lobster-dev
Develop, extend, and contribute to Lobster AI — the multi-agent self-extending bioinformatics engine. Use when working on Lobster codebase, creating agents/services, understanding architecture, fixing bugs, adding features, or contributing to the open-source project. IMPORTANT: Before creating new agents or packages, follow the planning workflow first (see "What To Do Based On Your Task" → planning-workflow.md). Trigger phrases: "add agent", "create service", "extend lobster", "contribute", "understand architecture", "how does X work in lobster", "fix bug", "add feature", "write tests", "lobster development", "agent development", "bioinformatics code", "build a new agent for", "add support for", "create plugin", "new domain"
Install via CLI (Recommended)
clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/cewinharhar/lobsterbio-devLobster AI Development Guide
Lobster AI is an open-source multi-agent bioinformatics engine (LangGraph, Python 3.12+) powering Omics-OS. Lobster solves bioinformatics tasks starting from raw data to scientific insights to visualization using supervisor multi-agent architecture. This skill teaches you how to extend it — from adding a single tool to building entire domain agent packages.
Step 0: Discover Your Environment
Before any work, determine what's available and how you're working:
# 1. Is lobster installed? Where?
which lobster
lobster --version
# 2. What agents are already installed?
python -c "from lobster.core.component_registry import component_registry; component_registry.reset(); print(component_registry.list_agents())"
# 3. Where is lobster source? (for reading reference implementations)
python -c "import lobster; print(lobster.__path__)"
# 4. Are you in the lobster repo, or building a standalone plugin?
ls packages/lobster-*/pyproject.toml 2>/dev/null && echo "CONTRIBUTOR" || echo "PLUGIN_AUTHOR"
HARD GATE — If lobster is not installed, STOP. Install it NOW before doing anything else:
uv venv --python 3.12 .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install 'lobster-ai[anthropic]' # or [openai], [google], depending on provider
lobster --version # Must succeed before you proceed
Do NOT skip this. Do NOT "come back to it later". Do NOT manually create package directories.
lobster scaffold agent is the ONLY way to create new agent packages — it generates correct
PEP 420 structure, entry points, AQUADIF metadata, and contract tests that you WILL get wrong
by hand. If scaffold is unavailable, installing lobster-ai is your first task.
Your development mode determines your workflow:
| Mode | How you got here | Where you create packages | How you test |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contributor | git clone + make dev-install | Inside packages/ in the repo | make test, full repo access |
| Plugin author | uv pip install lobster-ai or uv tool install | Anywhere — scaffold creates standalone packages | uv pip install -e ./lobster-<domain>/ then pytest |
Both modes produce the same result: a PEP 420 namespace package discovered by ComponentRegistry via entry points. The scaffold output is identical — a standalone package that works in either mode.
What To Do Based On Your Task
Metadata
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Find the right skillPaste this into your clawhub.json to enable this plugin.
{
"plugins": {
"official-cewinharhar-lobsterbio-dev": {
"enabled": true,
"auto_update": true
}
}
}Related Skills
lobster-use
Analyze biological data using Lobster AI — single-cell RNA-seq, bulk RNA-seq, literature mining, dataset discovery, quality control, and visualization. USE THIS SKILL WHEN: - Analyzing single-cell or bulk RNA-seq data - Searching PubMed/GEO for papers or datasets - Running quality control on biological data - Clustering cells, finding markers, differential expression - Creating publication-quality visualizations - Working with H5AD, CSV, 10X, GEO/SRA accessions TRIGGER PHRASES: "analyze cells", "search PubMed", "download GEO", "run QC", "cluster", "find markers", "differential expression", "UMAP", "volcano plot", "single-cell", "RNA-seq", "bioinformatics" ASSUMES: Lobster is installed and configured. For setup issues, tell user to run `lobster config-test` and fix any errors before proceeding.
lobster-use
Runs bioinformatics analysis with Lobster AI -- single-cell RNA-seq, bulk RNA-seq, genomics (VCF/GWAS), proteomics (mass spec/affinity), metabolomics (LC-MS/GC-MS/NMR), machine learning (feature selection, survival analysis), drug discovery, literature search, dataset discovery, and visualization. Use when working with biological data, omics analysis, or bioinformatics tasks. Covers: H5AD, CSV, VCF, PLINK, 10X, mzML formats, GEO/SRA/PRIDE/MetaboLights accessions. TRIGGER PHRASES: "analyze cells", "search PubMed", "download GEO", "run QC", "cluster", "find markers", "differential expression", "UMAP", "volcano plot", "single-cell", "RNA-seq", "VCF", "GWAS", "proteomics", "mass spec", "metabolomics", "MetaboLights", "LC-MS", "metabolite", "feature selection", "survival analysis", "biomarker", "bioinformatics", "drug discovery", "pharmacogenomics", "variant annotation" ASSUMES: Lobster is installed and configured. For setup issues, tell user to run `lobster config-test` and fix any errors before proceeding.
lobster-dev
Develop, extend, and contribute to Lobster AI — the multi-agent bioinformatics engine. Use when working on Lobster codebase, creating agents/services, understanding architecture, fixing bugs, adding features, or contributing to the open-source project. Trigger phrases: "add agent", "create service", "extend lobster", "contribute", "understand architecture", "how does X work in lobster", "fix bug", "add feature", "write tests", "lobster development", "agent development", "bioinformatics code"