Project Overview

CLAUDE.md

This file provides guidance to Claude Code (claude.ai/code) when working with code in this repository.

Project Overview

PocketPaw is a self-hosted AI agent that runs locally and is controlled via Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, or a web dashboard. The Python package is named pocketclaw (the internal/legacy name), while the public-facing name is pocketpaw. Python 3.11+ required.

Commands

# Install dev dependencies
uv sync --dev

# Run the app (web dashboard is the default — auto-starts all configured adapters)
uv run pocketpaw

# Run Telegram-only mode (legacy pairing flow)
uv run pocketpaw --telegram

# Run headless Discord bot
uv run pocketpaw --discord

# Run headless Slack bot (Socket Mode, no public URL needed)
uv run pocketpaw --slack

# Run headless WhatsApp webhook server
uv run pocketpaw --whatsapp

# Run multiple headless channels simultaneously
uv run pocketpaw --discord --slack

# Run all tests
uv run pytest

# Run a single test file
uv run pytest tests/test_bus.py

# Run a specific test
uv run pytest tests/test_bus.py::test_publish_subscribe -v

# Lint
uv run ruff check .

# Format
uv run ruff format .

# Type check
uv run mypy .

# Build package
python -m build

Architecture

Message Bus Pattern

The core architecture is an event-driven message bus (src/pocketclaw/bus/). All communication flows through three event types defined in bus/events.py:

• InboundMessage — user input from any channel (Telegram, WebSocket, CLI)
• OutboundMessage — agent responses back to channels (supports streaming via is_stream_chunk/is_stream_end)
• SystemEvent — internal events (tool_start, tool_result, thinking, error) consumed by the web dashboard Activity panel

AgentLoop → AgentRouter → Backend

The processing pipeline lives in agents/loop.py and agents/router.py:

1. AgentLoop consumes from the message bus, manages memory context, and streams responses back
2. AgentRouter selects and delegates to one of three backends based on settings.agent_backend:
   • claude_agent_sdk (default/recommended) — Official Claude Agent SDK with built-in tools (Bash, Read, Write, etc.). Uses PreToolUse hooks for dangerous command blocking. Lives in agents/claude_sdk.py
   • pocketpaw_native — Custom orchestrator: Anthropic SDK for reasoning + Open Interpreter for execution. Lives in agents/pocketpaw_native.py
   • open_interpreter — Standalone Open Interpreter supporting Ollama/OpenAI/Anthropic. Lives in agents/open_interpreter.py
3. All backends yield standardized dicts with type (message/tool_use/tool_result/error/done), content, and metadata

Channel Adapters

bus/adapters/ contains protocol translators that bridge external channels to the message bus:

• TelegramAdapter — python-telegram-bot
• WebSocketAdapter — FastAPI WebSockets
• DiscordAdapter — discord.py (optional dep pocketpaw[discord]). Slash command /paw + DM/mention support. Stream buffering with edit-in-place (1.5s rate limit).
• SlackAdapter — slack-bolt Socket Mode (optional dep pocketpaw[slack]). Handles app_mention + DM events. No public URL needed. Thread support via thread_ts metadata.
• WhatsAppAdapter — WhatsApp Business Cloud API via httpx (core dep). No streaming; accumulates chunks and sends on stream_end. Dashboard exposes /webhook/whatsapp routes; standalone mode runs its own FastAPI server.

Dashboard channel management: The web dashboard (default mode) auto-starts all configured adapters on startup. Channels can be configured, started, and stopped dynamically from the Channels modal in the sidebar. REST API: GET /api/channels/status, POST /api/channels/save, POST /api/channels/toggle.

Key Subsystems

• Memory (memory/) — Session history + long-term facts, file-based storage in ~/.pocketclaw/memory/. Protocol-based (MemoryStoreProtocol) for future backend swaps
• Browser (browser/) — Playwright-based automation using accessibility tree snapshots (not screenshots). BrowserDriver returns NavigationResult with a refmap mapping ref numbers to CSS selectors
• Security (security/) — Guardian AI (secondary LLM safety check) + append-only audit log (~/.pocketclaw/audit.jsonl)
• Tools (tools/) — ToolProtocol with ToolDefinition supporting both Anthropic and OpenAI schema export. Built-in tools in tools/builtin/
• Bootstrap (bootstrap/) — AgentContextBuilder assembles the system prompt from identity, memory, and current state
• Config (config.py) — Pydantic Settings with POCKETCLAW_ env prefix, JSON config at ~/.pocketclaw/config.json. Channel-specific config: discord_bot_token, discord_allowed_guild_ids, discord_allowed_user_ids, slack_bot_token, slack_app_token, slack_allowed_channel_ids, whatsapp_access_token, whatsapp_phone_number_id, whatsapp_verify_token, whatsapp_allowed_phone_numbers

Frontend

The web dashboard (frontend/) is vanilla JS/CSS/HTML served via FastAPI+Jinja2. No build step. Communicates with the backend over WebSocket for real-time streaming.

Key Conventions

• Async everywhere: All agent, bus, memory, and tool interfaces are async. Tests use pytest-asyncio with asyncio_mode = "auto"
• Protocol-oriented: Core interfaces (AgentProtocol, ToolProtocol, MemoryStoreProtocol, BaseChannelAdapter) are Python Protocol classes for swappable implementations
• Env vars: All settings use POCKETCLAW_ prefix (e.g., POCKETCLAW_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY)
• Ruff config: line-length 100, target Python 3.11, lint rules E/F/I/UP
• Entry point: pocketclaw.__main__:main
• Lazy imports: Agent backends are imported inside AgentRouter._initialize_agent() to avoid loading unused dependencies