RustyClaw 🦀🦞

A lightweight, secure agentic AI runtime written in Rust.

RustyClaw is a drop-in Rust implementation of OpenClaw — the agentic AI assistant that lives in your terminal. It brings the same powerful 30-tool ecosystem with improved security, lower memory footprint, and native performance.

Why RustyClaw?

Security-First Design

RustyClaw was built with the assumption that AI agents can't always be trusted. The security model includes:

• Encrypted secrets vault — AES-256 encryption for API keys, credentials, SSH keys
• TOTP two-factor authentication — Optional 2FA for vault access
• Per-credential access policies — Always, WithApproval, WithAuth, SkillOnly
• Sandbox isolation — Bubblewrap (Linux), Landlock (Linux 5.13+), sandbox-exec (macOS)
• Credentials directory protection — Agent tools cannot read the secrets directory

👉 Read the Security Model →

Quick Start

Install from crates.io

cargo install rustyclaw

With optional features

# Matrix messenger support
cargo install rustyclaw --features matrix

# Browser automation (CDP)
cargo install rustyclaw --features browser

# All publishable features
cargo install rustyclaw --features full

📝 Signal messenger requires building from source. See BUILDING.md.

Or build from source

git clone https://github.com/rexlunae/RustyClaw.git
cd RustyClaw
cargo build --release

Run the interactive setup

rustyclaw onboard

Start chatting

rustyclaw tui

Features

30 Agentic Tools

RustyClaw implements the complete OpenClaw tool ecosystem:

Skills System

Load skills from the OpenClaw ecosystem or write your own:

---
name: my-skill
description: A custom skill
metadata: {"openclaw": {"requires": {"bins": ["git"]}}}
---

# Instructions for the agent

Do something useful with git.

Skills support gating — require binaries, environment variables, or specific operating systems.

Multi-Provider Support

Connect to any major AI provider:

• Anthropic (Claude 4, Claude Sonnet)
• OpenAI (GPT-4, GPT-4o)
• Google (Gemini Pro, Gemini Ultra)
• GitHub Copilot (with subscription)
• xAI (Grok)
• Ollama (local models)
• OpenRouter (any model)

Terminal UI

A beautiful TUI with:

• Syntax-highlighted code blocks
• Markdown rendering
• Tab completion
• Slash commands (/help, /clear, /model, /secrets)
• Streaming responses

Gateway Mode

Run as a daemon for integration with other tools:

rustyclaw gateway start

Supports WebSocket connections, heartbeats, and multi-session management.

Configuration

Configuration lives at ~/.rustyclaw/config.toml:

settings_dir = "/Users/myuser/.rustyclaw"
messengers = []
use_secrets = true
secrets_password_protected = true
totp_enabled = true
agent_access = false
agent_name = "A Rusty Little Crab"
message_spacing = 1
tab_width = 5

[model]
provider = "openrouter"
model = "gpt-4.1"
base_url = "https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"

[sandbox]
mode = ""
deny_paths = []
allow_paths = []

Documentation

• Building — Feature flags, Signal support, cross-compilation
• Getting Started — Installation and first run
• Security Model — How RustyClaw protects your secrets
• Tools Reference — All 30 tools explained
• Skills Guide — Writing and using skills
• Gateway Protocol — WebSocket API reference

Testing

RustyClaw has comprehensive test coverage:

# Run all tests (330+)
cargo test

# Run specific test suites
cargo test --test tool_execution
cargo test --test gateway_protocol
cargo test --test skill_execution

Community

• 💬 Discord — Join the OpenClaw community
• 🐛 Issues — Bug reports and feature requests
• 🔧 ClawhHub — Find and share skills

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT License — See LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

• OpenClaw — The original project and inspiration
• The Rust community for excellent crates