clawdbot/docs/onboarding.md

summary, read_when

summary	read_when
Planned first-run onboarding flow for Clawdis (local vs remote, Anthropic OAuth, workspace identity)	Designing the macOS onboarding assistant Implementing Pi authentication or identity setup

Onboarding (macOS app)

This doc describes the intended first-run onboarding for Clawdis. The goal is a good “day 0” experience: pick where the Gateway runs, bind Claude (Anthropic) auth for Pi, and set the agent’s identity + workspace.

Page order (high level)

1. Local vs Remote
2. (Local only) Connect Claude (Anthropic OAuth) — optional, but recommended
3. Identity — name, theme, emoji
4. Workspace — create + populate AGENTS.md (and recommend git backup)

1) Local vs Remote

First question: where does the Gateway run?

• Local (this Mac): onboarding can run the Anthropic OAuth flow and write Pi’s token store locally.
• Remote (over SSH/tailnet): onboarding must not run OAuth locally, because credentials must exist on the gateway host.

2) Local-only: Connect Claude (Anthropic OAuth)

This is the “bind Pi to Clawdis” step. It is explicitly the Anthropic (Claude Pro/Max) OAuth flow, not a generic “login”.

Recommended: OAuth

The macOS app should:

• Start the Anthropic OAuth (PKCE) flow in the user’s browser.
• Ask the user to paste the code#state value.
• Exchange it for tokens and write Pi-compatible credentials to:
  • ~/.pi/agent/oauth.json (file mode 0600, directory mode 0700)

Why this location matters: it makes Pi work immediately (Clawdis doesn’t need a terminal and doesn’t need to re-implement Pi’s auth plumbing later).

Alternative: API key (instructions only)

Offer an “API key” option, but for now it is instructions only:

• Get an Anthropic API key.
• Provide it to Pi (or to Clawdis’s Pi invocation) via your preferred mechanism.

Note: environment variables are often confusing when the Gateway is launched by a GUI app (launchd environment != your shell).

Provider/model safety rule

Clawdis should always pass --provider and --model when invoking Pi (don’t rely on Pi defaults).

Until that is hard-coded, the equivalent configuration is:

{
  inbound: {
    reply: {
      mode: "command",
      command: [
        "pi",
        "--mode",
        "rpc",
        "--provider",
        "anthropic",
        "--model",
        "claude-opus-4-5",
        "{{BodyStripped}}"
      ],
      agent: { kind: "pi", format: "json" }
    }
  }
}

If the user skips auth, onboarding should be clear: the agent likely won’t respond until auth is configured.

3) Identity (name + theme + emoji)

After auth (or skip), onboarding asks:

1. Agent name (e.g. “Samantha”)
2. Agent theme/persona (e.g. “helpful lobster”, “helpful sloth”)
3. Suggested emoji (based on theme; user can override)

Persist identity in two places:

• Workspace AGENTS.md (human-editable, lives with the agent’s “memory” files)
• ~/.clawdis/clawdis.json (structured identity, used for defaults/UI)

“Use this name everywhere” should derive defaults like:

• outbound prefix emoji (inbound.responsePrefix)
• group mention patterns / wake words
• default session intro (“You are Samantha…”)
• macOS UI labels

4) Workspace (AGENTS.md + backup tip)

Onboarding should create a dedicated agent workspace (default ~/.clawdis/workspace) and ensure it has an AGENTS.md.

Recommendation: treat the workspace as the agent’s “memory” and make it a git repo (ideally private) so identity + memories are backed up:

cd ~/.clawdis/workspace
git init
git add AGENTS.md
git commit -m "Add agent workspace"

Daily memory lives under memory/ in the workspace:

• one file per day: memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md
• read today + yesterday on session start
• keep it short (durable facts, preferences, decisions; avoid secrets)

Remote mode note (why OAuth is hidden)

If the Gateway runs on another machine, the Anthropic OAuth credentials must be created/stored on that host (where Pi runs).

For now, remote onboarding should:

• explain why OAuth isn’t shown
• point the user at the credential location (~/.pi/agent/oauth.json) and the workspace location on the gateway host