| name | clawbot-agent |
| description | Complete guide to using and extending Clawbot Agent — CLI usage, setup, configuration, spawning additional agents, gateway platforms, skills, voice, tools, profiles, and a concise contributor reference. Load this skill when helping users configure Clawbot, troubleshoot issues, spawn agent instances, or make code contributions. |
| version | 2.0.0 |
| author | Clawbot Agent + Teknium |
| license | MIT |
| metadata | {"clawbot":{"tags":["clawbot","setup","configuration","multi-agent","spawning","cli","gateway","development"],"homepage":"https://github.com/aayushsoam/Clawbot-Agent","related_skills":["claude-code","codex","opencode"]}} |
Clawbot Agent
Clawbot Agent is an open-source AI agent framework by Soam Research that runs in your terminal, messaging platforms, and IDEs. It belongs to the same category as Claude Code (Anthropic), Codex (OpenAI), and OpenClaw — autonomous coding and task-execution agents that use tool calling to interact with your system. Clawbot works with any LLM provider (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, local models, and 15+ others) and runs on Linux, macOS, and WSL.
What makes Clawbot different:
- Self-improving through skills — Clawbot learns from experience by saving reusable procedures as skills. When it solves a complex problem, discovers a workflow, or gets corrected, it can persist that knowledge as a skill document that loads into future sessions. Skills accumulate over time, making the agent better at your specific tasks and environment.
- Persistent memory across sessions — remembers who you are, your preferences, environment details, and lessons learned. Pluggable memory backends (built-in, Honcho, Mem0, and more) let you choose how memory works.
- Multi-platform gateway — the same agent runs on Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Matrix, Email, and 10+ other platforms with full tool access, not just chat.
- Provider-agnostic — swap models and providers mid-workflow without changing anything else. Credential pools rotate across multiple API keys automatically.
- Profiles — run multiple independent Clawbot instances with isolated configs, sessions, skills, and memory.
- Extensible — plugins, MCP servers, custom tools, webhook triggers, cron scheduling, and the full Python ecosystem.
People use Clawbot for software development, research, system administration, data analysis, content creation, home automation, and anything else that benefits from an AI agent with persistent context and full system access.
This skill helps you work with Clawbot Agent effectively — setting it up, configuring features, spawning additional agent instances, troubleshooting issues, finding the right commands and settings, and understanding how the system works when you need to extend or contribute to it.
Docs: https://clawbot-agent.soamresearch.com/docs/
Quick Start
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SoamResearch/clawbot-agent/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
clawbot
clawbot chat -q "What is the capital of France?"
clawbot setup
clawbot model
clawbot doctor
CLI Reference
Global Flags
clawbot [flags] [command]
--version, -V Show version
--resume, -r SESSION Resume session by ID or title
--continue, -c [NAME] Resume by name, or most recent session
--worktree, -w Isolated git worktree mode (parallel agents)
--skills, -s SKILL Preload skills (comma-separate or repeat)
--profile, -p NAME Use a named profile
--yolo Skip dangerous command approval
--pass-session-id Include session ID in system prompt
No subcommand defaults to chat.
Chat
clawbot chat [flags]
-q, --query TEXT Single query, non-interactive
-m, --model MODEL Model (e.g. anthropic/claude-sonnet-4)
-t, --toolsets LIST Comma-separated toolsets
--provider PROVIDER Force provider (openrouter, anthropic, soam, etc.)
-v, --verbose Verbose output
-Q, --quiet Suppress banner, spinner, tool previews
--checkpoints Enable filesystem checkpoints (/rollback)
--source TAG Session source tag (default: cli)
Configuration
clawbot setup [section] Interactive wizard (model|terminal|gateway|tools|agent)
clawbot model Interactive model/provider picker
clawbot config View current config
clawbot config edit Open config.yaml in $EDITOR
clawbot config set KEY VAL Set a config value
clawbot config path Print config.yaml path
clawbot config env-path Print .env path
clawbot config check Check for missing/outdated config
clawbot config migrate Update config with new options
clawbot login [--provider P] OAuth login (soam, openai-codex)
clawbot logout Clear stored auth
clawbot doctor [--fix] Check dependencies and config
clawbot status [--all] Show component status
Tools & Skills
clawbot tools Interactive tool enable/disable (curses UI)
clawbot tools list Show all tools and status
clawbot tools enable NAME Enable a toolset
clawbot tools disable NAME Disable a toolset
clawbot skills list List installed skills
clawbot skills search QUERY Search the skills hub
clawbot skills install ID Install a skill
clawbot skills inspect ID Preview without installing
clawbot skills config Enable/disable skills per platform
clawbot skills check Check for updates
clawbot skills update Update outdated skills
clawbot skills uninstall N Remove a hub skill
clawbot skills publish PATH Publish to registry
clawbot skills browse Browse all available skills
clawbot skills tap add REPO Add a GitHub repo as skill source
MCP Servers
clawbot mcp serve Run Clawbot as an MCP server
clawbot mcp add NAME Add an MCP server (--url or --command)
clawbot mcp remove NAME Remove an MCP server
clawbot mcp list List configured servers
clawbot mcp test NAME Test connection
clawbot mcp configure NAME Toggle tool selection
Gateway (Messaging Platforms)
clawbot gateway run Start gateway foreground
clawbot gateway install Install as background service
clawbot gateway start/stop Control the service
clawbot gateway restart Restart the service
clawbot gateway status Check status
clawbot gateway setup Configure platforms
Supported platforms: Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, Email, SMS, Matrix, Mattermost, Home Assistant, DingTalk, Feishu, WeCom, BlueBubbles (iMessage), Weixin (WeChat), API Server, Webhooks. Open WebUI connects via the API Server adapter.
Platform docs: https://clawbot-agent.soamresearch.com/docs/user-guide/messaging/
Sessions
clawbot sessions list List recent sessions
clawbot sessions browse Interactive picker
clawbot sessions export OUT Export to JSONL
clawbot sessions rename ID T Rename a session
clawbot sessions delete ID Delete a session
clawbot sessions prune Clean up old sessions (--older-than N days)
clawbot sessions stats Session store statistics
Cron Jobs
clawbot cron list List jobs (--all for disabled)
clawbot cron create SCHED Create: '30m', 'every 2h', '0 9 * * *'
clawbot cron edit ID Edit schedule, prompt, delivery
clawbot cron pause/resume ID Control job state
clawbot cron run ID Trigger on next tick
clawbot cron remove ID Delete a job
clawbot cron status Scheduler status
Webhooks
clawbot webhook subscribe N Create route at /webhooks/<name>
clawbot webhook list List subscriptions
clawbot webhook remove NAME Remove a subscription
clawbot webhook test NAME Send a test POST
Profiles
clawbot profile list List all profiles
clawbot profile create NAME Create (--clone, --clone-all, --clone-from)
clawbot profile use NAME Set sticky default
clawbot profile delete NAME Delete a profile
clawbot profile show NAME Show details
clawbot profile alias NAME Manage wrapper scripts
clawbot profile rename A B Rename a profile
clawbot profile export NAME Export to tar.gz
clawbot profile import FILE Import from archive
Credential Pools
clawbot auth add Interactive credential wizard
clawbot auth list [PROVIDER] List pooled credentials
clawbot auth remove P INDEX Remove by provider + index
clawbot auth reset PROVIDER Clear exhaustion status
Other
clawbot insights [--days N] Usage analytics
clawbot update Update to latest version
clawbot pairing list/approve/revoke DM authorization
clawbot plugins list/install/remove Plugin management
clawbot honcho setup/status Honcho memory integration (requires honcho plugin)
clawbot memory setup/status/off Memory provider config
clawbot completion bash|zsh Shell completions
clawbot acp ACP server (IDE integration)
clawbot claw migrate Migrate from OpenClaw
clawbot uninstall Uninstall Clawbot
Slash Commands (In-Session)
Type these during an interactive chat session.
Session Control
/new (/reset) Fresh session
/clear Clear screen + new session (CLI)
/retry Resend last message
/undo Remove last exchange
/title [name] Name the session
/compress Manually compress context
/stop Kill background processes
/rollback [N] Restore filesystem checkpoint
/background <prompt> Run prompt in background
/queue <prompt> Queue for next turn
/resume [name] Resume a named session
Configuration
/config Show config (CLI)
/model [name] Show or change model
/provider Show provider info
/personality [name] Set personality
/reasoning [level] Set reasoning (none|minimal|low|medium|high|xhigh|show|hide)
/verbose Cycle: off → new → all → verbose
/voice [on|off|tts] Voice mode
/yolo Toggle approval bypass
/skin [name] Change theme (CLI)
/statusbar Toggle status bar (CLI)
Tools & Skills
/tools Manage tools (CLI)
/toolsets List toolsets (CLI)
/skills Search/install skills (CLI)
/skill <name> Load a skill into session
/cron Manage cron jobs (CLI)
/reload-mcp Reload MCP servers
/plugins List plugins (CLI)
Gateway
/approve Approve a pending command (gateway)
/deny Deny a pending command (gateway)
/restart Restart gateway (gateway)
/sethome Set current chat as home channel (gateway)
/update Update Clawbot to latest (gateway)
/platforms (/gateway) Show platform connection status (gateway)
Utility
/branch (/fork) Branch the current session
/btw Ephemeral side question (doesn't interrupt main task)
/fast Toggle priority/fast processing
/browser Open CDP browser connection
/history Show conversation history (CLI)
/save Save conversation to file (CLI)
/paste Attach clipboard image (CLI)
/image Attach local image file (CLI)
Info
/help Show commands
/commands [page] Browse all commands (gateway)
/usage Token usage
/insights [days] Usage analytics
/status Session info (gateway)
/profile Active profile info
Exit
/quit (/exit, /q) Exit CLI
Key Paths & Config
~/.clawbot/config.yaml Main configuration
~/.clawbot/.env API keys and secrets
$CLAWBOT_HOME/skills/ Installed skills
~/.clawbot/sessions/ Session transcripts
~/.clawbot/logs/ Gateway and error logs
~/.clawbot/auth.json OAuth tokens and credential pools
~/.clawbot/clawbot-agent/ Source code (if git-installed)
Profiles use ~/.clawbot/profiles/<name>/ with the same layout.
Config Sections
Edit with clawbot config edit or clawbot config set section.key value.
| Section | Key options |
|---|
model | default, provider, base_url, api_key, context_length |
agent | max_turns (90), tool_use_enforcement |
terminal | backend (local/docker/ssh/modal), cwd, timeout (180) |
compression | enabled, threshold (0.50), target_ratio (0.20) |
display | skin, tool_progress, show_reasoning, show_cost |
stt | enabled, provider (local/groq/openai/mistral) |
tts | provider (edge/elevenlabs/openai/minimax/mistral/neutts) |
memory | memory_enabled, user_profile_enabled, provider |
security | tirith_enabled, website_blocklist |
delegation | model, provider, base_url, api_key, max_iterations (50), reasoning_effort |
checkpoints | enabled, max_snapshots (50) |
Full config reference: https://clawbot-agent.soamresearch.com/docs/user-guide/configuration
Providers
20+ providers supported. Set via clawbot model or clawbot setup.
| Provider | Auth | Key env var |
|---|
| OpenRouter | API key | OPENROUTER_API_KEY |
| Anthropic | API key | ANTHROPIC_API_KEY |
| Soam Portal | OAuth | clawbot auth |
| OpenAI Codex | OAuth | clawbot auth |
| GitHub Copilot | Token | COPILOT_GITHUB_TOKEN |
| Google Gemini | API key | GOOGLE_API_KEY or GEMINI_API_KEY |
| DeepSeek | API key | DEEPSEEK_API_KEY |
| xAI / Grok | API key | XAI_API_KEY |
| Hugging Face | Token | HF_TOKEN |
| Z.AI / GLM | API key | GLM_API_KEY |
| MiniMax | API key | MINIMAX_API_KEY |
| MiniMax CN | API key | MINIMAX_CN_API_KEY |
| Kimi / Moonshot | API key | KIMI_API_KEY |
| Alibaba / DashScope | API key | DASHSCOPE_API_KEY |
| Xiaomi MiMo | API key | XIAOMI_API_KEY |
| Kilo Code | API key | KILOCODE_API_KEY |
| AI Gateway (Vercel) | API key | AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY |
| OpenCode Zen | API key | OPENCODE_ZEN_API_KEY |
| OpenCode Go | API key | OPENCODE_GO_API_KEY |
| Qwen OAuth | OAuth | clawbot login --provider qwen-oauth |
| Custom endpoint | Config | model.base_url + model.api_key in config.yaml |
| GitHub Copilot ACP | External | COPILOT_CLI_PATH or Copilot CLI |
Full provider docs: https://clawbot-agent.soamresearch.com/docs/integrations/providers
Toolsets
Enable/disable via clawbot tools (interactive) or clawbot tools enable/disable NAME.
| Toolset | What it provides |
|---|
web | Web search and content extraction |
browser | Browser automation (Browserbase, Camofox, or local Chromium) |
terminal | Shell commands and process management |
file | File read/write/search/patch |
code_execution | Sandboxed Python execution |
vision | Image analysis |
image_gen | AI image generation |
tts | Text-to-speech |
skills | Skill browsing and management |
memory | Persistent cross-session memory |
session_search | Search past conversations |
delegation | Subagent task delegation |
cronjob | Scheduled task management |
clarify | Ask user clarifying questions |
messaging | Cross-platform message sending |
search | Web search only (subset of web) |
todo | In-session task planning and tracking |
rl | Reinforcement learning tools (off by default) |
moa | Mixture of Agents (off by default) |
homeassistant | Smart home control (off by default) |
Tool changes take effect on /reset (new session). They do NOT apply mid-conversation to preserve prompt caching.
Voice & Transcription
STT (Voice → Text)
Voice messages from messaging platforms are auto-transcribed.
Provider priority (auto-detected):
- Local faster-whisper — free, no API key:
pip install faster-whisper
- Groq Whisper — free tier: set
GROQ_API_KEY
- OpenAI Whisper — paid: set
VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY
- Mistral Voxtral — set
MISTRAL_API_KEY
Config:
stt:
enabled: true
provider: local
local:
model: base
TTS (Text → Voice)
| Provider | Env var | Free? |
|---|
| Edge TTS | None | Yes (default) |
| ElevenLabs | ELEVENLABS_API_KEY | Free tier |
| OpenAI | VOICE_TOOLS_OPENAI_KEY | Paid |
| MiniMax | MINIMAX_API_KEY | Paid |
| Mistral (Voxtral) | MISTRAL_API_KEY | Paid |
| NeuTTS (local) | None (pip install neutts[all] + espeak-ng) | Free |
Voice commands: /voice on (voice-to-voice), /voice tts (always voice), /voice off.
Spawning Additional Clawbot Instances
Run additional Clawbot processes as fully independent subprocesses — separate sessions, tools, and environments.
When to Use This vs delegate_task
| delegate_task | Spawning clawbot process |
|---|
| Isolation | Separate conversation, shared process | Fully independent process |
| Duration | Minutes (bounded by parent loop) | Hours/days |
| Tool access | Subset of parent's tools | Full tool access |
| Interactive | No | Yes (PTY mode) |
| Use case | Quick parallel subtasks | Long autonomous missions |
One-Shot Mode
terminal(command="clawbot chat -q 'Research GRPO papers and write summary to ~/research/grpo.md'", timeout=300)
# Background for long tasks:
terminal(command="clawbot chat -q 'Set up CI/CD for ~/myapp'", background=true)
Interactive PTY Mode (via tmux)
Clawbot uses prompt_toolkit, which requires a real terminal. Use tmux for interactive spawning:
# Start
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s agent1 -x 120 -y 40 'clawbot'", timeout=10)
# Wait for startup, then send a message
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t agent1 'Build a FastAPI auth service' Enter", timeout=15)
# Read output
terminal(command="sleep 20 && tmux capture-pane -t agent1 -p", timeout=5)
# Send follow-up
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t agent1 'Add rate limiting middleware' Enter", timeout=5)
# Exit
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t agent1 '/exit' Enter && sleep 2 && tmux kill-session -t agent1", timeout=10)
Multi-Agent Coordination
# Agent A: backend
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s backend -x 120 -y 40 'clawbot -w'", timeout=10)
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t backend 'Build REST API for user management' Enter", timeout=15)
# Agent B: frontend
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s frontend -x 120 -y 40 'clawbot -w'", timeout=10)
terminal(command="sleep 8 && tmux send-keys -t frontend 'Build React dashboard for user management' Enter", timeout=15)
# Check progress, relay context between them
terminal(command="tmux capture-pane -t backend -p | tail -30", timeout=5)
terminal(command="tmux send-keys -t frontend 'Here is the API schema from the backend agent: ...' Enter", timeout=5)
Session Resume
# Resume most recent session
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'clawbot --continue'", timeout=10)
# Resume specific session
terminal(command="tmux new-session -d -s resumed 'clawbot --resume 20260225_143052_a1b2c3'", timeout=10)
Tips
- Prefer
delegate_task for quick subtasks — less overhead than spawning a full process
- Use
-w (worktree mode) when spawning agents that edit code — prevents git conflicts
- Set timeouts for one-shot mode — complex tasks can take 5-10 minutes
- Use
clawbot chat -q for fire-and-forget — no PTY needed
- Use tmux for interactive sessions — raw PTY mode has
\r vs \n issues with prompt_toolkit
- For scheduled tasks, use the
cronjob tool instead of spawning — handles delivery and retry
Troubleshooting
Voice not working
- Check
stt.enabled: true in config.yaml
- Verify provider:
pip install faster-whisper or set API key
- In gateway:
/restart. In CLI: exit and relaunch.
Tool not available
clawbot tools — check if toolset is enabled for your platform- Some tools need env vars (check
.env)
/reset after enabling tools
Model/provider issues
clawbot doctor — check config and dependenciesclawbot login — re-authenticate OAuth providers- Check
.env has the right API key
- Copilot 403:
gh auth login tokens do NOT work for Copilot API. You must use the Copilot-specific OAuth device code flow via clawbot model → GitHub Copilot.
Changes not taking effect
- Tools/skills:
/reset starts a new session with updated toolset
- Config changes: In gateway:
/restart. In CLI: exit and relaunch.
- Code changes: Restart the CLI or gateway process
Skills not showing
clawbot skills list — verify installedclawbot skills config — check platform enablement- Load explicitly:
/skill name or clawbot -s name
Gateway issues
Check logs first:
grep -i "failed to send\|error" ~/.clawbot/logs/gateway.log | tail -20
Common gateway problems:
- Gateway dies on SSH logout: Enable linger:
sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER
- Gateway dies on WSL2 close: WSL2 requires
systemd=true in /etc/wsl.conf for systemd services to work. Without it, gateway falls back to nohup (dies when session closes).
- Gateway crash loop: Reset the failed state:
systemctl --user reset-failed clawbot-gateway
Platform-specific issues
- Discord bot silent: Must enable Message Content Intent in Bot → Privileged Gateway Intents.
- Slack bot only works in DMs: Must subscribe to
message.channels event. Without it, the bot ignores public channels.
- Windows HTTP 400 "No models provided": Config file encoding issue (BOM). Ensure
config.yaml is saved as UTF-8 without BOM.
Auxiliary models not working
If auxiliary tasks (vision, compression, session_search) fail silently, the auto provider can't find a backend. Either set OPENROUTER_API_KEY or GOOGLE_API_KEY, or explicitly configure each auxiliary task's provider:
clawbot config set auxiliary.vision.provider <your_provider>
clawbot config set auxiliary.vision.model <model_name>
Where to Find Things
Contributor Quick Reference
For occasional contributors and PR authors. Full developer docs: https://clawbot-agent.soamresearch.com/docs/developer-guide/
Project Layout
clawbot-agent/
├── run_agent.py # AIAgent — core conversation loop
├── model_tools.py # Tool discovery and dispatch
├── toolsets.py # Toolset definitions
├── cli.py # Interactive CLI (ClawbotCLI)
├── clawbot_state.py # SQLite session store
├── agent/ # Prompt builder, context compression, memory, model routing, credential pooling, skill dispatch
├── clawbot_cli/ # CLI subcommands, config, setup, commands
│ ├── commands.py # Slash command registry (CommandDef)
│ ├── config.py # DEFAULT_CONFIG, env var definitions
│ └── main.py # CLI entry point and argparse
├── tools/ # One file per tool
│ └── registry.py # Central tool registry
├── gateway/ # Messaging gateway
│ └── platforms/ # Platform adapters (telegram, discord, etc.)
├── cron/ # Job scheduler
├── tests/ # ~3000 pytest tests
└── website/ # Docusaurus docs site
Config: ~/.clawbot/config.yaml (settings), ~/.clawbot/.env (API keys).
Adding a Tool (3 files)
1. Create tools/your_tool.py:
import json, os
from tools.registry import registry
def check_requirements() -> bool:
return bool(os.getenv("EXAMPLE_API_KEY"))
def example_tool(param: str, task_id: str = None) -> str:
return json.dumps({"success": True, "data": "..."})
registry.register(
name="example_tool",
toolset="example",
schema={"name": "example_tool", "description": "...", "parameters": {...}},
handler=lambda args, **kw: example_tool(
param=args.get("param", ""), task_id=kw.get("task_id")),
check_fn=check_requirements,
requires_env=["EXAMPLE_API_KEY"],
)
2. Add to toolsets.py → _CLAWBOT_CORE_TOOLS list.
Auto-discovery: any tools/*.py file with a top-level registry.register() call is imported automatically — no manual list needed.
All handlers must return JSON strings. Use get_clawbot_home() for paths, never hardcode ~/.clawbot.
Adding a Slash Command
- Add
CommandDef to COMMAND_REGISTRY in clawbot_cli/commands.py
- Add handler in
cli.py → process_command()
- (Optional) Add gateway handler in
gateway/run.py
All consumers (help text, autocomplete, Telegram menu, Slack mapping) derive from the central registry automatically.
Agent Loop (High Level)
run_conversation():
1. Build system prompt
2. Loop while iterations < max:
a. Call LLM (OpenAI-format messages + tool schemas)
b. If tool_calls → dispatch each via handle_function_call() → append results → continue
c. If text response → return
3. Context compression triggers automatically near token limit
Testing
python -m pytest tests/ -o 'addopts=' -q
python -m pytest tests/tools/ -q
- Tests auto-redirect
CLAWBOT_HOME to temp dirs — never touch real ~/.clawbot/
- Run full suite before pushing any change
- Use
-o 'addopts=' to clear any baked-in pytest flags
Commit Conventions
type: concise subject line
Optional body.
Types: fix:, feat:, refactor:, docs:, chore:
Key Rules
- Never break prompt caching — don't change context, tools, or system prompt mid-conversation
- Message role alternation — never two assistant or two user messages in a row
- Use
get_clawbot_home() from clawbot_constants for all paths (profile-safe)
- Config values go in
config.yaml, secrets go in .env
- New tools need a
check_fn so they only appear when requirements are met
