claw-code/USAGE.md

Claw Code Usage

This guide covers the current Rust workspace under rust/ and the claw CLI binary. If you are brand new, make the doctor health check your first run: start claw, then run /doctor.

Quick-start health check

Run this before prompts, sessions, or automation:

cd rust
cargo build --workspace
./target/debug/claw
# first command inside the REPL
/doctor

/doctor is the built-in setup and preflight diagnostic. Once you have a saved session, you can rerun it with ./target/debug/claw --resume latest /doctor.

Prerequisites

• Rust toolchain with cargo
• One of:
  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for direct API access
  • claw login for OAuth-based auth
• Optional: ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL when targeting a proxy or local service

Install / build the workspace

cd rust
cargo build --workspace

The CLI binary is available at rust/target/debug/claw after a debug build. Make the doctor check above your first post-build step.

Quick start

First-run doctor check

cd rust
./target/debug/claw
/doctor

Interactive REPL

cd rust
./target/debug/claw

One-shot prompt

cd rust
./target/debug/claw prompt "summarize this repository"

Shorthand prompt mode

cd rust
./target/debug/claw "explain rust/crates/runtime/src/lib.rs"

JSON output for scripting

cd rust
./target/debug/claw --output-format json prompt "status"

Model and permission controls

cd rust
./target/debug/claw --model sonnet prompt "review this diff"
./target/debug/claw --permission-mode read-only prompt "summarize Cargo.toml"
./target/debug/claw --permission-mode workspace-write prompt "update README.md"
./target/debug/claw --allowedTools read,glob "inspect the runtime crate"

Supported permission modes:

• read-only
• workspace-write
• danger-full-access

Model aliases currently supported by the CLI:

• opus → claude-opus-4-6
• sonnet → claude-sonnet-4-6
• haiku → claude-haiku-4-5-20251213

Authentication

API key

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

OAuth

cd rust
./target/debug/claw login
./target/debug/claw logout

Local Models

claw can talk to local servers and provider gateways through either Anthropic-compatible or OpenAI-compatible endpoints. Use ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL with ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN for Anthropic-compatible services, or OPENAI_BASE_URL with OPENAI_API_KEY for OpenAI-compatible services. OAuth is Anthropic-only, so when OPENAI_BASE_URL is set you should use API-key style auth instead of claw login.

Anthropic-compatible endpoint

export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="http://127.0.0.1:8080"
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="local-dev-token"

cd rust
./target/debug/claw --model "claude-sonnet-4-6" prompt "reply with the word ready"

OpenAI-compatible endpoint

export OPENAI_BASE_URL="http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="local-dev-token"

cd rust
./target/debug/claw --model "qwen2.5-coder" prompt "reply with the word ready"

Ollama

export OPENAI_BASE_URL="http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1"
unset OPENAI_API_KEY

cd rust
./target/debug/claw --model "llama3.2" prompt "summarize this repository in one sentence"

OpenRouter

export OPENAI_BASE_URL="https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-or-v1-..."

cd rust
./target/debug/claw --model "openai/gpt-4.1-mini" prompt "summarize this repository in one sentence"

Supported Providers & Models

claw has three built-in provider backends. The provider is selected automatically based on the model name, falling back to whichever credential is present in the environment.

Provider matrix

Provider	Protocol	Auth env var(s)	Base URL env var	Default base URL
Anthropic (direct)	Anthropic Messages API	ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN or OAuth (claw login)	ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL	https://api.anthropic.com
xAI	OpenAI-compatible	XAI_API_KEY	XAI_BASE_URL	https://api.x.ai/v1
OpenAI-compatible	OpenAI Chat Completions	OPENAI_API_KEY	OPENAI_BASE_URL	https://api.openai.com/v1

The OpenAI-compatible backend also serves as the gateway for OpenRouter, Ollama, and any other service that speaks the OpenAI /v1/chat/completions wire format — just point OPENAI_BASE_URL at the service.

Tested models and aliases

These are the models registered in the built-in alias table with known token limits:

Alias	Resolved model name	Provider	Max output tokens	Context window
opus	claude-opus-4-6	Anthropic	32 000	200 000
sonnet	claude-sonnet-4-6	Anthropic	64 000	200 000
haiku	claude-haiku-4-5-20251213	Anthropic	64 000	200 000
grok / grok-3	grok-3	xAI	64 000	131 072
grok-mini / grok-3-mini	grok-3-mini	xAI	64 000	131 072
grok-2	grok-2	xAI	—	—

Any model name that does not match an alias is passed through verbatim. This is how you use OpenRouter model slugs (openai/gpt-4.1-mini), Ollama tags (llama3.2), or full Anthropic model IDs (claude-sonnet-4-20250514).

User-defined aliases

You can add custom aliases in any settings file (~/.claw/settings.json, .claw/settings.json, or .claw/settings.local.json):

{
  "aliases": {
    "fast": "claude-haiku-4-5-20251213",
    "smart": "claude-opus-4-6",
    "cheap": "grok-3-mini"
  }
}

Local project settings override user-level settings. Aliases resolve through the built-in table, so "fast": "haiku" also works.

How provider detection works

1. If the resolved model name starts with claude → Anthropic.
2. If it starts with grok → xAI.
3. Otherwise, claw checks which credential is set: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY/ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN first, then OPENAI_API_KEY, then XAI_API_KEY.
4. If nothing matches, it defaults to Anthropic.

FAQ

What about Codex?

The name "codex" appears in the Claw Code ecosystem but it does not refer to OpenAI Codex (the code-generation model). Here is what it means in this project:

• oh-my-codex (OmX) is the workflow and plugin layer that sits on top of claw. It provides planning modes, parallel multi-agent execution, notification routing, and other automation features. See PHILOSOPHY.md and the oh-my-codex repo.
• .codex/ directories (e.g. .codex/skills, .codex/agents, .codex/commands) are legacy lookup paths that claw still scans alongside the primary .claw/ directories.
• CODEX_HOME is an optional environment variable that points to a custom root for user-level skill and command lookups.

claw does not support OpenAI Codex sessions, the Codex CLI, or Codex session import/export. If you need to use OpenAI models (like GPT-4.1), configure the OpenAI-compatible provider as shown above in the OpenAI-compatible endpoint and OpenRouter sections.

HTTP proxy support

claw honours the standard HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, and NO_PROXY environment variables (both upper- and lower-case spellings are accepted) when issuing outbound requests to Anthropic, OpenAI-, and xAI-compatible endpoints. Set them before launching the CLI and the underlying reqwest client will be configured automatically.

export HTTPS_PROXY="http://proxy.corp.example:3128"
export HTTP_PROXY="http://proxy.corp.example:3128"
export NO_PROXY="localhost,127.0.0.1,.corp.example"

cd rust
./target/debug/claw prompt "hello via the corporate proxy"

Notes:

• When both HTTPS_PROXY and HTTP_PROXY are set, the secure proxy applies to https:// URLs and the plain proxy applies to http:// URLs.
• NO_PROXY accepts a comma-separated list of host suffixes (for example .corp.example) and IP literals.
• Empty values are treated as unset, so leaving HTTPS_PROXY="" in your shell will not enable a proxy.
• If a proxy URL cannot be parsed, claw falls back to a direct (no-proxy) client so existing workflows keep working; double-check the URL if you expected the request to be tunnelled.

Common operational commands

cd rust
./target/debug/claw status
./target/debug/claw sandbox
./target/debug/claw agents
./target/debug/claw mcp
./target/debug/claw skills
./target/debug/claw system-prompt --cwd .. --date 2026-04-04

Session management

REPL turns are persisted under .claw/sessions/ in the current workspace.

cd rust
./target/debug/claw --resume latest
./target/debug/claw --resume latest /status /diff

Useful interactive commands include /help, /status, /cost, /config, /session, /model, /permissions, and /export.

Config file resolution order

Runtime config is loaded in this order, with later entries overriding earlier ones:

1. ~/.claw.json
2. ~/.config/claw/settings.json
3. <repo>/.claw.json
4. <repo>/.claw/settings.json
5. <repo>/.claw/settings.local.json

Mock parity harness

The workspace includes a deterministic Anthropic-compatible mock service and parity harness.

cd rust
./scripts/run_mock_parity_harness.sh

Manual mock service startup:

cd rust
cargo run -p mock-anthropic-service -- --bind 127.0.0.1:0

Verification

cd rust
cargo test --workspace

Workspace overview

Current Rust crates:

• api
• commands
• compat-harness
• mock-anthropic-service
• plugins
• runtime
• rusty-claude-cli
• telemetry
• tools