nanoclaw

Overview of nanoclaw

What it is

nanoclaw is an AI assistant that runs agents securely in their own containers. It is a lightweight alternative to OpenClaw, designed to be easily understood and customized. It connects to WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Gmail and other messaging apps, has memory, scheduled jobs, and runs directly on Anthropic's Agents SDK.

Key features

• Container isolation: agents run in Linux containers with filesystem isolation, not just permission checks.
• Multi-channel messaging: supports WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Microsoft Teams, iMessage, Matrix, Google Chat, Webex, Linear, GitHub, WeChat, and email via Resend.
• Per-agent workspace: each agent group has its own CLAUDE.md, memory, container, and mounts.
• Scheduled tasks: recurring jobs executed by the agent, with optional script gates to avoid waking it when there is no work.
• Credential security: agents never hold raw API keys; outbound requests route through a credential gateway.
• Agent templates: stamp a ready-to-run agent from a reusable bundle via ncl groups create --template.
• Skills over features: channels and alternative providers are installed on demand via /add- skills, keeping the codebase minimal.

Use cases

• Running AI assistants with OS-level isolation for security.
• Connecting a single agent to multiple messaging platforms for unified memory.
• Customizing agent behavior by modifying the small codebase directly.
• Deploying agents for individual users without a monolithic framework.

Getting started

bash git clone https://github.com/nanocoai/nanoclaw.git nanoclaw-v2 cd nanoclaw-v2 bash nanoclaw.sh nanoclaw.sh walks you from a fresh machine to a named agent you can message. It installs Node, pnpm, and Docker if missing, installs a credential gateway and registers your Anthropic credential, builds the agent container, and pairs your first channel (Slack, Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, iMessage, or a local CLI). For migration from v1: bash git clone https://github.com/nanocoai/nanoclaw.git nanoclaw-v2 cd nanoclaw-v2 bash migrate-v2.sh

License and pricing

The license is MIT. The software is open source and free to use.

Based on the project's public README and repository metadata.