ZeroClaw Quick Reference

ZeroClaw is a fast, small (<5MB RAM), fully autonomous AI assistant infrastructure built in Rust.

Core Characteristics:

• Single binary (~8.8MB release), no runtime dependencies
• <10ms cold start, 16+ communication channels
• Runs on $10 hardware (ARM, x86, RISC-V)
• Config: ~/.zeroclaw/config.toml
• Workspace: ~/.zeroclaw/workspace/
• Auth profiles: ~/.zeroclaw/auth-profiles.json (encrypted)

Installation

Install

# Homebrew (macOS/Linux)
brew install zeroclaw

# Clone + bootstrap (recommended — inspect before running)
git clone https://github.com/zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw.git
cd zeroclaw && ./bootstrap.sh

# Bootstrap options: --prefer-prebuilt, --prebuilt-only, --docker, --onboard

# Cargo (requires Rust toolchain)
cargo install zeroclaw

Update

git clone https://github.com/zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw.git /tmp/zeroclaw-update
cd /tmp/zeroclaw-update && bash scripts/bootstrap.sh --prefer-prebuilt
rm -rf /tmp/zeroclaw-update
zeroclaw --version

Onboarding

ZEROCLAW_API_KEY="..." zeroclaw onboard --provider openrouter
zeroclaw onboard --interactive    # Full wizard
zeroclaw onboard --channels-only  # Reconfigure channels only

Essential Commands

Daily Use

• zeroclaw agent - Interactive AI chat
• zeroclaw agent -m "message" - Single message
• zeroclaw daemon - Full autonomous runtime

Diagnostics

• zeroclaw status - Check system status
• zeroclaw doctor - Run full diagnostics
• zeroclaw channel doctor - Check channel health

Providers & Models

• zeroclaw providers - List all providers
• zeroclaw models refresh - Refresh model catalogs
• zeroclaw models refresh --provider <ID> - Refresh specific provider

Channels

• zeroclaw channel list - List all channels
• zeroclaw channel start - Start channels
• zeroclaw channel start <channel> - Start specific channel

Service

• zeroclaw service install - Install as system service
• zeroclaw service uninstall - Remove system service
• zeroclaw service start/stop/restart - Control service
• zeroclaw service status - Check service status

Other

• zeroclaw completions bash|zsh - Generate shell completions
• zeroclaw migrate openclaw [--dry-run] - Import from OpenClaw
• zeroclaw gateway [--port 0] - Start webhook gateway (port 0 = random)

Providers Overview

ZeroClaw supports 30+ built-in providers plus custom endpoints.

Built-in providers:

• openrouter - OpenRouter (default, multi-provider aggregation)
• anthropic - Anthropic Claude models
• openai / openai-codex - OpenAI (API key / OAuth)
• groq, xai, together, deepseek - Cloud providers
• ollama, lmstudio, llamacpp, vllm, osaurus - Local servers
• custom:<URL> / anthropic-custom:<URL> - Any compatible endpoint

See complete catalog: PROVIDERS.md

Quick custom provider setup:

# ~/.zeroclaw/config.toml
default_provider = "custom:https://your-api.example.com"
# api_key resolved from $ZEROCLAW_API_KEY env var (recommended) or set here
default_model = "your-model"

Channels Overview

ZeroClaw supports 16+ communication channels.

See detailed channel-by-channel setup: CHANNELS.md

Configuration Overview

ZeroClaw uses ~/.zeroclaw/config.toml for all settings.

Basic provider setup:

default_provider = "openrouter"
# api_key resolved from $ZEROCLAW_API_KEY env var (recommended) or set here (encrypted at rest)
default_model = "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
default_temperature = 0.7

Autonomy levels:

[autonomy]
level = "supervised"
workspace_only = true
allowed_commands = ["git", "npm", "cargo", "ls", "cat"]
max_actions_per_hour = 20
max_cost_per_day_cents = 500

Emergency Stop (E-Stop): ZeroClaw includes a multi-granularity shutdown system:

• kill_all - Terminate entire agent runtime
• network_kill - Block all external API calls
• domain_block - Restrict browser navigation
• tool_freeze - Prevent tool execution while preserving state

Common security settings:

# Restrict to workspace only (recommended)
[autonomy]
workspace_only = true
allowed_paths = ["/path/to/project"]

# Set cost limits
[autonomy]
max_cost_per_day_cents = 500
max_actions_per_hour = 20

# Block dangerous commands
[autonomy]
blocked_commands = ["rm -rf", "dd", "mkfs"]

See complete config reference: CONFIG.md See security best practices: SECURITY.md

Troubleshooting

Quick Diagnostics

zeroclaw --version
zeroclaw status
zeroclaw doctor
zeroclaw channel doctor

Common Issues

Logs

• macOS/Windows: ~/.zeroclaw/logs/daemon.stdout.log
• Linux systemd: journalctl --user -u zeroclaw.service -f

Getting Help

1. Run zeroclaw doctor for automated diagnostics
2. Check logs for error messages
3. Review config: cat ~/.zeroclaw/config.toml
4. Full documentation: https://github.com/zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw