IronClaw

Your secure personal AI assistant, always on your side

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Quick Start • Philosophy • Features • Installation • Configuration • Security • Architecture

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Quick Start

Choose an ironclaw-v* tag from the Releases page, then install it on macOS, Linux, or Windows/WSL. Replace X.Y.Z with the selected version, including any prerelease suffix:

IRONCLAW_RELEASE_TAG=ironclaw-vX.Y.Z
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf \
  "https://github.com/nearai/ironclaw/releases/download/${IRONCLAW_RELEASE_TAG}/ironclaw-installer.sh" | sh

Then run the guided setup:

ironclaw onboard

Choose an LLM provider, enter its API key in the hidden prompt, and accept the default model or enter another one. IronClaw provisions its local configuration, encrypted credential store, and WebUI login token. On macOS and Linux it also installs and starts the background service, then prints a link that opens the WebUI.

Use ironclaw status to check the service and print the login link again. Windows users can start the WebUI in the foreground with ironclaw serve. See Installation for Windows installers and source builds.

Philosophy

IronClaw is built on a simple principle: your AI assistant should work for you, not against you.

In a world where AI systems are increasingly opaque about data handling and aligned with corporate interests, IronClaw takes a different approach:

• Your data stays yours - All information is stored locally, encrypted, and never leaves your control
• Transparency by design - Open source, auditable, no hidden telemetry or data harvesting
• Self-expanding capabilities - Build new tools on the fly without waiting for vendor updates
• Defense in depth - Multiple security layers protect against prompt injection and data exfiltration

IronClaw is the AI assistant you can actually trust with your personal and professional life.

Features

Security First

• WASM Sandbox - Untrusted tools run in isolated WebAssembly containers with capability-based permissions
• Credential Protection - Secrets are never exposed to tools; injected at the host boundary with leak detection
• Prompt Injection Defense - Pattern detection, content sanitization, and policy enforcement
• Endpoint Allowlisting - HTTP requests only to explicitly approved hosts and paths

Always Available

• Multi-channel - REPL, HTTP webhooks, WASM channels (Telegram, Slack), and web gateway
• Docker Sandbox - Isolated container execution with per-job tokens and orchestrator/worker pattern
• Web Gateway - Browser UI with real-time SSE/WebSocket streaming
• Routines - Cron schedules, event triggers, webhook handlers for background automation
• Heartbeat System - Proactive background execution for monitoring and maintenance tasks
• Parallel Jobs - Handle multiple requests concurrently with isolated contexts
• Self-repair - Automatic detection and recovery of stuck operations

Self-Expanding

• Dynamic Tool Building - Describe what you need, and IronClaw builds it as a WASM tool
• MCP Protocol - Connect to Model Context Protocol servers for additional capabilities
• Plugin Architecture - Drop in new WASM tools and channels without restarting

Persistent Memory

• Hybrid Search - Full-text + vector search using Reciprocal Rank Fusion
• Workspace Filesystem - Flexible path-based storage for notes, logs, and context
• Identity Files - Maintain consistent personality and preferences across sessions

Installation

The Releases page provides pre-built binaries and installers.

Install via Windows Installer (Windows)

Open the selected ironclaw-v* release, download ironclaw-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.msi, and run it.

Install via PowerShell script (Windows)

$IronClawReleaseTag = "ironclaw-vX.Y.Z"
irm "https://github.com/nearai/ironclaw/releases/download/$IronClawReleaseTag/ironclaw-installer.ps1" | iex

Install via shell script (macOS, Linux, Windows/WSL)

IRONCLAW_RELEASE_TAG=ironclaw-vX.Y.Z
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf \
  "https://github.com/nearai/ironclaw/releases/download/${IRONCLAW_RELEASE_TAG}/ironclaw-installer.sh" | sh

Build and install from source

Source builds require Rust 1.96+ and Node.js 22+ with Corepack/pnpm.

git clone https://github.com/nearai/ironclaw.git
cd ironclaw
corepack enable pnpm
cargo install --locked --path crates/app/ironclaw_cli

Configuration

ironclaw onboard is the primary configuration path. It writes Reborn state under $HOME/.ironclaw/reborn by default, stores the selected LLM credential in the encrypted local secret store, and preserves existing configuration when it is run again.

Inspect the current setup with:

ironclaw status
ironclaw models status
ironclaw config list

To switch providers after onboarding, select the route and then store its API key using the hidden prompt:

ironclaw models set-provider openai --model gpt-5-mini
ironclaw config set openai.api_key

Additional settings use the same command. For example:

ironclaw config set google.client_id YOUR_CLIENT_ID
ironclaw config set google.client_secret
ironclaw config set google.redirect_uri YOUR_REDIRECT_URI
ironclaw config set webui.token --rotate

Secret values never accept a positional argument; IronClaw prompts for them without echoing the value. Channels such as Slack and Telegram have no configuration-file settings and no CLI enablement key: install the extension and complete its setup on the WebUI Extensions page, which is what makes the route serve.

Configuration writes never restart the service automatically. Run ironclaw service restart after a change that affects the running service, and use ironclaw config set --help for the complete list of supported keys.

Security

IronClaw implements defense in depth to protect your data and prevent misuse.

WASM Sandbox

All untrusted tools run in isolated WebAssembly containers:

• Capability-based permissions - Explicit opt-in for HTTP, secrets, tool invocation
• Endpoint allowlisting - HTTP requests only to approved hosts/paths
• Credential injection - Secrets injected at host boundary, never exposed to WASM code
• Leak detection - Scans requests and responses for secret exfiltration attempts
• Rate limiting - Per-tool request limits to prevent abuse
• Resource limits - Memory, CPU, and execution time constraints

WASM ──► Allowlist ──► Leak Scan ──► Credential ──► Execute ──► Leak Scan ──► WASM
         Validator     (request)     Injector       Request     (response)

Prompt Injection Defense

External content passes through multiple security layers:

• Pattern-based detection of injection attempts
• Content sanitization and escaping
• Policy rules with severity levels (Block/Warn/Review/Sanitize)
• Tool output wrapping for safe LLM context injection

Data Protection

• All data stored locally in IronClaw's application state
• Secrets encrypted with AES-256-GCM
• No telemetry, analytics, or data sharing
• Full audit log of all tool executions

Architecture

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                          Channels                              │
│  ┌──────┐  ┌──────┐   ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐         │
│  │ REPL │  │ HTTP │   │WASM Channels│  │ Web Gateway │         │
│  └──┬───┘  └──┬───┘   └──────┬──────┘  │ (SSE + WS)  │         │
│     │         │              │         └──────┬──────┘         │
│     └─────────┴──────────────┴────────────────┘                │
│                              │                                 │
│                    ┌─────────▼─────────┐                       │
│                    │    Agent Loop     │  Intent routing       │
│                    └────┬──────────┬───┘                       │
│                         │          │                           │
│              ┌──────────▼────┐  ┌──▼───────────────┐           │
│              │  Scheduler    │  │ Routines Engine  │           │
│              │(parallel jobs)│  │(cron, event, wh) │           │
│              └──────┬────────┘  └────────┬─────────┘           │
│                     │                    │                     │
│       ┌─────────────┼────────────────────┘                     │
│       │             │                                          │
│   ┌───▼─────┐  ┌────▼────────────────┐                         │
│   │ Local   │  │    Orchestrator     │                         │
│   │Workers  │  │  ┌───────────────┐  │                         │
│   │(in-proc)│  │  │ Docker Sandbox│  │                         │
│   └───┬─────┘  │  │   Containers  │  │                         │
│       │        │  │ ┌───────────┐ │  │                         │
│       │        │  │ │Worker / CC│ │  │                         │
│       │        │  │ └───────────┘ │  │                         │
│       │        │  └───────────────┘  │                         │
│       │        └─────────┬───────────┘                         │
│       └──────────────────┤                                     │
│                          │                                     │
│              ┌───────────▼──────────┐                          │
│              │    Tool Registry     │                          │
│              │  Built-in, MCP, WASM │                          │
│              └──────────────────────┘                          │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Core Components

Component	Purpose
Agent Loop	Main message handling and job coordination
Router	Classifies user intent (command, query, task)
Scheduler	Manages parallel job execution with priorities
Worker	Executes jobs with LLM reasoning and tool calls
Orchestrator	Container lifecycle, LLM proxying, per-job auth
Web Gateway	Browser UI with chat, memory, jobs, logs, extensions, routines
Routines Engine	Scheduled (cron) and reactive (event, webhook) background tasks
Workspace	Persistent memory with hybrid search
Safety Layer	Prompt injection defense and content sanitization

Usage

# Check the background service and print the WebUI login link
ironclaw status

# Start an interactive terminal session
ironclaw repl

# Run one turn
ironclaw run --message "hello"

Development

# Format code
cargo fmt

# Lint
cargo clippy --all --benches --tests --examples --all-features

# Run tests
createdb ironclaw_test
cargo test

# Run specific test
cargo test test_name

• Channels: See docs/channels/overview.mdx for setup of Telegram, Discord, and other channels.

OpenClaw Heritage

IronClaw is a Rust reimplementation inspired by OpenClaw. See FEATURE_PARITY.md for the complete tracking matrix.

Key differences:

• Rust vs TypeScript - Native performance, memory safety, single binary
• WASM sandbox vs Docker - Lightweight, capability-based security
• PostgreSQL vs SQLite - Production-ready persistence
• Security-first design - Multiple defense layers, credential protection

License

Licensed under either of:

• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE)
• MIT License (LICENSE-MIT)

at your option.