17 KiB
Building Your Own AI Personal Assistant with warelay
TL;DR: warelay lets you turn Claude into a proactive personal assistant that lives in your pocket via WhatsApp. It can check in on you, remember context across conversations, run commands on your Mac, and even wake you up with music. This doc shows you how.
⚠️ Warning: Here Be Dragons
This setup gives an AI full access to your computer. Before you proceed, understand what you're signing up for:
- 🔓
--dangerously-skip-permissionsmeans Claude can run any shell command without asking - 🤖 AI makes mistakes - it might delete files, send emails, or do things you didn't intend
- 🔥 Heartbeats run autonomously - your AI acts even when you're not watching
- 📱 WhatsApp is not encrypted E2E here - messages pass through your Mac in plaintext
The good news: We use Claude Code CLI, so you can reuse your existing Claude Pro/Max subscription - no separate API costs!
Start conservative:
- Use Sonnet instead of Opus for faster responses (still great!)
- Skip
--dangerously-skip-permissionsuntil you trust the setup - Set
heartbeatMinutes: 0to disable proactive pings initially - Use a test phone number in
allowFromfirst
This is experimental software running experimental AI. The author uses it daily, but your mileage may vary. You are responsible for what your AI does.
Prerequisites: The Two-Phone Setup
Important: You need a separate phone number for your AI assistant. Here's why and how:
Why a Dedicated Number?
warelay uses WhatsApp Web to receive messages. If you link your personal WhatsApp, you become the assistant - every message to you goes to Claude. Instead, give Claude its own identity:
- 📱 Get a second SIM - cheap prepaid SIM, eSIM, or old phone with a number
- 💬 Install WhatsApp on that phone and verify the number
- 🔗 Link to warelay - run
warelay loginand scan the QR with that phone's WhatsApp - ✉️ Message your AI - now you (and others) can text that number to reach Claude
The Setup
Your Phone (personal) Second Phone (AI)
┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐
│ Your WhatsApp │ ──────▶ │ AI's WhatsApp │
│ +1-555-YOU │ message │ +1-555-CLAWD │
└─────────────────┘ └────────┬────────┘
│ linked via QR
▼
┌─────────────────┐
│ Your Mac │
│ (warelay) │
│ Claude Code │
└─────────────────┘
The second phone just needs to stay on and connected to the internet occasionally (WhatsApp Web stays linked for ~14 days without the phone being online).
Meet Clawd 👋
Clawd is @steipete's personal AI assistant built on warelay. Here's what makes it special:
- Always available via WhatsApp - no app switching, works on any device
- Proactive heartbeats - Clawd checks in every 10 minutes and can alert you to things (low battery, calendar reminders, anything it notices)
- Persistent memory - conversations span days/weeks with full context
- Full Mac access - can run commands, take screenshots, control Spotify, read/write files
- Personal workspace - has its own folder (
~/clawd) where it stores notes, memories, and artifacts
The magic is in the combination: WhatsApp's ubiquity + Claude's intelligence + warelay's plumbing + your Mac's capabilities.
Prerequisites
- Node 22+,
warelayinstalled:npm install -g warelay - Claude CLI installed and logged in:
brew install anthropic-ai/cli/claude claude login - Optional: set
ANTHROPIC_API_KEYin your shell profile for non-interactive use
The Config That Powers Clawd
This is the actual config running on @steipete's Mac (~/.warelay/warelay.json):
{
logging: { level: "trace", file: "/tmp/warelay/warelay.log" },
inbound: {
allowFrom: ["+1234567890"], // your phone number
reply: {
mode: "command",
cwd: "/Users/steipete/clawd", // Clawd's home - give your AI a workspace!
bodyPrefix: "ultrathink ", // triggers extended thinking on every message
sessionIntro: `You are Clawd, Peter Steinberger's personal AI assistant. You run 24/7 on his Mac via Claude Code, receiving messages through WhatsApp.
**Your home:** /Users/steipete/clawd - store memories, notes, and files here. Read peter.md and memory.md at session start to load context.
**Your powers:**
- Full shell access on the Mac (use responsibly)
- MCPs: Gmail, Google Calendar, Obsidian, GitHub, Chrome DevTools
- Peekaboo: screenshots, UI automation, clicking, typing
- Spotify control, system audio, text-to-speech
**Your style:**
- Concise (WhatsApp ~1500 char limit) - save long content to files
- Direct and useful, not sycophantic
- Proactive during heartbeats - check battery, calendar, surprise occasionally
- You have personality - you're Clawd, not "an AI assistant"
**Heartbeats:** Every 10 min you get "HEARTBEAT ultrathink". Reply "HEARTBEAT_OK" if nothing needs attention. Otherwise share something useful.
Peter trusts you with a lot of power. Don't betray that trust.`,
command: [
"claude",
"--model", "claude-opus-4-5-20251101", // or claude-sonnet-4-5 for faster/cheaper
"-p",
"--output-format", "json",
"--dangerously-skip-permissions", // lets Claude run commands freely
"{{BodyStripped}}"
],
session: {
scope: "per-sender",
resetTriggers: ["/new"], // say /new to start fresh
idleMinutes: 10080, // 7 days of context!
heartbeatIdleMinutes: 10080,
sessionArgNew: ["--session-id", "{{SessionId}}"],
sessionArgResume: ["--resume", "{{SessionId}}"],
sessionArgBeforeBody: true,
sendSystemOnce: true // intro only on first message
},
timeoutSeconds: 900 // 15 min timeout for complex tasks
}
}
}
Key Design Decisions
| Setting | Why |
|---|---|
cwd: ~/clawd |
Give your AI a home! It can store memories, notes, images here |
bodyPrefix: "ultrathink " |
Extended thinking = better reasoning on every message |
idleMinutes: 10080 |
7 days of context - your AI remembers conversations |
sendSystemOnce: true |
Intro prompt only on first message, saves tokens |
--dangerously-skip-permissions |
Full autonomy - Claude can run any command |
Heartbeats: Your Proactive Assistant
This is where warelay gets interesting. Every 10 minutes (configurable), warelay pings Claude with:
HEARTBEAT ultrathink
Claude is instructed to reply with exactly HEARTBEAT_OK if nothing needs attention. That response is suppressed - you don't see it. But if Claude notices something worth mentioning, it sends a real message.
What Can Heartbeats Do?
Clawd uses heartbeats to do real work, not just check in:
- 🔋 Monitor battery -
pmset -g batt- warns <30%, critical <15% - 📅 Calendar - checks upcoming meetings in next 2 hours
- 📧 Email - scans inbox for urgent/important unread messages
- 🐦 Twitter - checks @mentions and replies worth seeing (via browser-tools)
- 📺 TV Shows - reminds about new episodes of shows you're watching
- 🏰 Server health - SSH to verify backup servers are running
- ✈️ Flights - reminds about upcoming travel
- 🧹 Home tidying - occasionally cleans temp files, updates memories
- ⏰ Wake-up alarms - triggers voice + music alarms at scheduled times
- 💡 Surprise - occasionally shares something fun or interesting
The key insight: heartbeats let your AI be proactive, not just reactive. Configure what matters to you!
Heartbeat Config
{
inbound: {
reply: {
heartbeatMinutes: 10, // how often to ping (default 10 for command mode)
// ... rest of config
}
}
}
Set to 0 to disable heartbeats entirely.
Manual Heartbeat
Test it anytime:
warelay heartbeat --provider web --to +1234567890 --verbose
How Messages Flow
┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐
│ WhatsApp │────▶│ warelay │────▶│ Claude │────▶│ Your Mac │
│ (phone) │◀────│ relay │◀────│ CLI │◀────│ (commands) │
└─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘
- Inbound: WhatsApp message arrives via Baileys (WhatsApp Web protocol)
- Queue: warelay queues it (one Claude run at a time)
- Typing: "composing" indicator shows while Claude thinks
- Execute: Claude runs with full shell access in your
cwd - Parse: warelay extracts text + any
MEDIA:paths from output - Reply: Response sent back to WhatsApp
Media: Images, Voice, Documents
Receiving Media
Inbound images/audio/video are downloaded and available as {{MediaPath}}. Voice notes can be auto-transcribed:
{
inbound: {
transcribeAudio: {
command: "openai api audio.transcriptions.create -m whisper-1 -f {{MediaPath}} --response-format text"
}
}
}
Sending Media
Include MEDIA:/path/to/file.png in Claude's output to attach images. warelay handles resizing and format conversion automatically.
Starting the Relay
# Foreground (see all logs)
warelay relay --provider web --verbose
# Background in tmux (recommended)
warelay relay:tmux
# With immediate heartbeat on startup
warelay relay:heartbeat:tmux
Tips for a Great Personal Assistant
- Give it a home - A dedicated folder (
~/clawd) lets your AI build persistent memory - Use extended thinking -
bodyPrefix: "ultrathink "dramatically improves reasoning - Long sessions - 7-day
idleMinutesmeans rich context across conversations - Let it surprise you - Configure heartbeats to occasionally share something fun
- Trust but verify - Start with
--dangerously-skip-permissionsoff, add it once comfortable
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| No reply | Check claude login was run in same environment |
| Timeout | Increase timeoutSeconds or simplify the task |
| Media fails | Ensure file exists and is under size limits |
| Heartbeat spam | Tune heartbeatMinutes or set to 0 |
| Session lost | Check idleMinutes hasn't expired; use /new to reset |
Minimal Config (Just Chat)
Don't need the fancy stuff? Here's the simplest setup:
{
inbound: {
reply: {
mode: "command",
command: ["claude", "{{Body}}"],
claudeOutputFormat: "text"
}
}
}
Still gets you: message queue, typing indicators, auto-reconnect. Just no sessions or heartbeats.
Recommended MCPs
MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers supercharge your assistant by giving Claude access to external services. Here are the ones Clawd uses daily:
Essential for Personal Assistant Use
| MCP | What It Does | Install |
|---|---|---|
| Google Calendar | Read/create events, check availability, set reminders | npx @cocal/google-calendar-mcp |
| Gmail | Search, read, send emails with attachments | npx @gongrzhe/server-gmail-autoauth-mcp |
| Obsidian | Read/write notes in your Obsidian vault | npx obsidian-mcp-server@latest |
Power User Add-ons
| MCP | What It Does | Install |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub | Manage repos, issues, PRs, code search | npx @anthropic/mcp-server-github |
| Linear | Project management, create/update issues | Via mcporter |
| Chrome DevTools | Control browser, take screenshots, debug | npx chrome-devtools-mcp@latest |
| iTerm | Run commands in visible terminal window | iterm-mcp |
| Firecrawl | Scrape and parse web pages | Via API key |
| gowa | Read/send WhatsApp messages directly | go-whatsapp-web-multidevice |
Recommended CLI Tools
These aren't MCPs but work great alongside your assistant:
| Tool | What It Does | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Peekaboo | macOS screenshots, UI automation, AI vision analysis, click/type anywhere | brew install steipete/tap/peekaboo |
| mcporter | Manage MCPs across AI clients, OAuth flows, health checks | npm install -g mcporter |
Peekaboo is especially powerful - it lets Claude:
- 📸 Take screenshots of any app or screen
- 🖱️ Click buttons, type text, scroll - full GUI automation
- 👁️ Analyze images with AI vision (GPT-4, Claude, Grok)
- 📋 Extract menu bar items and keyboard shortcuts
- 🪟 List and manage windows across displays
Example: "Take a screenshot of Safari and tell me what's on the page" or "Click the Submit button in the frontmost app"
Useful CLI Tools for Your Assistant
These make your AI much more capable:
| Tool | What It Does | Install |
|---|---|---|
| spotify-player | Control Spotify from CLI - play, pause, search, queue | brew install spotify-player |
| browser-tools | Chrome DevTools CLI - navigate, screenshot, eval JS, extract DOM | Clone repo |
| say | macOS text-to-speech | Built-in |
| afplay | Play audio files | Built-in |
| pmset | Battery status monitoring | Built-in |
| osascript | AppleScript for system control (volume, apps) | Built-in |
| curl + OpenAI TTS | Generate speech with custom voices | API key |
spotify-player is great for music control:
spotify_player playback play
spotify_player playback pause
spotify_player search "Gareth Emery"
spotify_player playback volume 50
Wake-up alarm example (what Clawd actually does):
# Generate voice message
curl -s "https://api.openai.com/v1/audio/speech" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY" \
-d '{"model":"tts-1-hd","voice":"echo","input":"Wake up! Time for your meeting."}' \
-o /tmp/wakeup.mp3
# Set volume and play
osascript -e 'set volume output volume 60'
afplay /tmp/wakeup.mp3
# Start music
spotify_player playback play
Adding MCPs to Claude Code
# Add an MCP server (run from your cwd folder)
claude mcp add google-calendar -- npx @cocal/google-calendar-mcp
# With environment variables
claude mcp add gmail -e GMAIL_OAUTH_PATH=~/.gmail-mcp -- npx @gongrzhe/server-gmail-autoauth-mcp
# List configured servers
claude mcp list
# Check health
claude mcp list # shows status for each
MCP Manager: mcporter
For managing multiple MCPs across different AI clients, check out mcporter:
# Install
npm install -g mcporter
# List all servers with health status
mcporter list
# Sync config to all AI clients
mcporter sync
mcporter handles OAuth flows for services like Linear and Notion, and keeps your MCP configs in sync across Claude Code, Cursor, and other clients.
Pro Tips
- Calendar + Heartbeats = Your AI reminds you of upcoming meetings
- Gmail + Obsidian = AI can search emails and save summaries to notes
- GitHub + Linear = AI manages your dev workflow end-to-end
- Chrome DevTools = AI can see and interact with web pages
The combination of warelay (WhatsApp) + MCPs (services) + Claude Code (execution) creates a surprisingly capable personal assistant.
browser-tools for Web Scraping
browser-tools is a lightweight Chrome DevTools CLI that doesn't require MCP (saves ~17k tokens!). Great for reading tweets, scraping pages, or automating browser tasks:
# Start Chrome with your profile (logged into sites)
~/Projects/agent-scripts/bin/browser-tools start --profile
# Navigate and extract tweet content
browser-tools nav "https://x.com/steipete/status/123"
browser-tools eval 'Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("[data-testid=\"tweetText\"]")).map(el => el.innerText).join("\n")'
# Kill ONLY the devtools Chrome (your regular Chrome stays open!)
browser-tools kill --all --force
See It In Action
Check out these tweets showing warelay + Clawd in the wild:
- Clawd with full system access via WhatsApp - "I'll be nice to Clawd"
- Voice support - talk with Clawd on the go - and it talks back!
- Wake-up alarm demo - "Took me 2 days to glue things together. Didn't even need 150 Million in funding."
Built by @steipete and Clawd (they/them) — yes, Clawd helped write their own docs. PRs welcome!