# Crabbox Quickstart

First contact with Crabbox: run your repository's tests inside a disposable Docker or...

- Repository: https://github.com/openclaw/crabbox (1514 stars)
- Category: Testing
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-10-31
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add openclaw/crabbox --skill crabbox-quickstart -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add openclaw/crabbox --skill crabbox-quickstart -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add openclaw/crabbox --skill crabbox-quickstart -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add openclaw/crabbox --skill crabbox-quickstart -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

First contact with Crabbox: run your repository's tests inside a disposable Docker or Podman container on your own machine, no account and no cloud spend, then stop the box. Use when someone asks what Crabbox is or how to try it, wants a throwaway sandbox for a repo with no crabbox.yaml yet, or is about to run crabbox init here; hand off to the crabbox skill for config that already exists, leased remote machines, jobs, secrets, or artifacts.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Crabbox Quickstart

Crabbox runs your repository's commands on a disposable box, a container on
your own machine, or a remote machine you lease. It syncs your working tree,
runs one command, streams the output back, and exits with that command's code.

## The loop

```text
lease -> sync -> run -> read output -> stop
```

- **Lease** a box from a provider. `--provider local-container` uses Docker or
  Podman on your own machine: no account, no login, no spend.
- **Sync** your current checkout onto it. Crabbox builds the file list from
  Git, so the directory must be a repository.
- **Run** one command there. Its exit code becomes Crabbox's exit code.
- **Read** the streamed output, and optionally timing and test-result files.
- **Stop** the box. A one-shot `run` does this for you; a warm box does not.

## Install and check

```sh
crabbox --version                  # already installed? skip the install
brew install openclaw/tap/crabbox  # or github.com/openclaw/crabbox/releases
crabbox doctor --provider local-container
```

`doctor` with a provider is the readiness check that matters: it names the
container runtime, the leases you already hold, and the `image=` your commands
will run inside.

## First run, no account needed

With Docker or Podman running, this works in any Git repository with no config
file, no login, and no cloud spend:

```sh
git init                                  # only if not already a repository
crabbox run --provider local-container -- uname -a
```

Crabbox provisioned a container, synced the dirty checkout, ran the command
there, streamed its output, propagated its exit code, and deleted the lease.
Budget 30-45 seconds once the base image is local, nearly all of it container
startup; the very first run adds a one-time image pull.

## The box is bare

The rest: https://github.com/openclaw/crabbox/blob/HEAD/.agents/skills/crabbox-quickstart/SKILL.md