Otter

Automate multi-step tasks (with AI support) triggered by real-world events.

• Workflows are TOML-defined series of steps — either looping (loops) or triggered (event-driven)
• Agent steps drive Claude, Copilot or any AI CLI across steps
• Checkpoints pause for human review and feedback
• Workspace isolates agents in per-run scratch directories, a fixed directory, a script-provisioned directory, or a per-run git worktree
• Sandbox optionally runs agent and shell steps in rootless Podman containers with security hardening
• TUI dashboard monitors workflows, views logs, and controls execution with theming support

Build

Prerequisites

• Rust toolchain (cargo)
• For agent steps: Claude Code, Copilot CLI, or any AI CLI tool
• For sandbox: Podman (rootless)

Install

cargo build --release
# Binary is at: target/release/otter

Quick Start

# Install workflow
otter workflow install examples/hello-world

# Start background service
otter service start

# Open the TUI
otter

# or start workflow via CLI:
otter start hello-world

# Stop background service
otter service stop

Marketplace

Install workflows by name from any git repo that publishes them. This repository doubles as one:

otter marketplace add "$(pwd)"
otter workflow install hello-world@otter-examples

See USAGE.md for details.

Common Commands

otter                                     # open the TUI dashboard
otter help                                # show all commands
otter status                              # list service, workflow, and marketplace state
otter update                              # install a newer otter release
otter service start                       # start background service for this session
otter service stop                        # stop background service
otter workflow install <path>             # install a workflow from disk
otter workflow install <n>@<marketplace>  # install from a registered marketplace
otter marketplace add <git-url>           # register a marketplace
otter start <name>                        # start or resume a workflow
otter stop <name>                         # stop a running workflow

Example Workflows

Can be found in the examples/ directory.

User Data

Purpose	Linux	Windows
Configuration & workflows	~/.config/otter/	%APPDATA%\otter\
State, logs & run scratch dirs	~/.local/share/otter/	%APPDATA%\otter\

Configuration Reference

A reference for all possible configurations (step types, triggers and workspace configuration) can be found in the usage guide.