Claw Code

[!IMPORTANT] Claw Code is not the serious production project here. This repository is closer to a museum exhibit than a product pitch, a crustacean-run artifact kept alive by clawed gajaes, swept and labeled by agents, and automatically maintained according to the harnesses above.

As already described in the project philosophy, this is not meant to be hand-operated like a normal product repo. It is an agent-managed exhibit: the harnesses plan, execute, verify, label, and preserve the artifact while the crabs keep the tank running.

If you want to actually run work, start with LazyCodex or Gajae-Code. If you want to inspect the strange little fossil of the Claw Code moment, continue below.

For the longer public explanation behind this philosophy, see here.

Claw Code is the public Rust implementation of the claw CLI agent harness. The canonical implementation lives in rust/, and the current source of truth for this repository is ultraworkers/claw-code.

[!IMPORTANT] Start with USAGE.md for build, auth, CLI, session, and parity-harness workflows. For file submission/navigation questions, see Navigation and file context. For local OpenAI-compatible models and offline skill installs, see Local OpenAI-compatible providers and skills setup. Windows users can jump to the PowerShell-first Windows install and release quickstart. Make claw doctor your first health check after building, use rust/README.md for crate-level details, read PARITY.md for the current Rust-port checkpoint, and see docs/container.md for the container-first workflow.

ACP / Zed status: claw-code does not ship an ACP/Zed daemon or JSON-RPC entrypoint yet. Run claw acp (or claw --acp) for the current status instead of guessing from source layout; claw acp serve is currently a discoverability alias only, returns status with exit code 0, and real ACP support remains tracked separately in ROADMAP.md. For the public JSON contract, see docs/g011-acp-json-rpc-status-contract.md.

Current repository shape

• rust/ — canonical Rust workspace and the claw CLI binary
• USAGE.md — task-oriented usage guide for the current product surface
• PARITY.md — Rust-port parity status and migration notes
• ROADMAP.md — active roadmap and cleanup backlog
• PHILOSOPHY.md — project intent and system-design framing
• src/ + tests/ — companion Python/reference workspace and audit helpers; not the primary runtime surface

Quick start

[!NOTE] [!WARNING] cargo install claw-code installs the wrong thing. The claw-code crate on crates.io is a deprecated stub that places claw-code-deprecated.exe — not claw. Running it only prints "claw-code has been renamed to agent-code". Do not use cargo install claw-code. Either build from source (this repo) or install the upstream binary:

cargo install agent-code   # upstream binary — installs 'agent.exe' (Windows) / 'agent' (Unix), NOT 'agent-code'

This repo (ultraworkers/claw-code) is build-from-source only — follow the steps below.

# 1. Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/ultraworkers/claw-code
cd claw-code/rust
cargo build --workspace

# 2. Set your API key (Anthropic API key — not a Claude subscription)
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

# 3. Verify everything is wired correctly
./target/debug/claw doctor

# 4. Run a prompt
./target/debug/claw prompt "say hello"

# 5. Start an interactive session
./target/debug/claw

[!NOTE] Windows (PowerShell): the binary is claw.exe, not claw. Use .\target\debug\claw.exe or run cargo run -- prompt "say hello" to skip the path lookup.

Windows setup

PowerShell is a supported Windows path. Use whichever shell works for you. The common onboarding issues on Windows are:

1. Install Rust first — download from https://rustup.rs/ and run the installer. Close and reopen your terminal when it finishes.
2. Verify Rust is on PATH:

   cargo --version
   

   If this fails, reopen your terminal or run the PATH setup from the Rust installer output, then retry.
3. Clone and build (works in PowerShell, Git Bash, or WSL):

   git clone https://github.com/ultraworkers/claw-code
   cd claw-code/rust
   cargo build --workspace
   

4. Run (PowerShell — note .exe and backslash):

   $env:ANTHROPIC_API_KEY = "sk-ant-..."
   .\target\debug\claw.exe prompt "say hello"
   

For release ZIPs, PATH setup, provider switching, and notification smoke checks, see docs/windows-install-release.md.

Git Bash / WSL are optional alternatives, not requirements. If you prefer bash-style paths (/c/Users/you/... instead of C:\Users\you\...), Git Bash (ships with Git for Windows) works well. In Git Bash, the MINGW64 prompt is expected and normal — not a broken install.

Post-build: locate the binary and verify

After running cargo build --workspace, the claw binary is built but not automatically installed to your system. Here's where to find it and how to verify the build succeeded.

Binary location

After cargo build --workspace in claw-code/rust/:

Debug build (default, faster compile):

• macOS/Linux: rust/target/debug/claw
• Windows: rust/target/debug/claw.exe

Release build (optimized, slower compile):

• macOS/Linux: rust/target/release/claw
• Windows: rust/target/release/claw.exe

If you ran cargo build without --release, the binary is in the debug/ folder.

Verify the build succeeded

Test the binary directly using its path:

# macOS/Linux (debug build)
./rust/target/debug/claw --help
./rust/target/debug/claw doctor

# Windows PowerShell (debug build)
.\rust\target\debug\claw.exe --help
.\rust\target\debug\claw.exe doctor

PowerShell smoke commands that do not require live credentials:

$env:CLAW_CONFIG_HOME = Join-Path $env:TEMP "claw config home"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $env:CLAW_CONFIG_HOME | Out-Null
Remove-Item Env:\ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, Env:\ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN, Env:\OPENAI_API_KEY -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
.\rust\target\debug\claw.exe help
.\rust\target\debug\claw.exe status
.\rust\target\debug\claw.exe config env
.\rust\target\debug\claw.exe doctor

If these commands succeed, the build is working. claw doctor is your first health check — it validates your API key, model access, and tool configuration.

Optional: Add to PATH

If you want to run claw from any directory without the full path, choose one of these approaches:

Option 1: Symlink (macOS/Linux)

ln -s $(pwd)/rust/target/debug/claw /usr/local/bin/claw

Then reload your shell and test:

claw --help

Option 2: Use cargo install (all platforms)

Build and install to Cargo's default location (~/.cargo/bin/, which is usually on PATH):

# From the claw-code/rust/ directory
cargo install --path . --force

# Then from anywhere
claw --help

Option 3: Update shell profile (bash/zsh)

Add this line to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:

export PATH="$(pwd)/rust/target/debug:$PATH"

Reload your shell:

source ~/.bashrc  # or source ~/.zshrc
claw --help

Troubleshooting

• "command not found: claw" — The binary is in rust/target/debug/claw, but it's not on your PATH. Use the full path ./rust/target/debug/claw or symlink/install as above.
• "permission denied" — On macOS/Linux, you may need chmod +x rust/target/debug/claw if the executable bit isn't set (rare).
• Debug vs. release — If the build is slow, you're in debug mode (default). Add --release to cargo build for faster runtime, but the build itself will take 5–10 minutes.

[!NOTE] Auth: claw requires an API key (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, etc.) — Claude subscription login is not a supported auth path.

Run the workspace test suite after verifying the binary works:

cd rust
cargo test --workspace

Documentation map

• USAGE.md — quick commands, auth, sessions, confi