and run when comparing backends. Use --market spot|on-demand only on AWS warmup/one-shot runs.

Failure Triage

• Crabbox cannot find provider: verify ../crabbox/bin/crabbox --help lists blacksmith-testbox; update Crabbox before falling back.
• Hydration stuck or failed: open the printed GitHub Actions run URL and inspect the hydration step.
• Sync failed: rerun with --debug; check changed-file count and whether the checkout is dirty.
• Command failed: rerun only the failing shard/file first. Do not rerun a full suite until the focused failure is understood.
• Cleanup uncertain: blacksmith testbox list; stop owned tbx_... leases you created.
• Crabbox broken but Blacksmith works: use the direct Blacksmith fallback above, then file/fix the Crabbox issue.

Boundary

Do not add OpenClaw-specific setup to Crabbox itself. Put repo setup in the hydration workflow and keep Crabbox generic around lease, sync, command execution, logs/results, timing, and cleanup.