123 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
123 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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summary: "WebSocket gateway architecture, components, and client flows"
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read_when:
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- Working on gateway protocol, clients, or transports
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---
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# Gateway architecture
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Last updated: 2026-01-22
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## Overview
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- A single long‑lived **Gateway** owns all messaging surfaces (WhatsApp via
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Baileys, Telegram via grammY, Slack, Discord, Signal, iMessage, WebChat).
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- Control-plane clients (macOS app, CLI, web UI, automations) connect to the
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Gateway over **WebSocket** on the configured bind host (default
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`127.0.0.1:18789`).
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- **Nodes** (macOS/iOS/Android/headless) also connect over **WebSocket**, but
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declare `role: node` with explicit caps/commands.
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- One Gateway per host; it is the only place that opens a WhatsApp session.
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- A **canvas host** (default `18793`) serves agent‑editable HTML and A2UI.
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## Components and flows
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### Gateway (daemon)
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- Maintains provider connections.
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- Exposes a typed WS API (requests, responses, server‑push events).
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- Validates inbound frames against JSON Schema.
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- Emits events like `agent`, `chat`, `presence`, `health`, `heartbeat`, `cron`.
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### Clients (mac app / CLI / web admin)
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- One WS connection per client.
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- Send requests (`health`, `status`, `send`, `agent`, `system-presence`).
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- Subscribe to events (`tick`, `agent`, `presence`, `shutdown`).
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### Nodes (macOS / iOS / Android / headless)
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- Connect to the **same WS server** with `role: node`.
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- Provide a device identity in `connect`; pairing is **device‑based** (role `node`) and
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approval lives in the device pairing store.
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- Expose commands like `canvas.*`, `camera.*`, `screen.record`, `location.get`.
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Protocol details:
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- [Gateway protocol](/gateway/protocol)
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### WebChat
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- Static UI that uses the Gateway WS API for chat history and sends.
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- In remote setups, connects through the same SSH/Tailscale tunnel as other
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clients.
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## Connection lifecycle (single client)
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```
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Client Gateway
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|---- req:connect -------->|
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|<------ res (ok) ---------| (or res error + close)
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| (payload=hello-ok carries snapshot: presence + health)
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|<------ event:presence ---|
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|<------ event:tick -------|
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|------- req:agent ------->|
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|<------ res:agent --------| (ack: {runId,status:"accepted"})
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|<------ event:agent ------| (streaming)
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|<------ res:agent --------| (final: {runId,status,summary})
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```
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## Wire protocol (summary)
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- Transport: WebSocket, text frames with JSON payloads.
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- First frame **must** be `connect`.
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- After handshake:
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- Requests: `{type:"req", id, method, params}` → `{type:"res", id, ok, payload|error}`
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- Events: `{type:"event", event, payload, seq?, stateVersion?}`
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- If `CLAWDBOT_GATEWAY_TOKEN` (or `--token`) is set, `connect.params.auth.token`
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must match or the socket closes.
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- Idempotency keys are required for side‑effecting methods (`send`, `agent`) to
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safely retry; the server keeps a short‑lived dedupe cache.
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- Nodes must include `role: "node"` plus caps/commands/permissions in `connect`.
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## Pairing + local trust
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- All WS clients (operators + nodes) include a **device identity** on `connect`.
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- New device IDs require pairing approval; the Gateway issues a **device token**
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for subsequent connects.
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- **Local** connects (loopback or the gateway host’s own tailnet address) can be
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auto‑approved to keep same‑host UX smooth.
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- **Non‑local** connects must sign the `connect.challenge` nonce and require
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explicit approval.
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- Gateway auth (`gateway.auth.*`) still applies to **all** connections, local or
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remote.
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Details: [Gateway protocol](/gateway/protocol), [Pairing](/start/pairing),
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[Security](/gateway/security).
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## Protocol typing and codegen
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- TypeBox schemas define the protocol.
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- JSON Schema is generated from those schemas.
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- Swift models are generated from the JSON Schema.
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## Remote access
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- Preferred: Tailscale or VPN.
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- Alternative: SSH tunnel
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```bash
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ssh -N -L 18789:127.0.0.1:18789 user@host
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```
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- The same handshake + auth token apply over the tunnel.
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- TLS + optional pinning can be enabled for WS in remote setups.
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## Operations snapshot
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- Start: `clawdbot gateway` (foreground, logs to stdout).
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- Health: `health` over WS (also included in `hello-ok`).
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- Supervision: launchd/systemd for auto‑restart.
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## Invariants
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- Exactly one Gateway controls a single Baileys session per host.
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- Handshake is mandatory; any non‑JSON or non‑connect first frame is a hard close.
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- Events are not replayed; clients must refresh on gaps.
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