$ show openclaw/crawlbar
CrawlBar is a native macOS menu bar application and CLI tool that serves as a control plane for local-first crawler CLIs (e.g., GitHub, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Notion, WhatsApp). It discovers crawler manifests (built-in or from ~/.crawlbar/apps/), runs commands to retrieve status, freshness, and database inventory, and supports actions such as sync, publish, doctor, search, and backup. The architecture is strictly layered: a core library (CrawlBarCore) with no UI imports provides all data models, command execution, secret redaction, status normalization, and config storage, while a SwiftUI/AppKit frontend renders a menu bar status item and a settings window. A CLI (crawlbarctl) exposes the same functionality outside the GUI. CrawlBar does not crawl data itself; it orchestrates external CLI crawlers via a standardized manifest and status protocol (crawlkit.control.v1). It enforces privacy by redacting secrets from command output, storing action logs with private permissions, and keeping secrets in the macOS Keychain. The system supports remote execution via SSH and integrates with Cloudflare D1 for remote SQLite archives. 12 built-in crawler manifests are provided, covering major messaging and productivity platforms. The project also includes an extensive self-test suite, CI/CD with notarization, and a quality rubric document for code reviews. The core domain is well-abstracted, with reusable patterns for command running, status mapping, config caching, and action coordination. However, the codebase is macOS-only, relies on hardcoded fallback paths and a manual TOML parser, and has many per-crawler special cases in command argument construction. The maintenance is active (frequent releases, changelog, CI), but technical drift is medium due to ecosystem lock-in and custom infrastructure.
The LLM identified 5 files worth highlighting for reuse:
Defines the structured metadata for any external crawler: binary, commands, capabilities, config schema, privacy declarations, branding, and install hints. This manifest pattern decouples CrawlBar from crawler implementations and allows third-party crawlers to integrate via a JSON contract. Reusable as a template for any system that needs to discover and manage heterogeneous command-line tools.
Handles launching crawler commands with environment normalization, argument interpolation (including {config:...} tokens), secret redaction, timeout, and optional SSH remote execution. Uses CrawlExecutableResolver for PATH caching and CrawlProcessWait for bounded termination with SIGKILL escalation. This component is isolated from UI and could be extracted as a generic command runner library for macOS.
Normalizes the diverse JSON output of various crawlers into a unified CrawlAppStatus model, extracting state, counters, freshness, database paths, and remote store metadata. The mapper uses a dispatch table per crawler ID and falls back to generic heuristics. This pattern is reusable for any system that needs to standardize heterogeneous status endpoints into a single view layer.
Manages the JSON configuration file at ~/.crawlbar/config.json with automatic offloading of secrets to the macOS Keychain, atomic writes, and caching (mtime-based invalidation). Provides read/write operations that stay consistent with the config model. This pattern is reusable for any macOS app needing a simple, secure config store.
Orchestrates multi-phase actions (e.g., sync then share) with retry intervals, generation-based invalidation, and consent checks (user approval and publication guard). Runs closures for share/hide actions and ensures no stale completions are applied. This pattern is reusable for any system that needs to coordinate side-effecting operations with user consent and retry.