clawdbot/docs/clawd.md

summary, read_when

summary	read_when
End-to-end guide for running Clawdis as a personal assistant with safety cautions	Onboarding a new assistant instance Reviewing safety/permission implications

Building a personal assistant with CLAWDIS (Clawd-style)

CLAWDIS is a WhatsApp + Telegram gateway for Pi agents. This guide is the “personal assistant” setup: one dedicated WhatsApp number that behaves like your always-on agent.

⚠️ Safety first

You’re putting an agent in a position to:

• run commands on your machine (depending on your Pi tool setup)
• read/write files in your workspace
• send messages back out via WhatsApp/Telegram

Start conservative:

• Always set inbound.allowFrom (never run open-to-the-world on your personal Mac).
• Use a dedicated WhatsApp number for the assistant.
• Keep heartbeats disabled until you trust the setup (heartbeatMinutes: 0).

Prerequisites

• Node 22+
• CLAWDIS available on PATH (recommended during development: from source + global link)
• A second phone number (SIM/eSIM/prepaid) for the assistant

From source (recommended while the npm package is still settling):

pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm link --global

The two-phone setup (recommended)

You want this:

Your Phone (personal)          Second Phone (assistant)
┌─────────────────┐           ┌─────────────────┐
│  Your WhatsApp  │  ──────▶  │  Assistant WA   │
│  +1-555-YOU     │  message  │  +1-555-CLAWD   │
└─────────────────┘           └────────┬────────┘
                                       │ linked via QR
                                       ▼
                              ┌─────────────────┐
                              │  Your Mac       │
                              │  (clawdis)      │
                              │    Pi agent     │
                              └─────────────────┘

If you link your personal WhatsApp to CLAWDIS, every message to you becomes “agent input”. That’s rarely what you want.

5-minute quick start

1. Pair WhatsApp Web (shows QR; scan with the assistant phone):

clawdis login

2. Start the Gateway (leave it running):

clawdis gateway --port 18789

3. Start the local WebChat UI (optional, but great for debugging):

clawdis webchat

4. Put a minimal config in ~/.clawdis/clawdis.json:

{
  inbound: {
    allowFrom: ["+15555550123"]
  }
}

Now message the assistant number from your allowlisted phone.

Give the agent a workspace (AGENTS.md)

Pi (the bundled coding agent) will read operating instructions and “memory” from its current working directory.

By default, Clawdis uses ~/.clawdis/workspace as the agent workspace, and will create it (plus a starter AGENTS.md) automatically on first agent run.

From the CLAWDIS repo:

mkdir -p ~/.clawdis/workspace
cp docs/AGENTS.default.md ~/.clawdis/workspace/AGENTS.md

Optional: choose a different workspace with inbound.workspace (supports ~). inbound.reply.cwd still works and overrides it.

{
  inbound: {
    workspace: "~/clawd"
  }
}

The config that turns it into “an assistant”

CLAWDIS defaults to a good Pi setup even without inbound.reply, but you’ll usually want to tune:

• session intro (personality + instructions)
• thinking defaults (if desired)
• heartbeats (once you trust it)

Example:

{
  logging: { level: "info" },
  inbound: {
    allowFrom: ["+15555550123"],
    groupChat: {
      requireMention: true,
      mentionPatterns: ["@clawd", "clawd"]
    },
    reply: {
      mode: "command",
      // Pi is bundled; CLAWDIS forces --mode rpc for Pi runs.
      command: ["pi", "--mode", "rpc", "{{BodyStripped}}"],
      timeoutSeconds: 1800,
      bodyPrefix: "/think:high ",
      session: {
        scope: "per-sender",
        resetTriggers: ["/new"],
        idleMinutes: 10080,
        sendSystemOnce: true,
        sessionIntro: "You are Clawd, a helpful space lobster assistant. Be concise for chat, save long output to files, and be careful with secrets."
      },
      // Start with 0; enable later.
      heartbeatMinutes: 0
    }
  }
}

Sessions and memory

• Session files: ~/.clawdis/sessions/{{SessionId}}.jsonl
• Session metadata (token usage, last route, etc): ~/.clawdis/sessions/sessions.json (legacy: ~/.clawdis/sessions.json)
• /new starts a fresh session for that chat (configurable via resetTriggers)

Heartbeats (proactive mode)

When heartbeatMinutes > 0, CLAWDIS periodically runs a heartbeat prompt (default: HEARTBEAT /think:high).

• If the agent replies with HEARTBEAT_OK (exact token), CLAWDIS suppresses outbound delivery for that heartbeat.
• If you want a special command for heartbeats, set inbound.reply.heartbeatCommand.

{
  inbound: {
    reply: {
      heartbeatMinutes: 30,
      heartbeatCommand: ["pi", "--mode", "rpc", "HEARTBEAT /think:high"]
    }
  }
}

Media in and out

Inbound attachments (images/audio/docs) can be surfaced to your command via templates:

• {{MediaPath}} (local temp file path)
• {{MediaUrl}} (pseudo-URL)
• {{Transcript}} (if audio transcription is enabled)

Outbound attachments from the agent: include MEDIA:<path-or-url> on its own line (no spaces). Example:

Here’s the screenshot.
MEDIA:/tmp/screenshot.png

CLAWDIS extracts these and sends them as media alongside the text.

Operations checklist

clawdis status          # local status (creds, sessions, queued events)
clawdis status --deep   # also probes the running Gateway (WA connect + Telegram)
clawdis health --json   # gateway health snapshot (WS)

Logs live under /tmp/clawdis/ (default: clawdis-YYYY-MM-DD.log).

Next steps

• WebChat: WebChat
• Gateway ops: Gateway runbook
• Cron + wakeups: Cron + wakeups
• macOS menu bar companion: Clawdis macOS app
• Security: Security