IronClaw

Your secure personal AI assistant, always on your side

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Philosophy • Features • Installation • Configuration • Security • Architecture

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

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.92+
• PostgreSQL 15+ with pgvector extension
• NEAR AI account (authentication handled via setup wizard)
• libclang and a working C toolchain if you build the WeChat voice/SILK path from source

Download or Build

Visit Releases page to see the latest updates.

irm https://github.com/nearai/ironclaw/releases/latest/download/ironclaw-installer.ps1 | iex

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/nearai/ironclaw/releases/latest/download/ironclaw-installer.sh | sh

brew install ironclaw

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/nearai/ironclaw.git
cd ironclaw

# Build
cargo build --release

# Run tests
cargo test

Database Setup

# Create database
createdb ironclaw

# Enable pgvector
psql ironclaw -c "CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS vector;"

Configuration

Run the setup wizard to configure IronClaw:

ironclaw onboard

The wizard handles database connection, NEAR AI authentication (via browser OAuth), and secrets encryption (using your system keychain). Settings are persisted in the connected database; bootstrap variables (e.g. DATABASE_URL, LLM_BACKEND) are written to ~/.ironclaw/.env so they are available before the database connects.

Alternative LLM Providers

IronClaw defaults to NEAR AI but supports many LLM providers out of the box. Built-in providers include Anthropic, OpenAI, GitHub Copilot, Google Gemini, MiniMax, Mistral, and Ollama (local). OpenAI-compatible services like OpenRouter (300+ models), Together AI, Fireworks AI, and self-hosted servers (vLLM, LiteLLM) are also supported.

Select your provider in the wizard, or set environment variables directly:

# Example: MiniMax (built-in, 204K context)
LLM_BACKEND=minimax
MINIMAX_API_KEY=...

# Example: OpenAI-compatible endpoint
LLM_BACKEND=openai_compatible
LLM_BASE_URL=https://openrouter.ai/api/v1
LLM_API_KEY=sk-or-...
LLM_MODEL=anthropic/claude-sonnet-4

See docs/capabilities/llm-providers.md for a full provider guide.

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 your PostgreSQL database
• 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

Usage

Engine v2 is opt-in right now. If you want to run the new engine instead of the legacy agent loop, start IronClaw with ENGINE_V2=true. See Engine v2 architecture for more details.

# First-time setup (configures database, auth, etc.)
ironclaw onboard

# Start interactive REPL
cargo run

# Start interactive REPL with engine v2
ENGINE_V2=true cargo run

# Engine v2 with debug logging
ENGINE_V2=true RUST_LOG=ironclaw=debug cargo run

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.
• Changing channel sources: Run ./channels-src/telegram/build.sh before cargo build so the updated WASM is bundled.

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.