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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.

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.

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Install

1

Enable the plugin

OpenProse is bundled but disabled by default. Enable it:
openclaw plugins enable open-prose
2

Restart the Gateway

openclaw gateway restart
3

Verify

openclaw plugins list | grep prose
You should see open-prose as enabled. The /prose skill command is now available in chat.
From a repo checkout you can install the plugin directly: openclaw plugins install ./extensions/open-prose

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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. Top-level remote runs are explicit. Remote imports inside a .prose program are transitive code dependencies: before OpenProse fetches any remote use target, it shows the resolved import list and requires the operator to reply exactly approve remote prose imports for that run.

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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.

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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 }

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OpenClaw runtime mapping

OpenProse programs map to OpenClaw primitives:
OpenProse conceptOpenClaw tool
Spawn session / Task toolsessions_spawn
File read / writeread / write
Web fetchweb_fetch (exec + curl when POST is needed)
If your tool allowlist blocks sessions_spawn, read, write, or web_fetch, OpenProse programs will fail. Check your tools allowlist config.

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File locations

OpenProse keeps state under .prose/ in your workspace: 
.prose/
├── .env                      # config (key=value), e.g. OPENPROSE_POSTGRES_URL
├── runs/
│   └── {YYYYMMDD}-{HHMMSS}-{random}/
│       ├── program.prose     # copy of the running program
│       ├── state.md          # execution state
│       ├── bindings/
│       ├── imports/          # nested remote program runs
│       └── agents/
└── agents/                   # project-scoped persistent agents
User-level persistent agents (shared across projects) live at: 
~/.prose/agents/

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State backends

State is written to .prose/runs/... in the workspace. No extra dependencies required.
Transient state kept in the context window; select with --in-context. Suitable for small, short-lived programs.
Select with --state=sqlite. Requires the sqlite3 binary on PATH (falls back to filesystem when missing); state lands in .prose/runs/{id}/state.db.
Select with --state=postgres. Requires psql and a connection string in OPENPROSE_POSTGRES_URL (set it in .prose/.env).
Postgres credentials flow into sub-agent logs. Use a dedicated, least-privileged database.

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Security

Treat .prose files like code. Review them before running, including remote use imports. Top-level /prose run https://... requests are explicit, but transitive remote imports require per-run approval before they are fetched or executed. Use OpenClaw tool allowlists and approval gates to control side effects. For deterministic, approval-gated workflows, compare with Lobster.

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