LobsterAI: NetEase’s Open‑Source 24/7 Personal Assistant Worth Exploring

NetEase Youdao has open‑sourced LobsterAI, a full‑scene personal‑assistant agent that operates 24 hours a day. The project’s homepage (https://lobsterai.youdao.com) provides the download package and source code.

The core of LobsterAI is the Cowork mode , built on the Claude Agent SDK. Unlike chat‑only bots, Cowork can invoke tools, manipulate files, and run command‑line operations in a local or sandboxed environment, autonomously planning tasks and producing multimodal results such as automatically generated data‑scraping scripts and analysis reports.

LobsterAI supports remote control through major IM platforms—including DingTalk, Feishu, Telegram and Discord—so users can trigger the agent from a phone or any messaging client, enabling continuous background work such as scheduled tasks, email handling or video generation.

All execution happens locally, guaranteeing that sensitive data never leaves the machine. The system enforces strict directory boundaries and tool‑call approvals to protect privacy.

Out‑of‑the‑box, LobsterAI ships with a rich set of built‑in Skills covering office, learning and creative scenarios. Developers can extend the assistant by adding custom Skills; the article demonstrates adding a personal skill repository (https://github.com/wuchubuzai2018/expert‑skills‑hub) and shows the UI listing the newly added Skills.

Installation is straightforward: download the installer, run it, then configure the IM application ID and token (the article uses Feishu as an example). After that, configure the large‑model endpoint, add the skill repository URL, and the interface displays the available Skills.

A live demonstration shows the agent loading a “Winter Olympics” Skill, executing it, and returning the latest results. The same workflow is reproduced via a Feishu message, confirming that remote triggers and scheduled tasks work as described.

The source code is fully available on GitHub, allowing developers to study the architecture, avoid building an agent framework from scratch, and integrate LobsterAI’s sandboxed execution, Cowork mode and permission model into their own workflows.

Overall, LobsterAI provides a ready‑to‑use, locally secure, and extensible AI assistant that is valuable both for end users seeking a 24/7 digital helper and for developers looking to explore or customize an open‑source agent platform.

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