crabagent 0.9.6

CrabAgent - AI Agent Platform with dual-mode (CLI + Serve)

🦀 CrabAgent

Your AI Knowledge Work Platform — Not another coding assistant. A platform where AI agents learn your projects, remember your decisions, and grow with you. Runs in terminal, browser, or desktop.

CrabAgent is a local-first platform for knowledge work. You bring your projects and API keys. It brings a team of AI agents that remember what you did, learn how you work, and get smarter the more you use them.

English | 中文

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Why CrabAgent

Most AI tools are temporary workers — they help with one task, then forget everything. CrabAgent is different:

What makes it special	What it means for you
🧠 Project Memory	It remembers what you did in each project. Open it tomorrow and it picks up where you left off.
📈 Learns your style	The more you use it, the better it understands your preferences, your code style, your decision patterns.
🤖 AI Team	Specialized agents (coder, researcher, analyst, writer) that collaborate. Delegate, parallelize, chain into workflows.
🔒 Local-first	All data stays on your machine. API keys encrypted. No telemetry. No vendor lock-in.

The difference compounds over time:

Day 1:   "It's a helpful AI tool."
Week 1:  "It remembers my project. Nice."
Month 1: "My entire workflow runs through it. Can't go back."

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Project Memory — The Foundation

Every time you work in a project, CrabAgent automatically extracts lessons and preferences. Next time you open it, it already knows:

=== 项目上下文 ===
上次活跃：06-05 15:30
技术栈：Python / FastAPI / SQLAlchemy
项目经验：N+1 查询用 selectinload 优化；API 文档用 OpenAPI 规范
====================

This is not a summary generated on the fly. It's built from lessons your agents have already learned — zero extra token cost, zero context cache invalidation.

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Self-Evolving Agents

Every task teaches your agents something. After each run, they reflect on what worked (and what didn't) and store the insight permanently.

Dual-engine reflection

Agent completes a task
    │
    ├─ Rule engine (instant)
    │   └─ "Too many iterations → break tasks into smaller steps"
    │
    └─ LLM reflection (1-3s)
        ├─ Extracts actionable lessons:
        │   "DuckDuckGo returns fewer Chinese results — use English keywords"
        │   "Prefer web_scrape over web_search for unstable sites"
        ├─ Auto-filters generic praise ("completed in X steps")
        └─ Learns from failures — captures error patterns

Persistent memory layers

Layer	Scope	What's stored
Project Memory	Per workspace	Recent lessons, tech stack, activity timeline
User Preferences	Per user	Communication style, tool preferences, rejected patterns
Agent Lessons	Per agent	Technical strategies, pitfalls, effective approaches

View growth

# TUI
/agent_stats coder
# → Tasks: 23  Success: 91%  Avg time: 14s
# → Lessons: 18 (rule: 3, LLM: 15)

# Web UI: Agent Team → Learning Stats

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AI Team

Built-in agents

Agent	Role	Best for
Researcher	Web researcher	Search, browse, collect data
Analyst	Data analyst	Compare, identify patterns, generate reports
Coder	Code expert	Write, review, debug, refactor
Writer	Content writer	Write, edit, translate, format
Plan Creator	Task planner	Decompose complex tasks into workflows

Orchestration modes

Delegate      → @researcher "find competitor pricing"
Parallel      → Run 3 agents simultaneously on different tasks
Pipeline      → research → analyze → write (with data flow)
Handoff       → Pass context from one agent to another

Real-time monitoring

• 🟣 Running — step count, elapsed time, tool calls
• 🟢 Done — duration, tokens, iterations
• 🔴 Error — error summary
• Web: sidebar task board with split-view result comparison

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Quick Start

pip install crabagent

crabagent init

# TUI — interactive REPL with slash commands
crabagent

# Web UI
crabagent --serve          # → http://localhost:5210

# Single-shot CLI
crabagent "organize this directory"

Desktop App (macOS, development)

Build the Electron wrapper (requires Python + crabagent installed on your system):

# One-command build (from git clone):
make desktop
# → electron/dist-electron/CrabAgent-0.9.4-arm64.dmg

# Or from pip install:
crabagent --build-desktop

Or run directly in your browser:

crabagent --serve          # → http://localhost:5210

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Features

🧠 Project Memory

Remembers your project context across sessions. Zero extra cost.

🖼️ Multi-modal

Paste/drop images into conversations. Auto-detects vision model support.

🌐 Browser Automation

pip install 'crabagent[browser]'
playwright install chromium

> Open https://news.ycombinator.com and show top 5
> Search Google for "Python async", extract results

🔌 MCP Client

Connect external MCP servers (stdio + HTTP). Tools auto-discover and get prefixed.

⏱ Scheduled Tasks

> Open Hacker News at 9 AM every day and screenshot top 5
> Check product page every 30 min, notify me if below $500

🦀 Snapshots (Molt)

Auto-snapshot files before changes. Roll back anytime without Git.

/molt rollback <id>

🔧 Custom Tools

Drop a .py file in .crabagent/tools/ — or let the AI create one for you in a conversation.

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Installation

pip install crabagent                    # CLI + Web UI + API (all-in-one)
pip install 'crabagent[browser]'        # Browser automation
pip install 'crabagent[dev]'            # Testing + linting

Development

make install            # Build frontend + install (editable)
ruff check src/ tests/  # Lint
ruff format src/ tests/ # Format
pytest                   # Run tests

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CLI / TUI Commands

Command	Description
/exit, /quit	Exit
/help	Help
/clear	Clear context
/model [name]	Switch model
/models	List models
/provider [cmd]	Manage providers
/sessions / /session [id]	List/load sessions
/new	New session
/agents [cmd]	Agent team management
/agent [name]	Switch agent
/agent_stats <name>	Agent growth stats
/delegate [@agent] [task]	Delegate task
`/memory [list	search
/skills / /skill <name>	List/view skills
/molt [cmd]	Snapshot management
/todo [cmd]	Todo management
/export	Export as Markdown
/image <path>	Send image
/runs [agent]	View run history
/abort	Abort execution

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Configuration

Variable	Default	Description
CRAB_DB_URL	sqlite+aiosqlite:///./crabagent.db	Database URL
CRAB_JWT_SECRET	auto-generated	JWT signing key
CRAB_SERVE_HOST	0.0.0.0	Server host
CRAB_SERVE_PORT	5210	Server port
CRAB_MAX_ITERATIONS	50	Max agent iterations
CRAB_MAX_TOKENS	4096	Max response tokens
CRAB_BROWSER_HEADLESS	true	Browser headless mode
CRAB_WEB_PROXY	(empty)	HTTP proxy for web tools

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Project Structure

CrabAgent/
├── src/crabagent/
│   ├── cli/           # CLI + TUI
│   ├── core/agent/    # Agent loop, tools, compression, agents
│   ├── core/mcp/      # MCP client manager
│   ├── core/          # Database, config, project memory
│   └── serve/         # FastAPI + API + scheduler
├── frontend/          # React SPA
├── electron/          # Electron desktop app
├── scripts/           # Build scripts
├── crabagent.spec     # PyInstaller config
└── crabagent.db       # SQLite database

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License

GNU Affero General Public License v3 (AGPLv3) for non-commercial use. Commercial use requires a separate license. Contact the author.

See LICENSE. ee LICENSE.