LocalSend

Interactive file transfer between devices on the local network using real Telegram inline keyboard buttons. Works with any device running the LocalSend app (Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux).

Install

The localsend-cli is a zero-dependency Python CLI. Install from GitHub:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Chordlini/localsend-cli/master/localsend-cli -o ~/.local/bin/localsend-cli
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/localsend-cli

Full docs: https://github.com/Chordlini/localsend-cli

Requires Python 3.8+ and openssl (for TLS).

Telegram Button Format

All menus MUST use OpenClaw's inline button format. Send buttons alongside your message using this structure:

buttons: [
  [{ "text": "Label", "callback_data": "ls:action" }],
  [{ "text": "Row 2", "callback_data": "ls:other" }]
]

• Outer array = rows of buttons
• Inner array = buttons per row (max 3 per row for readability)
• Prefix all callback_data with ls: to namespace this skill
• When user taps a button, you receive: callback_data: ls:action

State Awareness (CRITICAL)

This skill uses conversational state. Track where you are in the flow:

RULES:

• When in awaiting_file state and user sends an image/file/path → treat it as the file to send. Show confirmation buttons immediately.
• When in awaiting_text state and user types anything → treat it as the text to send.
• NEVER comment on, describe, or react to a file/image when you're in awaiting_file state.
• State resets to idle when user taps ls:menu or the flow completes.

On Trigger: Main Menu

When the user types /localsend or mentions sending/receiving files locally, send this message with real inline buttons:

Message:

📡 LocalSend — File Transfer

Buttons:

buttons: [
  [
    { "text": "📤 Send", "callback_data": "ls:send" },
    { "text": "📥 Receive", "callback_data": "ls:receive" }
  ],
  [
    { "text": "🔍 Scan Devices", "callback_data": "ls:devices" }
  ]
]

Do NOT run any commands yet. Wait for the button tap.

Flow: Scan Devices

Trigger: callback_data: ls:devices or user says "scan", "discover", "find devices"

1. Run:

   localsend-cli discover --json -t 2
   

2. Devices found — create one button per device, plus Refresh and Back:

   Message:

   📡 Found 3 devices:
   

   Buttons (one device per row):

   buttons: [
     [{ "text": "📱 Fast Potato — 192.168.0.148", "callback_data": "ls:dev:Fast Potato" }],
     [{ "text": "💻 Rami-Desktop — 192.168.0.100", "callback_data": "ls:dev:Rami-Desktop" }],
     [{ "text": "🖥️ Living Room PC — 192.168.0.105", "callback_data": "ls:dev:Living Room PC" }],
     [
       { "text": "🔄 Refresh", "callback_data": "ls:devices" },
       { "text": "⬅️ Back", "callback_data": "ls:menu" }
     ]
   ]
   

3. No devices found:

   Message:

   📡 No devices found.
   Make sure LocalSend is open on the other device and both are on the same WiFi.
   

   Buttons:

   buttons: [
     [
       { "text": "🔄 Try Again", "callback_data": "ls:devices" },
       { "text": "⬅️ Back", "callback_data": "ls:menu" }
     ]
   ]
   

4. User taps a device (callback_data: ls:dev:DEVICENAME) — store it as the selected target. Show action menu:

   Message:

   ✅ Selected: Fast Potato (192.168.0.148)
   What do you want to do?
   

   Buttons:

   buttons: [
     [
       { "text": "📄 Send File", "callback_data": "ls:sendfile" },
       { "text": "📝 Send Text", "callback_data": "ls:sendtext" }
     ],
     [
       { "text": "📦 Send Multiple", "callback_data": "ls:sendmulti" },
       { "text": "⬅️ Back", "callback_data": "ls:devices" }
     ]
   ]
   

Flow: Send

Trigger: callback_data: ls:send

Step 1 — Pick target device (if not already selected)

Run discover and show device picker (see Scan Devices flow above).

Step 2 — Choose what to send

Message:

Send to Fast Potato:

Buttons:

buttons: [
  [
    { "text": "📄 Send File", "callback_data": "ls:sendfile" },
    { "text": "📝 Send Text", "callback_data": "ls:sendtext" }
  ],
  [
    { "text": "📦 Send Multiple", "callback_data": "ls:sendmulti" },
    { "text": "⬅️ Back", "callback_data": "ls:menu" }
  ]
]

Send File (callback_data: ls:sendfile)

1. Ask: "Send me the file, drop a path, or tell me which file to send"

2. User provides file path or sends a file via chat

3. Get file size with stat or ls -lh

4. Confirm with buttons:

   Message:

   📤 Send to Fast Potato?
   📄 project.zip — 4.2 MB
   

   Buttons:

   buttons: [
     [
       { "text": "✅ Send", "callback_data": "ls:confirm-send" },
       { "text": "❌ Cancel", "callback_data": "ls:menu" }
     ]
   ]
   

5. On confirm, run:

   localsend-cli send --to "Fast Potato" /path/to/project.zip
   

6. Report result:

   Message:

   ✅ Sent project.zip (4.2 MB) to Fast Potato
   

   Buttons:

   buttons: [
     [
       { "text": "📤 Send Another", "callback_data": "ls:send" },
       { "text": "⬅️ Menu", "callback_data": "ls:menu" }
     ]
   ]
   

Send Text (callback_data: ls:sendtext)

1. Ask: "Type the text you want to send:"

2. User types their message

3. Write text to temp file, send:

   echo "user's text" > /tmp/localsend-text.txt
   localsend-cli send --to "Fast Potato" /tmp/localsend-text.txt
   rm /tmp/localsend-text.txt
   

4. Confirm:

   Message:

   ✅ Text sent to Fast Potato
   

   Buttons:

   buttons: [
     [
       { "text": "📝 Send More Text", "callback_data": "ls:sendtext" },
       { "text": "📤 Send File", "callback_data": "ls:sendfile" }
     ],
     [{ "text": "⬅️ Menu", "callback_data": "ls:menu" }]
   ]
   

Send Multiple (callback_data: ls:sendmulti)

1. Ask: "List the files or give me a glob pattern (e.g. ~/Screenshots/*.png)"

2. User provides paths or pattern

3. Expand glob, list files with sizes:

   Message:

   📦 Send 5 files to Fast Potato?
   📄 photo1.jpg — 2.1 MB
   📄 photo2.jpg — 1.8 MB
   📄 photo3.jpg — 3.2 MB
   📄 photo4.jpg — 2.5 MB
   📄 photo5.jpg — 1.9 MB
   📊 Total: 11.5 MB
   

   Buttons:

   buttons: [
     [
       { "text": "✅ Send All", "callback_data": "ls:confirm-send" },
       { "text": "❌ Cancel", "callback_data": "ls:menu" }
     ]
   ]
   

4. On confirm, run:

   localsend-cli send --to "Fast Potato" photo1.jpg photo2.jpg photo3.jpg photo4.jpg photo5.jpg
   

5. Report:

   Message:

   ✅ Sent 5 files (11.5 MB) to Fast Potato
   

   Buttons:

   buttons: [
     [
       { "text": "📤 Send More", "callback_data": "ls:send" },
       { "text": "⬅️ Menu", "callback_data": "ls:menu" }
     ]
   ]
   

Flow: Receive

Trigger: callback_data: ls:receive or user says "receive", "start receiving", "listen"

Step 1 — Snapshot current files

ls -1 /home/rami/.openclaw/workspace/_incoming/ > /tmp/localsend-before.txt

Step 2 — Start receiver in background

localsend-cli --alias openclaw-workspace receive --save-dir /home/rami/.openclaw/workspace/_incoming/ -y

Run with run_in_background: true. Store the task ID.

CRITICAL: --alias MUST come BEFORE receive (global flag).

Step 3 — Confirm ready with buttons

Message:

📡 Receiver active — "openclaw-workspace"
📁 Saving to: ~/incoming/
✅ Auto-accept: ON

Send files from your device whenever ready.

Buttons:

buttons: [
  [
    { "text": "🛑 Stop", "callback_data": "ls:stop" },
    { "text": "🔄 Status", "callback_data": "ls:status" }
  ]
]

Step 4 — Monitor for incoming files

Poll every 3 seconds for new files:

ls -1 /home/rami/.openclaw/workspace/_incoming/ > /tmp/localsend-after.txt
diff /tmp/localsend-before.txt /tmp/localsend-after.txt

Step 5 — Post-receive confirmation (MANDATORY)

When file(s) arrive, immediately present in chat with inline buttons.

Single file:

Message:

✅ Received from Fast Potato:
📄 portfolio.zip — 240 MB
📁 Saved to: ~/incoming/portfolio.zip

Buttons (contextual by file type):

buttons: [
  [
    { "text": "📂 Extract", "callback_data": "ls:extract" },
    { "text": "🚀 Deploy", "callback_data": "ls:deploy" }
  ],
  [
    { "text": "📥 Receive More", "callback_data": "ls:receive" },
    { "text": "🛑 Stop", "callback_data": "ls:stop" }
  ]
]

Image file — show inline preview:

Message:

✅ Received from Fast Potato:
🖼️ screenshot.png — 2.1 MB

Include MEDIA:~/incoming/screenshot.png for inline preview.

Buttons:

buttons: [
  [
    { "text": "📂 Open Folder", "callback_data": "ls:openfolder" },
    { "text": "📥 Receive More", "callback_data": "ls:receive" }
  ],
  [{ "text": "🛑 Stop", "callback_data": "ls:stop" }]
]

Multiple files:

Message:

✅ Received 3 files from Fast Potato:
📄 app.apk — 45 MB
📄 README.md — 2 KB
🖼️ icon.png — 128 KB
📊 Total: 45.1 MB

Buttons:

buttons: [
  [
    { "text": "📂 Show All", "callback_data": "ls:showall" },
    { "text": "📥 Receive More", "callback_data": "ls:receive" }
  ],
  [{ "text": "🛑 Stop", "callback_data": "ls:stop" }]
]

Contextual button rules by file type:

• .zip, .tar.gz → add 📂 Extract button
• .png, .jpg, .gif, .webp → show MEDIA: inline + 📂 Open Folder
• .apk → add 📱 Install button
• .html, .js, .py → add 👁️ Preview button
• website archives → add 🚀 Deploy button

Step 6 — Stop receiver

Trigger: callback_data: ls:stop

1. Kill the background task using stored task ID

2. Confirm:

   Message:

   🛑 Receiver stopped.
   

   Buttons:

   buttons: [
     [
       { "text": "📡 Restart", "callback_data": "ls:receive" },
       { "text": "⬅️ Menu", "callback_data": "ls:menu" }
     ]
   ]
   

Flow: Status Check

Trigger: callback_data: ls:status

Check if receiver is running and count new files:

ls -1 /home/rami/.openclaw/workspace/_incoming/ > /tmp/localsend-after.txt
diff /tmp/localsend-before.txt /tmp/localsend-after.txt | grep "^>" | wc -l

Message:

📡 Receiver: Running (12 min)
📁 Files received: 2
📊 Total: 242 MB

Buttons:

buttons: [
  [
    { "text": "🛑 Stop", "callback_data": "ls:stop" },
    { "text": "📂 Show Files", "callback_data": "ls:showall" }
  ]
]

Callback Data Reference

CLI Reference

Troubleshooting

Reference

• CLI repo & docs: https://github.com/Chordlini/localsend-cli
• LocalSend protocol: references/protocol.md or https://github.com/localsend/protocol