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 or a per-run script-provisioned directory
• Sandbox optionally runs agent and shell steps in rootless Podman containers with security hardening
• TUI dashboard monitors workflows, views logs, and controls execution

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.toml

# 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

Common Commands

otter                         # open the TUI dashboard
otter help                    # show all commands
otter status                  # list service and workflow state
otter service start           # start background service for this session
otter service stop            # stop background service
otter workflow install <path> # install a workflow (.toml or package dir)
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.