🦞 CLAWDBOT — Personal AI Assistant

EXFOLIATE! EXFOLIATE!

Clawdbot is a personal AI assistant you run on your own devices. It answers you on the surfaces you already use (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, iMessage, WebChat), can speak and listen on macOS/iOS, and can render a live Canvas you control. The Gateway is just the control plane — the product is the assistant.

If you want a personal, single-user assistant that feels local, fast, and always-on, this is it.

Website: clawdbot.com · Docs: docs.clawdbot.com · FAQ: FAQ · Wizard: Wizard · Nix: nix-clawdbot · Docker: Docker · Discord: discord.gg/clawd

Preferred setup: run the onboarding wizard (clawdbot onboard). It walks through gateway, workspace, providers, and skills. The CLI wizard is the recommended path and works on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Subscriptions: Anthropic (Claude Pro/Max) and OpenAI (ChatGPT/Codex) are supported via OAuth. See Onboarding.

Recommended setup (from source)

Do not download prebuilt binaries. Build from source.

# Clone this repo
git clone https://github.com/clawdbot/clawdbot.git
cd clawdbot

pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm ui:build
pnpm clawdbot onboard

Quick start (from source)

Runtime: Node ≥22 + pnpm.

pnpm install
pnpm build
pnpm ui:build

# Recommended: run the onboarding wizard
pnpm clawdbot onboard

# Link WhatsApp (stores creds in ~/.clawdbot/credentials)
pnpm clawdbot login

# Start the gateway
pnpm clawdbot gateway --port 18789 --verbose

# Dev loop (auto-reload on TS changes)
pnpm gateway:watch

# Send a message
pnpm clawdbot send --to +1234567890 --message "Hello from Clawdbot"

# Talk to the assistant (optionally deliver back to WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/Discord)
pnpm clawdbot agent --message "Ship checklist" --thinking high

If you run from source, prefer pnpm clawdbot … (not global clawdbot).

Highlights

• Local-first Gateway — single control plane for sessions, providers, tools, and events.
• Multi-surface inbox — WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, iMessage, WebChat, macOS, iOS/Android.
• Voice Wake + Talk Mode — always-on speech for macOS/iOS/Android with ElevenLabs.
• Live Canvas — agent-driven visual workspace with A2UI.
• First-class tools — browser, canvas, nodes, cron, sessions, and Discord/Slack actions.
• Companion apps — macOS menu bar app + iOS/Android nodes.
• Onboarding + skills — wizard-driven setup with bundled/managed/workspace skills.

Everything we built so far

Core platform

• Gateway WS control plane with sessions, presence, config, cron, webhooks, control UI, and Canvas host.
• CLI surface: gateway, agent, send, wizard, doctor/update, and TUI.
• Pi agent runtime in RPC mode with tool streaming and block streaming.
• Session model: main for direct chats, group isolation, activation modes, queue modes, reply-back.
• Media pipeline: images/audio/video, transcription hooks, size caps, temp file lifecycle.

Surfaces + providers

• WhatsApp (Baileys), Telegram (grammY), Slack (Bolt), Discord (discord.js), Signal (signal-cli), iMessage (imsg), WebChat.
• Group mention gating, reply tags, per-surface chunking and routing.

Apps + nodes

• macOS app: menu bar control plane, Voice Wake/PTT, Talk Mode overlay, WebChat, Debug tools, SSH remote gateway control.
• iOS node: Canvas, Voice Wake, Talk Mode, camera, screen recording, Bonjour pairing.
• Android node: Canvas, Talk Mode, camera, screen recording, optional SMS.
• macOS node mode: system.run/notify + canvas/camera exposure.

Tools + automation

• Browser control: dedicated clawd Chrome/Chromium, snapshots, actions, uploads, profiles.
• Canvas: A2UI push/reset, eval, snapshot.
• Nodes: camera snap/clip, screen record, location.get, notifications.
• Cron + wakeups; webhooks; Gmail Pub/Sub triggers.
• Skills platform: bundled, managed, and workspace skills with install gating + UI.

Ops + packaging

• Control UI + WebChat served directly from the Gateway.
• Tailscale Serve/Funnel or SSH tunnels with token/password auth.
• Nix mode for declarative config; Docker-based installs.
• Health, doctor migrations, structured logging, release tooling.

How it works (short)

Your surfaces
   │
   ▼
┌───────────────────────────────┐
│            Gateway            │  ws://127.0.0.1:18789
│       (control plane)         │  tcp://0.0.0.0:18790 (optional Bridge)
└──────────────┬────────────────┘
               │
               ├─ Pi agent (RPC)
               ├─ CLI (clawdbot …)
               ├─ WebChat (browser)
               ├─ macOS app (Clawdbot.app)
               └─ iOS node (Canvas + voice)

Skills registry (ClawdHub)

ClawdHub is a minimal skill registry. With ClawdHub enabled, the agent can search for skills automatically and pull in new ones as needed.

https://clawdhub.com

Chat commands

Send these in WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/WebChat (group commands are owner-only):

• /status — health + session info (group shows activation mode)
• /new or /reset — reset the session
• /think <level> — off|minimal|low|medium|high
• /verbose on|off
• /restart — restart the gateway (owner-only in groups)
• /activation mention|always — group activation toggle (groups only)

Architecture

TypeScript Gateway (src/gateway/server.ts)

• Single HTTP+WS server on ws://127.0.0.1:18789 (bind policy: loopback/lan/tailnet/auto). The first frame must be connect; AJV validates frames against TypeBox schemas (src/gateway/protocol).
• Single source of truth for sessions, providers, cron, voice wake, and presence. Methods cover send, agent, chat.*, sessions.*, config.*, cron.*, voicewake.*, node.*, system-*, wake.
• Events + snapshot: handshake returns a snapshot (presence/health) and declares event types; runtime events include agent, chat, presence, tick, health, heartbeat, cron, node.pair.*, voicewake.changed, shutdown.
• Idempotency & safety: send/agent/chat.send require idempotency keys with a TTL cache (5 min, cap 1000) to avoid double‑sends on reconnects; payload sizes are capped per connection.
• Bridge for nodes: optional TCP bridge (src/infra/bridge/server.ts) is newline‑delimited JSON frames (hello, pairing, RPC, invoke); node connect/disconnect is surfaced into presence.
• Control UI + Canvas Host: HTTP serves Control UI assets (default /, optional base path) and can host a live‑reload Canvas host for nodes (src/canvas-host/server.ts), injecting the A2UI postMessage bridge.

iOS app (apps/ios)

• Discovery + pairing: Bonjour discovery via BridgeDiscoveryModel (NWBrowser). BridgeConnectionController auto‑connects using Keychain token or allows manual host/port.
• Node runtime: BridgeSession (actor) maintains the NWConnection, hello handshake, ping/pong, RPC requests, and invoke callbacks.
• Capabilities + commands: advertises canvas, screen, camera, voiceWake (settings‑driven) and executes canvas.*, canvas.a2ui.*, camera.*, screen.record (NodeAppModel.handleInvoke).
• Canvas: WKWebView with bundled Canvas scaffold + A2UI, JS eval, snapshot capture, and clawdbot:// deep‑link interception (ScreenController).
• Voice + deep links: voice wake sends voice.transcript events; clawdbot://agent links emit agent.request. Voice wake triggers sync via voicewake.get + voicewake.changed.

Companion apps

The macOS app is critical: it runs the menu‑bar control plane, owns local permissions (TCC), hosts Voice Wake, exposes WebChat/debug tools, and coordinates local/remote gateway mode. Most “assistant” UX lives here.

macOS (Clawdbot.app)

• Menu bar control for the Gateway and health.
• Voice Wake + push-to-talk overlay.
• WebChat + debug tools.
• Remote gateway control over SSH.

Build/run: ./scripts/restart-mac.sh (packages + launches).

iOS node (internal)

• Pairs as a node via the Bridge.
• Voice trigger forwarding + Canvas surface.
• Controlled via clawdbot nodes ….

Runbook: iOS connect.

Android node (internal)

• Pairs via the same Bridge + pairing flow as iOS.
• Exposes Canvas, Camera, and Screen capture commands.
• Runbook: Android connect.

Agent workspace + skills

• Workspace root: ~/clawd (configurable via agent.workspace).
• Injected prompt files: AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, TOOLS.md.
• Skills: ~/clawd/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md.

Configuration

Minimal ~/.clawdbot/clawdbot.json:

{
  whatsapp: {
    allowFrom: ["+1234567890"]
  }
}

Env vars: loaded from .env in the current working directory, plus a global fallback at ~/.clawdbot/.env (aka $CLAWDBOT_STATE_DIR/.env) without overriding existing values.

Optional: import missing keys from your login shell env (sources your shell profile) via config or env var:

{
  env: {
    shellEnv: {
      enabled: true,
      timeoutMs: 15000
    }
  }
}

• Env var: CLAWDBOT_LOAD_SHELL_ENV=1
• Timeout override: CLAWDBOT_SHELL_ENV_TIMEOUT_MS=15000
• Behavior: only imports known/expected keys, never overrides existing process.env.

WhatsApp

• Link the device: pnpm clawdbot login (stores creds in ~/.clawdbot/credentials).
• Allowlist who can talk to the assistant via whatsapp.allowFrom.

Telegram

• Set TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN or telegram.botToken (env wins).
• Optional: set telegram.groups (with telegram.groups."*".requireMention), telegram.allowFrom, or telegram.webhookUrl as needed.

{
  telegram: {
    botToken: "123456:ABCDEF"
  }
}

Discord

• Set DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN or discord.token (env wins).
• Optional: set discord.slashCommand, discord.dm.allowFrom, discord.guilds, or discord.mediaMaxMb as needed.

{
  discord: {
    token: "1234abcd"
  }
}

Browser control (optional):

{
  browser: {
    enabled: true,
    controlUrl: "http://127.0.0.1:18791",
    color: "#FF4500"
  }
}

Docs

• docs/index.md (overview)
• docs/configuration.md
• docs/group-messages.md
• docs/gateway.md
• docs/web.md
• docs/discovery.md
• docs/agent.md
• docs/discord.md
• docs/wizard.md
• Webhooks + external triggers: docs/webhook.md
• Gmail hooks (email → wake): docs/gmail-pubsub.md

Email hooks (Gmail)

clawdbot hooks gmail setup --account you@gmail.com
clawdbot hooks gmail run

• docs/security.md
• docs/troubleshooting.md
• docs/ios/connect.md
• docs/clawdbot-mac.md

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines, maintainers, and how to submit PRs.

AI/vibe-coded PRs welcome! 🤖

Clawd

Clawdbot was built for Clawd, a space lobster AI assistant.

• https://clawd.me
• https://soul.md
• https://steipete.me