🦞 Clawdie

Personal AI Assistant on FreeBSD

A lean, secure AI assistant running on FreeBSD 15 with native jail isolation.

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Overview

Clawdie is a FreeBSD-first personal AI assistant with a host-side Node.js orchestrator and jailed agent execution. The core repo stays small, Telegram is built in, and additional channels or integrations are added through skills instead of being hard-wired into core.

Current Release

v1.0.3 (04.apr.2026) Domain Defaults Fix

See Changelog for full release notes.

Key Features:

• 🏠 Native FreeBSD - No Linux emulation, native jail isolation
• 🔒 Jail Isolation - Secure OS-level containers with ZFS snapshots
• ⚡ Better Performance - Single layer: FreeBSD → Jail → Node.js
• 💾 ZFS Integration - Snapshots, quotas, compression, RAIDZ1 support
• 🌐 Multi-Language Docs - English, German, French, Spanish (Crowdin-managed)
• 📚 Zero-Downtime Deployments - Symlink-based versioning with instant rollback
• 🔄 Automated Sync - Daily documentation compilation & deployment @ 05:00 UTC
• 🔧 Cloud & Baremetal - ISO variants for VPS (headless) and physical hardware (GUI)
• 🔐 SSH Keys & Passwords - Pre-configured or interactive setup options
• 🔧 CNC Ready - clawdie-cnc for CNC machine control (in development)

Why Clawdie?

Why Jails Instead of Docker?

Aspect	Docker on FreeBSD	FreeBSD Jails
Performance	Good (emulation overhead)	Excellent (native)
Layers	FreeBSD → Linux → Docker	FreeBSD → Jail
Security	Good	Excellent
Networking	Docker bridge	Native IP
Complexity	High	Low
ZFS Integration	Manual	Native

Result: Simpler, faster, more secure.

Why Clawdie?

NanoClaw by Gavriel is the upstream line we still track, and NanoClaw itself follows the broader OpenClaw direction opened by Peter Steinberger. Clawdie takes that line onto FreeBSD for operators who want:

• Native performance without Linux emulation
• ZFS integration for snapshots and quotas
• Simpler architecture (fewer layers)
• CNC machine integration for manufacturing

Architecture

Telegram + scheduled tasks + IPC
  ↓
PostgreSQL ops database (messages, groups, tasks, sessions)
  ↓
Host orchestrator (Node.js)
  ↓
FreeBSD worker jail(s)
  ↓
Agent response

Single Node.js process. Agents execute in isolated FreeBSD jails with filesystem isolation via nullfs mounts. Only mounted directories are accessible. Per-group message queue with concurrency control. PostgreSQL in a dedicated {agent}-db jail provides split-brain memory across three databases: agent-system skills (preloaded, read-only), user/agent memory (dynamic, grows with use), and operational state (messages, tasks, sessions, routing). Ops + memory are required; the built-in skills artifact is optional during development (agent runs with degraded built-in knowledge when it’s missing).

Key Files

• src/index.ts — orchestrator: state, message loop, agent invocation
• src/hostd/ — privileged host daemon (types, ops, daemon, client)
• src/controlplane.ts — self-healing: checks hostd, service jails, PF; repairs via hostd
• src/watchdog.ts — memory throttle, run mode, control plane timer
• src/channels/telegram.ts — built-in Telegram channel
• src/group-queue.ts — per-group queue with global concurrency limit
• src/agent-runner.ts — spawns jailed agent processes
• src/mount-security.ts — mount allowlist enforcement
• src/task-scheduler.ts — scheduled tasks
• src/db.ts — PostgreSQL ops (messages, groups, sessions, state, routing)
• setup/*.ts — modular setup entrypoints
• setup/service.ts — generates run-*.sh wrappers at install time (not tracked in git)
• groups/*/AGENTS.md — per-group memory

A justfile provides discoverable command shortcuts. Run just (or just --list) to see all recipes. Prefer just for interactive work; npm run <name> remains for CI and scripting.

Common mappings:

just install              # npm run install
just install-from-db      # npm run install -- --from db
just setup-db             # npm run setup -- --step db
just setup-cms            # npm run setup -- --step cms

What It Supports

• Telegram-first core - Built-in Telegram channel plus headless/background operation.
• Isolated group context - Each group has its own AGENTS.md memory, isolated filesystem, and runs in its own jail sandbox with only that filesystem mounted.
• Main channel - Your private channel (self-chat) for admin control; every group is completely isolated.
• Scheduled tasks - Recurring jobs that run the AI agent and can message you back.
• Jail isolation - Agents are sandboxed in FreeBSD jails with ZFS snapshots.
• Split-brain memory - Dedicated {agent}-db jail runs PostgreSQL with three databases: agent-system skills (preloaded knowledge), user/agent memory (grows with conversations), and operational state (messages, tasks, sessions, routing).
• Built-in payments, optional extras - Stripe ships in core and is ready when configured; other channels and integrations can still be layered through skills.

Installation

Prerequisites

• FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE
• ZFS root installation
• Root access or sudo
• Internet access for pkg and npm
• bash and git available before first run
• just — command runner (pkg install just on FreeBSD; preinstalled on Clawdie ISO)
• At least one agent CLI on PATH: one of pi, aider, claude, codex, or gemini. The controlplane harness uses Aider+Pi as the primary driver. Onboarding fails fast if none are present (see doc/AGENT-CLI-VALIDATION.md for the validated install paths). The Clawdie ISO ships claude/gemini/pi via the npm-globals bundle, aider via py311-aider_chat pkg, and codex via pkg install codex.

Recommended explicit host baseline before first run:

sudo pkg install -y bash git bastille node24 npm tmux python311 uv ripgrep fd rsync postgresql18-client py311-pillow dejavu py311-aider_chat edk2-bhyve just

The edk2-bhyve package provides UEFI firmware required for optional browser-vm support (FEATURE_BHYVE_GUI=YES in .env).

If fd-find is already installed on the host, pkg will replace it with fd. That conflict resolution is expected on current FreeBSD ports.

The host baseline also includes py311-pillow and dejavu so tmux screenshot capture works without a separate uv pip install Pillow step.

If the host still has both Python 3.11 and 3.12 installed, pin uv to 3.11 explicitly until the generic python3 path is cleaned up:

uv venv --python 3.11
uv run --python 3.11 <command>

Quick Start

# 1. Install the recommended FreeBSD host baseline
sudo pkg install -y bash git bastille node24 npm tmux python311 uv ripgrep fd rsync postgresql18-client py311-pillow dejavu py311-aider_chat just

# 2. Clone the repository
git clone https://codeberg.org/Clawdie/Clawdie-AI.git /home/clawdie/clawdie-ai
cd /home/clawdie/clawdie-ai

# 3. Bootstrap repo dependencies and native modules
./setup.sh

# 4. Ensure at least one agent CLI is on PATH (onboarding gates on this).
#    Pick whichever you use; the ISO bundle installs all three npm CLIs offline.
pi --version >/dev/null 2>&1 || npm install -g @mariozechner/pi-coding-agent
# Optional alternates:
#   npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code   # claude
#   npm install -g @google/gemini-cli          # gemini
#   sudo pkg install -y codex                  # codex (FreeBSD pkg)

# 5. If setup.sh did not launch onboarding automatically, start it manually
just wizard

# 6. Review .env — wizard already wrote AGENT_NAME and PI_TUI_PROFILE.
#    If bsddialog is installed you get the full FreeBSD TUI; otherwise wizard falls back to plain TTY prompts.
#    Stripe stays optional and can be added later.
#    Add your AI provider API key if it was not prompted during onboarding

# 7. Run the modular setup steps
just setup -- --step environment
just setup -- --step pi-config
just setup -- --step pf               # writes /etc/pf.conf, enables PF RDR
just setup -- --step jails --create
just setup-db
just setup-git
just setup-cms
just setup -- --step hosts
just setup -- --step mounts
just setup -- --step telegram-auth
just setup -- --step service          # builds dist/, installs rc.d (generates run-*.sh wrappers)
just setup -- --step hostd            # installs and starts the per-agent hostd root daemon
just setup -- --step verify

# 8. One-command host validation bundle for the on-host agent
just preflight

# 9. Optional: include onboarding and capture the password-generation phase
#    Requires a real interactive TTY because wizard is interactive
just preflight -- --with-onboarding --capture-password-step

# 10. Optional: force a manual re-import of built-in knowledge
just setup -- --step skills-memory --import

If pkg reports that fd conflicts with fd-find, that is expected: fd is the current package Clawdie uses on FreeBSD.

Available step entrypoints (setup/index.ts): onboarding, profile, environment, pi-config, pf, jails, db, git, cms, hosts, groups, register, mounts, telegram-auth, service, hostd, verify, preflight, upstream, skills-memory.

PI Profiles

pi-tui now supports a single PI_TUI_PROFILE selector for common runtime scenarios:

• setup — onboarding and exact setup actions
• operator — normal daily runtime
• status — read-only health/status summaries
• payments — Stripe-safe support flow
• docs — docs and release copy
• cms — Astro/Strapi publishing work
• git — local git mirror and upstream sync
• memory — split-brain and PostgreSQL memory work
• local — Ollama/offline fallback
• cnc — CNC machine operation and G-code work

Check the resolved profile state with:

just setup -- --step pi-config

List all built-in profiles with:

just setup -- --step pi-config --list-profiles

The split-brain database path is now mandatory. Current setup generates or preserves the PostgreSQL and future Strapi secrets in .env, then keeps SKILLS_DB_URL, MEMORY_DB_URL, and OPS_DB_URL aligned with AGENT_NAME, subnet, and passwords. The db step now applies three distinct schema tracks:

• built-in knowledge tables in the skills DB
• dynamic hybrid-memory tables in the user/agent memory DB
• operational state tables in the ops DB (messages, tasks, sessions, routing)

The db step also imports the shipped built-in knowledge artifact by default. skills-memory --import remains available as a manual re-import path. At runtime, the host now queries the local skills DB before each jail run and prepends the top built-in references to the prompt when relevant.

The active mandatory pieces are:

• POSTGRES_ADMIN_PASSWORD
• SKILLS_DB_PASSWORD
• MEMORY_DB_PASSWORD
• OPS_DB_PASSWORD
• CONTROLPLANE_SHARED_SECRET

For PostgreSQL identifiers, Clawdie derives a DB-safe namespace from AGENT_NAME. Example: clawdie-ai becomes clawdie_ai_reader, clawdie_ai_skills, clawdie_ai_brain, and clawdie_ai_ops.

STRAPI_DB_PASSWORD and the STRAPI_* app secrets now feed the default internal Strapi bootstrap inside the cms jail. They are generated automatically if missing and should stay private to the CMS layer.

Onboarding now also generates SCREENSHOTS_USER and SCREENSHOTS_PASSWORD when they are missing. The cms step installs nginx basic auth for /screenshots/ inside the cms jail. npm run preflight-check writes a full host validation bundle into tmp/preflight/<stamp>/, including summary.json and summary.env for the on-host agent. It now includes telegram-auth in the default sequence; groups and register remain post-deployment follow-up work and no longer block base install verification on a fresh host.

Current main also provisions local code hosting by default through the dedicated git jail. The default mode is:

• CODE_HOSTING_MODE=git
• FEATURE_GIT=YES
• WARDEN_GIT_IP=<subnet>.6

The git step creates ${AGENT_NAME}-git, installs the git jail baseline, creates /srv/git, and mirrors the current repository into a bare repository.

Default IP Layout

The active 10.0.0.x slot map on current main is:

• .1 gateway on warden0
• .2 reserved compatibility slot, intentionally unused
• .3 db
• .4 cms
• .5 ollama (if enabled)
• .6 git
• .101+ workers
• .150 browser/gui

This keeps foundational services low in the range while leaving room for multiple workers and avoiding overlap with host-facing web services. The CMS stack stays on the private jail network instead of assuming control of host nginx, which is the main reason the low fixed service slots matter.

Naming and Local DNS

Current main separates public and internal naming:

• AGENT_DOMAIN is the public-facing site/API domain
• AGENT_INTERNAL_DOMAIN is the internal jail/service zone written into /etc/hosts

Fresh installs should use:

• AGENT_DOMAIN=home.arpa for local DNS zone (host uses <agent>.home.arpa; replace with a real public domain when ready)
• AGENT_INTERNAL_DOMAIN=<agent>.home.arpa

Why this changed:

• .local is reserved for mDNS and is a bad default for private service naming
• home.arpa is the safer standards-based internal namespace
• keeping public and internal names separate avoids accidentally treating a non-public jail hostname as if it were externally routable

FreeBSD Milestone

Diagnostic screenshot captured by tmux-screenshot skill — auto-detects failure and success signatures

Current main centers on:

• host-side orchestration in src/index.ts
• AGENT_NAME-derived Bastille worker jails from src/jail-config.ts
• step-based setup entrypoints from setup/index.ts
• mandatory DB bootstrap with built-in knowledge import by default

Simple Onboarding Flow

./setup.sh
  -> just wizard
     -> detect locale + timezone from FreeBSD
     -> confirm or override locale
     -> confirm or override timezone
     -> ask ASSISTANT_NAME
     -> derive AGENT_NAME
     -> optional AGENT_NAME override
     -> select PI profile (operator, setup, payments, cnc, …)
     -> configure Stripe now? (or skip)
     -> write .env (AGENT_NAME, PI_TUI_PROFILE, STRIPE_SECRET_KEY, …)
  -> just setup -- --step environment
  -> just setup -- --step pi-config
  -> just setup -- --step pf
  -> just setup -- --step jails --create
  -> just setup-db
  -> just setup-git
  -> just setup-cms
  -> just setup -- --step hosts
  -> just setup -- --step mounts
  -> just setup -- --step telegram-auth
  -> just setup -- --step service
  -> just setup -- --step hostd
  -> just setup -- --step verify

groups and register remain explicit follow-up steps after auth/state are present; they are not part of the minimal first-boot path.

Stripe Flow

onboarding
  -> configure Stripe now? (or skip)
  -> write STRIPE_SECRET_KEY into .env
host agent-runner
  -> reads STRIPE_SECRET_KEY from .env
  -> passes it to jailed runtime in stdin JSON secrets payload
jailed agent runner
  -> merges secret into SDK env only
  -> registers Stripe MCP tools
agent chat
  -> can use payment, customer, invoice, and subscription tools

Web Serving

nginx runs inside the {agent}-cms jail. By default, setup/pf.ts configures Warden egress (NAT) only; public ingress (PF rdr) is intentionally opt-in so Clawdie does not take over host ports 80/443 unexpectedly. Strapi (when used) is internal-only by default.

Operational docs for this milestone:

• Bastille on FreeBSD 15
• Jail Networking Strategy
• PostgreSQL Memory Plan
• Monitoring Model
• Manual Reset and pi-tui Rebootstrap

Usage

Talk to your assistant with the trigger word (default: @Clawdie):

@Clawdie send an overview of the sales pipeline every weekday morning at 9am
@Clawdie review the git history for the past week each Friday and update the README
@Clawdie every Monday at 8am, compile news on AI developments and message me a briefing

Run just doctor to check system health (runtime, jails, networking, services, split-brain DB/artifact status). Exit codes: 0 = ok or warnings, 1 = error.

From the main channel (your self-chat), you can manage groups and tasks:

@Clawdie list all scheduled tasks across groups
@Clawdie pause the Monday briefing task
@Clawdie join the Family Chat group

Customizing

Clawdie doesn't use configuration files. To make changes, just tell the AI agent what you want:

• "Change the trigger word to @Assistant"
• "Remember in the future to make responses shorter and more direct"
• "Add a custom greeting when I say good morning"
• "Store conversation summaries weekly"

Or run /customize for guided changes.

The codebase is small enough that the AI agent can safely modify it.

Philosophy

Small enough to understand. One process, a few source files, no microservices. If you want to understand the full Clawdie codebase, ask the AI agent to walk you through it.

Secure by isolation. Agents run in FreeBSD jails with filesystem isolation via nullfs mounts. They can only access explicitly mounted directories. Bash access is safe because commands run inside the jail, not on your host.

Built for the individual user. Clawdie isn't a monolithic framework; it's software that fits each user's exact needs. You make your own fork and have the AI agent modify it to match your requirements.

Customization = code changes. No configuration sprawl. Want different behavior? Modify the code. The codebase is small enough that it's safe to make changes.

AI-native.

• FreeBSD installs can start with npm run wizard for optional interactive locale, timezone, and assistant-first onboarding. bsddialog is used when present; plain TTY prompts are the fallback. The selector uses FreeBSD's locale inventory, so you can choose any installed locale (for example en_US.UTF-8 or zh_CN.UTF-8) and it is applied the same way as the default.
• The rest of setup remains modular and scriptable through just setup -- --step ... (or npm run setup -- --step ...).
• No monitoring dashboard; the harness shows status and the AI fills in the details.
• No debugging tools; describe the problem and the AI fixes it.

Skills over features. Instead of adding features (e.g., support for Telegram) to the codebase, contributors submit skills like /add-telegram that transform your fork. You end up with clean code that does exactly what you need.

Documentation System (Phase 3.0+)

v0.9.0 includes a complete multi-language documentation deployment system:

Architecture

Markdown Source (git)    →    Crowdin (translate)    →    Daily Sync (05:00 UTC)
     ↓                              ↓                              ↓
docs/public/*.md (English)    →    docs/public/{de,fr,es}/* →    docs-v0.9.0_24.mar.2026/
                                                          ├─ en/
                                                          ├─ de/
                                                          ├─ fr/
                                                          └─ es/

Symlink Swap (atomic, zero-downtime)
     ↓
https://docs.clawdie.si/{en,de,fr,es}/

Features

• Markdown Source of Truth — English docs in docs/public/*.md, auto-synced to Crowdin
• Crowdin Integration — Translators work on crowdin.com/project/clawdie-ai
• Automated Sync — Daily cron @ 05:00 UTC compiles markdown → HTML for all languages
• Zero-Downtime Deployment — Symlink-based versioning with atomic swaps
• 30-Day Retention — Old versions auto-cleaned, instant rollback available
• No External Dependencies — Pure shell compilation (no pandoc, no external tools)

Quick Links

• docs-deployment skill — Complete operations guide
• CROWDIN.md — Translation workflow
• DOCUMENTATION-SYNC-RUNBOOK.md — Operator manual
• Integration Guide — How build (clawdie-shell) and deployment (clawdie-ai) work together

Supported Languages

• 🇬🇧 English (source, always current)
• 🇩🇪 Deutsch (German)
• 🇫🇷 Français (French)
• 🇪🇸 Español (Spanish)

Want to add more languages? Update scripts/docs-sync.cron.sh and add to Crowdin.

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Clawdie Ecosystem

Component	Description	Status
{AGENT_NAME}-worker	Default Bastille worker jail profile	Current
skills-memory bootstrap	Precomputed pgvector import for the skills DB	Current
docs-deployment	Multi-language docs with Crowdin sync (Phase 3.0+)	Live
clawdie-cnc	CNC machine control	Development
browser-vm	Browser automation profile in jail config	Planned
docs.clawdie.si	Documentation site (4 languages)	Live

CNC (clawdie-cnc)

Clawdie-cnc is the control system for the CNC machine — an open source machine designed to manufacture geodesic dome components. It translates dome designs from OSA into G-code, manages the build sequence, and logs everything to persistent memory.

See clawdie-cnc/README.md for details.

Contributing

Don't add features. Add skills.

If you want to add Slack support, don't create a PR that adds Slack alongside Telegram. Instead, contribute a skill file (.agent/skills/add-slack/SKILL.md) that teaches the AI agent how to transform a Clawdie installation to use Slack.

Users then run /add-slack on their fork and get clean code that does exactly what they need, not a bloated system trying to support every use case.

Available Skills (37+)

Channels: add-telegram, add-discord, add-gmail, add-slack, add-voice-transcription, x-integration

Jail & Infrastructure: warden-bootstrap, warden-pf, warden-zfs, warden-health, bastille-network, browser-vm, freebsd-admin, sanoid

Operations:

• nginx — CMS jail vhost management
• nginx-glasspane — Nginx security features
• docs-deployment — Multi-language documentation sync (NEW v0.9.0)
• telegram-admin, tmux-screenshot, postgres-memory

Frontend & CMS: astro, strapi

Agent: coding-agent, add-telegram-swarm, add-parallel

Utility: setup, update, customize, debug, get-qodo-rules, qodo-pr-resolver

Skills Structure

.agent/skills/add-telegram/
├── SKILL.md           # Skill documentation and instructions
├── manifest.yaml      # Skill metadata
├── add/               # Files to add
│   └── src/channels/telegram.ts
├── modify/            # Files to modify
│   └── src/config.ts
└── tests/             # Skill tests
    └── telegram.test.ts

Requirements

• FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE
• Node.js 24+
• Python 3.11+ (for voice transcription, screenshots, and other features)
• ZFS (recommended)
• Optional: Telegram bot token, provider API key, PostgreSQL URLs for memory/skills DB

Security

Agents run in FreeBSD jails with filesystem isolation, not behind application-level permission checks. They can only access explicitly mounted directories. The codebase is small enough that you can review it. See docs/public/operate/security.md for the full security model.

Documentation

• docs.clawdie.si - Complete documentation (English, Deutsch, Français, Español)
• docs/public/architecture/host-operator-model.md - Host-first operator model and service-jail layout
• .agent/skills/docs-deployment/SKILL.md - Documentation deployment system (Phase 3.0+)
• .agent/skills/docs-deployment/INTEGRATION.md - Cross-repo integration guide (clawdie-ai ↔ clawdie-shell)
• CROWDIN.md - How to translate and contribute translations
• docs/internal/DOCUMENTATION-SYNC-RUNBOOK.md - Operator runbook for documentation management
• AGENTS.md - Agent development guidelines

Community

Questions or ideas? Open an issue on Codeberg or reach out at hello@clawdie.si.

Acknowledgments

Clawdie is built on giants' shoulders. Peter Steinberger created OpenClaw, which set the broader project line. NanoClaw by Gavriel distilled that line into a minimal personal-assistant upstream. Clawdie is the FreeBSD-first fork in that lineage.

We keep NanoClaw as an upstream reference where it helps, then carry the design into native jails, ZFS, PF, and the wider OSA mission.

License

BSD 3-Clause License

Copyright (c) 2026, Sam (Samo Blatnik)

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions, and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions, and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. Neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

See LICENSE for full text.

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Clawdie · Personal AI Assistant on FreeBSD
clawdie.si · docs.clawdie.si
Built on giants' shoulders · FreeBSD-first