Open
Claw System Architecture
Self-hosted AI assistant platform — Gateway-centric control plane
v1.0 — February 2026
Derived from source & docs
External
Users & LLMs
👤
End Users
Phone / Desktop / Web
🤖
LLM Providers
Anthropic · OpenAI · Google · OpenRouter · Local
🌐
External Services
Brave Search · Gmail · Webhooks
🔑
Auth / OAuth
API Keys · OAuth tokens · Codex
Platform APIs · HTTPS · E2EE
Messaging
Channels
Inbound / Outbound
📱
WhatsApp
Baileys · QR pair
✈️
Telegram
grammY · Bot API
💬
Discord
Bot API + Gateway
🏢
Slack
Bolt SDK
🔒
Signal
signal-cli
🍎
iMessage
BlueBubbles
📧
Google Chat
HTTP webhook
🖥️
WebChat
Gateway WS
⌨️
TUI
Terminal UI
🔌
Plugin Channels
MS Teams · LINE · Matrix · Mattermost · Nostr · Twitch · Zalo …
Normalized messages · Media · Reactions · Channel routing
Gateway
Control Plane
WebSocket :18789
Core Services
⚡
WebSocket Server
JSON protocol · TypeBox schemas
🔀
Protocol Router
req/res · events · idempotency
🛡️
Auth & Pairing
Token · Password · Device pairs
Orchestration
📋
Session Store
sessions.json · routing
🗓️
Cron Scheduler
Jobs · heartbeat
Clients
🖥️
macOS App
⌨️
CLI
🌐
Control UI
📊
Dashboard
Multi-Agent
🧠
Agent Router
Bindings · channel mapping
📨
Queue Lanes
Per-session serialization
Network
🔗
Tailscale / VPN
📡
Bonjour / mDNS
agent RPC · runEmbeddedPiAgent() · streaming events
Agent
Runtime
Pi SDK embedded
Agent Loop (pi-coding-agent)
🔄
AgentSession
createAgentSession()
📝
System Prompt
buildAgentSystemPrompt()
📊
Context Assembly
Skills · bootstrap · workspace
Model Layer (pi-ai)
🎯
Model Registry
Resolve · failover chain
🔑
Auth Profiles
Rotation · cooldown · pin
Tool Execution
⚙️
exec
Shell · background
📂
read / write / edit
🌍
browser
CDP · Chromium
💬
message
🔍
web_search
🖼️
image
Session
📜
SessionManager
JSONL transcripts · tree
🗜️
Compaction
Auto + manual
node.invoke · canvas.* · camera.* · system.run
Peripherals
Nodes & Canvas
Node Devices
🖥️
macOS Node
Menubar · exec · camera
📱
iOS Node
Canvas · camera · location
📱
Android Node
Canvas · camera · location
🖧
Headless Host
Remote exec · build
Canvas & A2UI
🎨
Canvas Host :18793
HTML · A2UI v0.8
🖌️
WKWebView Renderer
Declarative JSON UI
Skills · Hooks · Plugins · Memory index
Extensions
Skills · Plugins
Hooks · Memory
📘
Skills
AgentSkills-compat · SKILL.md
🔌
Plugin Registry
SDK + Runtime API
⚡
Hooks Engine
Lifecycle · commands · events
🧠
Memory Search
BM25 + vector · hybrid
📦
ClawHub
Skills registry
🐙
Lobster
Workflow runtime
Filesystem I/O · SQLite
Persistence
~/.openclaw/
⚙️
openclaw.json
Configuration
📋
sessions.json
Session metadata
📜
*.jsonl
Transcripts (tree JSONL)
📝
workspace/
AGENTS · SOUL · MEMORY
🔑
auth-profiles.json
Keys · OAuth · per-agent
🗄️
memory/*.sqlite
Vector index · FTS5
🗓️
cron/jobs.json
Scheduled jobs
Legend
Channels
Gateway
Agent Runtime
Peripherals
Extensions
Persistence
Core component
Bidirectional data flow