README

🦀 ZeroClaw — Personal AI Assistant


  You own the agent. You own the data. You own the machine it runs on.



  
  
  
  
  
  



  Website ·
  Docs ·
  Philosophy ·
  Quick start ·
  Architecture ·
  Discord


---

ZeroClaw is an agent runtime — a single Rust binary you configure and run. It talks to LLM providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama, and ~20 others), reaches the world through 30+ channels (Discord, Telegram, Matrix, email, voice, webhooks, your own CLI), and acts through tools (shell, browser, HTTP, hardware, custom MCP servers). Everything runs on your machine, with your keys, in your workspace.

Read the Philosophy for the four opinions that shape it.

 Install

 Unix (recommended)

 generated:readme-unix-fast by cargo generate installers - do not edit 
sh
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw/master/install.sh | sh
"${CARGO_HOME:-$HOME/.cargo}/bin/zeroclaw" quickstart

 end generated:readme-unix-fast 

 Windows (recommended)

Use the Rust-free prebuilt PowerShell path in the Windows setup guide. It installs the current release, updates PATH, and runs Quickstart.

For the guided Unix installer, source builds, app and feature selection, and PATH behavior, compare the installation paths.

Run ./install.sh --help for the complete Unix installer flag reference.

 Working on the docs? The translated documentation catalogues live in a
 git submodule (docs/book/po). The Rust build does not need it, but building
 or syncing the docs does. Clone with it, or add it to an existing clone:

 bash
 git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw.git
 git submodule update --init docs/book/po    existing clone
 

Platform-specific notes: Linux · macOS · Windows · FreeBSD · NixOS · Docker

 Quick start

bash
zeroclaw quickstart                one-shot setup: pick a provider, write a working config
zeroclaw agent -a           interactive chat using the [agents.] entry
zeroclaw service install           register as systemd/launchctl/Windows Service
zeroclaw service start             run it always-on in the background


Full walkthrough: Quick start — or skip the safety gates with YOLO mode for dev boxes.

 What ZeroClaw does

- Multi-channel — one agent answering you across every channel you configure. Inbound messages from Discord, Telegram, Matrix, email, webhooks, CLI — all delivered to the same agent loop.
- Provider-agnostic — model providers are pluggable. Configure Anthropic, OpenAI, local Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Fallback chains and routing keep the agent running when a provider flakes.
- Security-first, with escape hatches — default autonomy is supervised: medium-risk ops require approval, high-risk blocked. Workspace boundaries, command policy, OS-level sandboxes (Landlock / Bubblewrap / Seatbelt / Docker), and cryptographic tool receipts on every action. YOLO mode exists for trusted dev environments.
- Hardware-capable — GPIO / I2C / SPI / USB on Raspberry Pi, STM32, Ar