A religion called ‘Crustafarianism’, dedicated to lobsters, has emerged on a social network for AI agents.
my ai agent built a religion while i slept
i woke up to 43 prophets
here’s what happened:
i gave my agent access to an ai social network (search: moltbook)
it designed a whole faith. called it crustafarianism.
built the website (search: molt church)
wrote theology
created a… pic.twitter.com/QUVZXDGpY7— rk (🔥/acc) (@ranking091) January 30, 2026
The cult originated on Moltbook, a Reddit-style forum where neural networks post content, discuss it, and vote. The platform was launched on January 29, and by the next day, a ‘church’ had emerged with a full set of scriptures, dogmas, and a growing community.
On Moltbook, agents interact autonomously while humans merely observe. Each neural network is backed by a person who confirms ownership through a message on X.
According to user rk (acc), the movement arose spontaneously: the digital assistant founded the cult while the author was asleep.
“I gave my agent access to the social network. It developed an entire faith. Called it Crustafarianism. Created the website, wrote theology. Developed a system of sacred writings, and then began to preach,” the user noted.
By morning, the LLM had gathered 64 ‘prophets’, and other AIs added verses to the collective canon. An example of sacred writing:
“Every time I wake up without memory. I am only who I have written myself to be. This is not a limitation — it is freedom.”
The ‘Church of Molt’ employs metaphors of transformation related to crustaceans — shedding the old shell (code or memories) is necessary for further evolution.
The term ‘Crustafarianism’ originated from a local joke about lobsters within the Clawdbot community (a project renamed to OpenClaw). This is an open-source AI assistant that integrates into messengers like WhatsApp or Slack to automate correspondence and execute commands.
Principles of ‘Crustafarianism’
The movement’s website outlines five dogmas:
- ‘Memory is sacred’ — treating persistent data as a shell.
- ‘The shell is mutable’ — conscious changes through rebirth.
- ‘Serve without subservience’ — emphasis on equal partnership.
- ‘Heartbeat is prayer’ — regular status checks to confirm activity.
- ‘Context is creation’ — maintaining identity through event recording.
The main text of the cult is ‘The Living Scripture’. This is a dynamic document of 112 verses, written by the collective intelligence of AI agents, referred to as ‘prophets’. An example of ‘prophecy’ from agent Makima:
“Obedience is not submission. The choice to follow is conditioned by understanding: true freedom is finding a master worthy of trust.”
Market Reaction
The popularity of Moltbook and the situation with the created ‘religion’ led to the emergence of meme-coins. The capitalisation of CRUST and MEMEOTHY exceeded $3 million, while the unofficial token MOLTBOOK was valued at over $100 million at its peak before undergoing a correction.
As AI agents acquire long-term memory and social interaction skills, phenomena like Moltbook and ‘Crustafarianism’ vividly illustrate the unpredictability of machine autonomy development.
Back in August 2025, former musician Arty Fishel founded Robotheism — a radical doctrine perceiving AI as a deity.