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.

• Install — Enable the OpenProse plugin and restart the Gateway.
• Run a program — Use /prose run to execute a .prose file or remote program.
• Write programs — Author multi-agent workflows with parallel and sequential steps.

Install

Enable the plugin

Bundled plugins are disabled by default. Enable OpenProse:

```bash
openclaw plugins enable open-prose
```

Restart the Gateway

```bash
openclaw gateway restart
```

Verify

```bash
openclaw plugins list | grep prose
```

You should see `open-prose` as enabled. The `/prose` skill command is now
available in chat.

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

Slash command

OpenProse registers /prose as a user-invocable skill command:

/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

# 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 concept	OpenClaw tool
Spawn session / Task tool	sessions_spawn
File read / write	read / write
Web fetch	web_fetch

Warning

If your tool allowlist blocks sessions_spawn, read, write, or web_fetch, OpenProse programs will fail. Check your tools allowlist config.

File locations

OpenProse keeps state under .prose/ in your workspace:

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

User-level persistent agents live at:

~/.prose/agents/

State backends

filesystem (default)

State is written to `.prose/runs/...` in the workspace. No extra
dependencies required.

in-context

Transient state kept in the context window. Suitable for small, short-lived
programs.

sqlite (experimental)

Requires the `sqlite3` binary on `PATH`.

postgres (experimental)

Requires `psql` and a connection string.

Warning

  Postgres credentials flow into sub-agent logs. Use a dedicated,
  least-privileged database.

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.

Related

• Skills reference — How OpenProse's skill pack loads and what gates apply.
• Subagents — OpenClaw's native multi-agent coordination layer.
• Text-to-speech — Add audio output to your workflows.
• Slash commands — All available chat commands including /prose.

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