claw — NanoClaw CLI

claw

is a Python CLI that sends prompts directly to a NanoClaw agent container from the terminal. It reads registered groups from the NanoClaw database, picks up secrets from

.env

, and pipes a JSON payload into a container run — no chat app required.

What it does

• Send a prompt to any registered group by name, folder, or JID
• Default target is the main group (no

  -g

  needed for most use)
• Resume a previous session with

  -s <session-id>

• Read prompts from stdin (

  --pipe

  ) for scripting and piping
• List all registered groups with

  --list-groups

• Auto-detects

  container

  or

  docker

  runtime (or override with

  --runtime

  )
• Prints the agent's response to stdout; session ID to stderr
• Verbose mode (

  -v

  ) shows the command, redacted payload, and exit code

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8 or later
• NanoClaw installed with a built and tagged container image (

  nanoclaw-agent:latest

  )
• Either

  container

  (Apple Container, macOS 15+) or

  docker

  available in

  PATH

Install

Run this skill from within the NanoClaw directory. The script auto-detects its location, so the symlink always points to the right place.

1. Copy the script

mkdir -p scripts
cp "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/claw" scripts/claw
chmod +x scripts/claw

2. Symlink into PATH

mkdir -p ~/bin
ln -sf "$(pwd)/scripts/claw" ~/bin/claw

Make sure

~/bin

is in

PATH

. Add this to

~/.zshrc

or

~/.bashrc

if needed:

export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"

Then reload the shell:

source ~/.zshrc   # or ~/.bashrc

3. Verify

claw --list-groups

You should see registered groups. If NanoClaw isn't running or the database doesn't exist yet, the list will be empty — that's fine.

Usage Examples

# Send a prompt to the main group
claw "What's on my calendar today?"

# Send to a specific group by name (fuzzy match)
claw -g "family" "Remind everyone about dinner at 7"

# Send to a group by exact JID
claw -j "120363336345536173@g.us" "Hello"

# Resume a previous session
claw -s abc123 "Continue where we left off"

# Read prompt from stdin
echo "Summarize this" | claw --pipe -g dev

# Pipe a file
cat report.txt | claw --pipe "Summarize this report"

# List all registered groups
claw --list-groups

# Force a specific runtime
claw --runtime docker "Hello"

# Use a custom image tag (e.g. after rebuilding with a new tag)
claw --image nanoclaw-agent:dev "Hello"

# Verbose mode (debug info, secrets redacted)
claw -v "Hello"

# Custom timeout for long-running tasks
claw --timeout 600 "Run the full analysis"

Troubleshooting

"neither 'container' nor 'docker' found"

Install Docker Desktop or Apple Container (macOS 15+), or pass

--runtime

explicitly.

"no secrets found in .env"

The script auto-detects your NanoClaw directory and reads

.env

from it. Check that the file exists and contains at least one of:

CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN

,

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

,

ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN

.

Container times out

The default timeout is 300 seconds. For longer tasks, pass

--timeout 600

(or higher). If the container consistently hangs, check that your

nanoclaw-agent:latest

image is up to date by running

./container/build.sh

.

"group not found"

Run

claw --list-groups

to see what's registered. Group lookup does a fuzzy partial match on name and folder — if your query matches multiple groups, you'll get an error listing the ambiguous matches.

Container crashes mid-stream

Containers run with

--rm

so they are automatically removed. If the agent crashes before emitting the output sentinel,

claw

falls back to printing raw stdout. Use

-v

to see what the container produced. Rebuild the image with

./container/build.sh

if crashes are consistent.

Override the NanoClaw directory

If

claw

can't find your database or

.env

, set the

NANOCLAW_DIR

environment variable:

export NANOCLAW_DIR=/path/to/your/nanoclaw