JobRunr Introduces ClawRunr, an Open-Source Java AI Agent

Summary

JobRunr has released ClawRunr, an open-source Java AI agent designed to execute scheduled, recurring, and one-off background tasks on local hardware. The project integrates conversational interaction with persistent task execution, utilizing the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to connect various tools and communication channels.

Key Points

• Built on a stack including Java 25, Spring Boot, Spring AI, Spring Modulith, and JobRunr.
• Supports LLM providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, and local execution via Ollama.
• Uses an embedded H2 database for state persistence.
• Implements a file-based skill system where new capabilities are added by placing SKILL.md files in the workspace/skills/ directory.
• Features dynamic tool discovery using a Lucene keyword search pattern via Spring AI's Tool Search Tool.
• Provides built-in support for Telegram, Discord, and web chat via a declarative application.yaml configuration.
• Licensed under LGPL-3.0.

Technical Details

The architecture is organized into three Spring Modulith modules: base (containing the core agent, tasks, tools, and channels), app (the Spring Boot entry point, onboarding UI, and web chat), and plugin (opt-in capabilities such as Brave Search, Discord, Telegram, and Playwright). The agent core wraps Spring AI's ChatClient and utilizes @Tool annotations for tool registration. System prompts are dynamically composed at runtime from two workspace files: AGENT.md for instructions and INFO.md for environmental context.

Task execution is handled asynchronously by JobRunr. One-off tasks are stored as Markdown files under workspace/tasks/ and transition through a lifecycle of todo $\rightarrow$ in_progress $\rightarrow$ completed or awaiting_human_input. Recurring tasks are managed via JobRunr's cron support, providing automatic retries and dashboard-based monitoring. The runtime includes tools for shell command execution, file access, and web scraping, with an optional Playwright integration for browser automation (navigation, element clicks, and JavaScript execution). Note that Playwright requires a manual restart following its initial browser installation.

Impact / Why It Matters

ClawRunr allows developers to deploy self-hosted AI agents capable of managing long-running, complex workflows with built-in persistence and retry logic. Its file-based configuration and skill system enable the expansion of agent capabilities without requiring code changes or redeployments.