NanoClaw Container Debugging

This guide covers debugging the containerized agent execution system.

Architecture Overview

Host (macOS) Container (Linux VM) ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── src/container-runner.ts container/agent-runner/ │ │ │ spawns container │ runs Claude Agent SDK │ with volume mounts │ with MCP servers │ │ ├── data/env/env ──────────────> /workspace/env-dir/env ├── groups/{folder} ───────────> /workspace/group ├── data/ipc/{folder} ────────> /workspace/ipc ├── data/sessions/{folder}/.claude/ ──> /home/node/.claude/ (isolated per-group) └── (main only) project root ──> /workspace/project

Important: The container runs as user node with HOME=/home/node . Session files must be mounted to /home/node/.claude/ (not /root/.claude/ ) for session resumption to work.

Log Locations

Log Location Content

Main app logs logs/nanoclaw.log

Host-side WhatsApp, routing, container spawning

Main app errors logs/nanoclaw.error.log

Host-side errors

Container run logs groups/{folder}/logs/container-*.log

Per-run: input, mounts, stderr, stdout

Claude sessions ~/.claude/projects/

Claude Code session history

Enabling Debug Logging

Set LOG_LEVEL=debug for verbose output:

For development

LOG_LEVEL=debug npm run dev

For launchd service (macOS), add to plist EnvironmentVariables:

<key>LOG_LEVEL</key> <string>debug</string>

For systemd service (Linux), add to unit [Service] section:

Environment=LOG_LEVEL=debug

Debug level shows:

• Full mount configurations

• Container command arguments

• Real-time container stderr

Common Issues

1. "Claude Code process exited with code 1"

Check the container log file in groups/{folder}/logs/container-*.log

Common causes:

Missing Authentication

Invalid API key · Please run /login

Fix: Ensure .env file exists with either OAuth token or API key:

cat .env # Should show one of:

CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN=sk-ant-oat01-... (subscription)

ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-api03-... (pay-per-use)

Root User Restriction

--dangerously-skip-permissions cannot be used with root/sudo privileges

Fix: Container must run as non-root user. Check Dockerfile has USER node .

2. Environment Variables Not Passing

Runtime note: Environment variables passed via -e may be lost when using -i (interactive/piped stdin).

Workaround: The system extracts only authentication variables (CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN , ANTHROPIC_API_KEY ) from .env and mounts them for sourcing inside the container. Other env vars are not exposed.

To verify env vars are reaching the container:

echo '{}' | docker run -i
-v $(pwd)/data/env:/workspace/env-dir:ro
--entrypoint /bin/bash nanoclaw-agent:latest
-c 'export $(cat /workspace/env-dir/env | xargs); echo "OAuth: ${#CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN} chars, API: ${#ANTHROPIC_API_KEY} chars"'

3. Mount Issues

Container mount notes:

• Docker supports both -v and --mount syntax

• Use :ro suffix for readonly mounts:

Readonly

-v /path:/container/path:ro

Read-write

-v /path:/container/path

To check what's mounted inside a container:

docker run --rm --entrypoint /bin/bash nanoclaw-agent:latest -c 'ls -la /workspace/'

Expected structure:

/workspace/ ├── env-dir/env # Environment file (CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY) ├── group/ # Current group folder (cwd) ├── project/ # Project root (main channel only) ├── global/ # Global CLAUDE.md (non-main only) ├── ipc/ # Inter-process communication │ ├── messages/ # Outgoing WhatsApp messages │ ├── tasks/ # Scheduled task commands │ ├── current_tasks.json # Read-only: scheduled tasks visible to this group │ └── available_groups.json # Read-only: WhatsApp groups for activation (main only) └── extra/ # Additional custom mounts

4. Permission Issues

The container runs as user node (uid 1000). Check ownership:

docker run --rm --entrypoint /bin/bash nanoclaw-agent:latest -c ' whoami ls -la /workspace/ ls -la /app/ '

All of /workspace/ and /app/ should be owned by node .

5. Session Not Resuming / "Claude Code process exited with code 1"

If sessions aren't being resumed (new session ID every time), or Claude Code exits with code 1 when resuming:

Root cause: The SDK looks for sessions at $HOME/.claude/projects/ . Inside the container, HOME=/home/node , so it looks at /home/node/.claude/projects/ .

Check the mount path:

In container-runner.ts, verify mount is to /home/node/.claude/, NOT /root/.claude/

grep -A3 "Claude sessions" src/container-runner.ts

Verify sessions are accessible:

docker run --rm --entrypoint /bin/bash
-v ~/.claude:/home/node/.claude
nanoclaw-agent:latest -c ' echo "HOME=$HOME" ls -la $HOME/.claude/projects/ 2>&1 | head -5 '

Fix: Ensure container-runner.ts mounts to /home/node/.claude/ :

mounts.push({ hostPath: claudeDir, containerPath: '/home/node/.claude', // NOT /root/.claude readonly: false });

6. MCP Server Failures

If an MCP server fails to start, the agent may exit. Check the container logs for MCP initialization errors.

Manual Container Testing

Test the full agent flow:

Set up env file

mkdir -p data/env groups/test cp .env data/env/env

Run test query

echo '{"prompt":"What is 2+2?","groupFolder":"test","chatJid":"test@g.us","isMain":false}' |
docker run -i
-v $(pwd)/data/env:/workspace/env-dir:ro
-v $(pwd)/groups/test:/workspace/group
-v $(pwd)/data/ipc:/workspace/ipc
nanoclaw-agent:latest

Test Claude Code directly:

docker run --rm --entrypoint /bin/bash
-v $(pwd)/data/env:/workspace/env-dir:ro
nanoclaw-agent:latest -c ' export $(cat /workspace/env-dir/env | xargs) claude -p "Say hello" --dangerously-skip-permissions --allowedTools "" '

Interactive shell in container:

docker run --rm -it --entrypoint /bin/bash nanoclaw-agent:latest

SDK Options Reference

The agent-runner uses these Claude Agent SDK options:

query({ prompt: input.prompt, options: { cwd: '/workspace/group', allowedTools: ['Bash', 'Read', 'Write', ...], permissionMode: 'bypassPermissions', allowDangerouslySkipPermissions: true, // Required with bypassPermissions settingSources: ['project'], mcpServers: { ... } } })

Important: allowDangerouslySkipPermissions: true is required when using permissionMode: 'bypassPermissions' . Without it, Claude Code exits with code 1.

Rebuilding After Changes

Rebuild main app

npm run build

Rebuild container (use --no-cache for clean rebuild)

./container/build.sh

Or force full rebuild

docker builder prune -af ./container/build.sh

Checking Container Image

List images

docker images

Check what's in the image

docker run --rm --entrypoint /bin/bash nanoclaw-agent:latest -c ' echo "=== Node version ===" node --version

echo "=== Claude Code version ===" claude --version

echo "=== Installed packages ===" ls /app/node_modules/ '

Session Persistence

Claude sessions are stored per-group in data/sessions/{group}/.claude/ for security isolation. Each group has its own session directory, preventing cross-group access to conversation history.

Critical: The mount path must match the container user's HOME directory:

• Container user: node

• Container HOME: /home/node

• Mount target: /home/node/.claude/ (NOT /root/.claude/ )

To clear sessions:

Clear all sessions for all groups

rm -rf data/sessions/

Clear sessions for a specific group

rm -rf data/sessions/{groupFolder}/.claude/

Also clear the session ID from NanoClaw's tracking (stored in SQLite)

sqlite3 store/messages.db "DELETE FROM sessions WHERE group_folder = '{groupFolder}'"

To verify session resumption is working, check the logs for the same session ID across messages:

grep "Session initialized" logs/nanoclaw.log | tail -5

Should show the SAME session ID for consecutive messages in the same group

IPC Debugging

The container communicates back to the host via files in /workspace/ipc/ :

Check pending messages

ls -la data/ipc/messages/

Check pending task operations

ls -la data/ipc/tasks/

Read a specific IPC file

cat data/ipc/messages/*.json

Check available groups (main channel only)

cat data/ipc/main/available_groups.json

Check current tasks snapshot

cat data/ipc/{groupFolder}/current_tasks.json

IPC file types:

• messages/*.json

• Agent writes: outgoing WhatsApp messages

• tasks/*.json

• Agent writes: task operations (schedule, pause, resume, cancel, refresh_groups)

• current_tasks.json

• Host writes: read-only snapshot of scheduled tasks

• available_groups.json

• Host writes: read-only list of WhatsApp groups (main only)

Quick Diagnostic Script

Run this to check common issues:

echo "=== Checking NanoClaw Container Setup ==="

echo -e "\n1. Authentication configured?" [ -f .env ] && (grep -q "CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN=sk-" .env || grep -q "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-" .env) && echo "OK" || echo "MISSING - add CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY to .env"

echo -e "\n2. Env file copied for container?" [ -f data/env/env ] && echo "OK" || echo "MISSING - will be created on first run"

echo -e "\n3. Container runtime running?" docker info &>/dev/null && echo "OK" || echo "NOT RUNNING - start Docker Desktop (macOS) or sudo systemctl start docker (Linux)"

echo -e "\n4. Container image exists?" echo '{}' | docker run -i --entrypoint /bin/echo nanoclaw-agent:latest "OK" 2>/dev/null || echo "MISSING - run ./container/build.sh"

echo -e "\n5. Session mount path correct?" grep -q "/home/node/.claude" src/container-runner.ts 2>/dev/null && echo "OK" || echo "WRONG - should mount to /home/node/.claude/, not /root/.claude/"

echo -e "\n6. Groups directory?" ls -la groups/ 2>/dev/null || echo "MISSING - run setup"

echo -e "\n7. Recent container logs?" ls -t groups//logs/container-.log 2>/dev/null | head -3 || echo "No container logs yet"

echo -e "\n8. Session continuity working?" SESSIONS=$(grep "Session initialized" logs/nanoclaw.log 2>/dev/null | tail -5 | awk '{print $NF}' | sort -u | wc -l) [ "$SESSIONS" -le 2 ] && echo "OK (recent sessions reusing IDs)" || echo "CHECK - multiple different session IDs, may indicate resumption issues"