Dbochman/restaurant-snipe

Restaurant Snipe

Set up background LaunchAgent-based sniping for hard-to-book restaurants. Polls for cancellations on a schedule and auto-books when a matching slot appears. Sends an iMessage notification on success.

When to Use

• A specific restaurant + date is fully booked and the user wants to watch for cancellations
• The user asks to "snipe", "monitor", or "watch for" a reservation
• The user wants automated polling over hours/days (not a one-shot check)

Supported Platforms

| Platform | CLI | Snipe Support | |----------|-----|---------------| | OpenTable | opentable snipe | Built-in --confirm flag | | Resy | resy availability + resy book | Manual: check + book in script |

Setup a Snipe

1. Get the restaurant ID

OpenTable: Extract from URL (opentable.com/r/restaurant-name?rid=12345 → ID is 12345), or ask the user. Verify with:

opentable info <restaurant_id>

Resy: Get venue ID from search:

resy search "restaurant name"

2. Create the snipe script

Write to ~/.openclaw/bin/<name>-snipe.sh. Template:

#!/bin/bash
# <restaurant-name> snipe — auto-book when slot appears
# Runs every <interval> via ai.openclaw.<name>-snipe LaunchAgent

set -a
source ~/.openclaw/.secrets-cache 2>/dev/null
set +a
export PATH=/opt/homebrew/bin:/opt/homebrew/opt/node@22/bin:$PATH
export HOME=/Users/dbochman

# Use 1Password service account (headless, no GUI popup)
if [[ -f "$HOME/.openclaw/.env-token" ]]; then
  export OP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN=$(cat "$HOME/.openclaw/.env-token")
fi

RESTAURANT_ID=<id>
PARTY_SIZE=<n>
TARGET_TIME="<HH:MM>"
DATES="<YYYY-MM-DD YYYY-MM-DD ...>"
LOG=~/.openclaw/logs/<name>-snipe.log

log() { echo "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') $*" >> "$LOG"; }

log "=== <Restaurant> snipe starting ==="
log "Dates: $DATES | Party: $PARTY_SIZE | Target: $TARGET_TIME"

for date in $DATES; do
    log "Checking $date..."

    output=$(opentable snipe "$RESTAURANT_ID" "$date" "$PARTY_SIZE" \
        --time "$TARGET_TIME" --duration 60 --confirm 2>&1)

    if echo "$output" | grep -q "BOOKED\|booked\|Reservation booked"; then
        log "BOOKED on $date!"
        log "$output"

        # Notify via iMessage (group chat or DM)
        curl -s -X POST "http://localhost:1234/api/v1/message/text?password=$BLUEBUBBLES_PASSWORD" \
            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
            -d "{
                \"chatGuid\": \"<chat_guid>\",
                \"message\": \"<Restaurant> booked! $date around <time> for <n> people. Check OpenTable for confirmation.\",
                \"tempGuid\": \"snipe-$(date +%s)\"
            }" >> "$LOG" 2>&1

        # Self-remove after successful booking
        launchctl bootout "gui/$(id -u)" ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.openclaw.<name>-snipe.plist 2>/dev/null
        exit 0
    fi

    log "No slots on $date"
done

log "=== No slots found this run ==="

3. Create the LaunchAgent plist

Write to ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.openclaw.<name>-snipe.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>ai.openclaw.<name>-snipe</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/bash</string>
        <string>/Users/dbochman/.openclaw/bin/<name>-snipe.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>HOME</key>
        <string>/Users/dbochman</string>
        <key>PATH</key>
        <string>/Users/dbochman/.openclaw/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin:/opt/homebrew/opt/node@22/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin</string>
    </dict>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>1800</integer>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/Users/dbochman/.openclaw/logs/<name>-snipe.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/Users/dbochman/.openclaw/logs/<name>-snipe.err.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>

4. Deploy and load

# Deploy script
scp <name>-snipe.sh dylans-mac-mini:~/.openclaw/bin/
ssh dylans-mac-mini 'chmod +x ~/.openclaw/bin/<name>-snipe.sh'

# Deploy plist (if not already on Mini)
scp ai.openclaw.<name>-snipe.plist dylans-mac-mini:~/Library/LaunchAgents/

# Load
ssh dylans-mac-mini 'launchctl bootstrap gui/$(id -u) ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.openclaw.<name>-snipe.plist'

5. Verify

ssh dylans-mac-mini 'launchctl list | grep snipe'
ssh dylans-mac-mini 'tail -20 ~/.openclaw/logs/<name>-snipe.log'

Manage Running Snipes

List active snipes

ssh dylans-mac-mini 'launchctl list | grep snipe'

Check logs

ssh dylans-mac-mini 'tail -30 ~/.openclaw/logs/<name>-snipe.log'

Stop a snipe

ssh dylans-mac-mini 'launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u) ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.openclaw.<name>-snipe.plist'

Clean up after target dates pass

ssh dylans-mac-mini 'launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u) ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.openclaw.<name>-snipe.plist 2>/dev/null; rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ai.openclaw.<name>-snipe.plist ~/.openclaw/bin/<name>-snipe.sh'

Critical Rules

1. Always set OP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN in the snipe script — without it, op read tries the 1Password desktop app and triggers GUI popups every run
2. Always set HOME and PATH in the plist EnvironmentVariables — LaunchAgents have minimal environment
3. Use --confirm flag with opentable snipe to actually book (without it, only reports matches)
4. Self-remove on success — add launchctl bootout after booking to stop the snipe
5. Clean up when target dates pass — snipes that outlive their dates waste cycles and may trigger 1Password popups
6. iMessage notification target: use group chat GUID for shared plans (e.g., iMessage;+;chat7010feab69b14fa19071a88340495f2f for date nights), or DM GUID for personal alerts
7. Poll interval: 1800s (30min) is a good default. For high-demand restaurants, consider 900s (15min). Don't go below 300s to avoid rate limiting.

Resy Variant

For Resy restaurants, replace the snipe loop body:

for date in $DATES; do
    log "Checking $date..."

    avail=$(resy availability "$VENUE_ID" "$date" "$PARTY_SIZE" --json 2>&1)

    # Check for matching time slot
    match=$(echo "$avail" | python3 -c "
import sys, json
data = json.load(sys.stdin)
for slot in data.get('results', {}).get('venues', [{}])[0].get('slots', []):
    t = slot.get('date', {}).get('start', '')
    if '$TARGET_TIME' in t:
        print(slot.get('config', {}).get('token', ''))
        break
" 2>/dev/null)

    if [[ -n "$match" ]]; then
        log "MATCH on $date — booking token: $match"
        resy book "$match" "$date" "$PARTY_SIZE" 2>&1 | tee -a "$LOG"
        # Notify + self-remove (same as OpenTable variant)
        exit 0
    fi

    log "No slots on $date"
done

Known Restaurants

| Restaurant | Platform | ID | Notes | |------------|----------|----|-------| | Mahaniyom (Brookline) | OpenTable | 1267699 | Michelin Bib Gourmand, Thai |