noclaw
No overhead. No runtime. No compromise.
The absolute smallest fully autonomous AI assistant.
All commands from other agents — resized, distilled, executed.
there is no claw
i love you
What
noclaw runs every command that other agents in OpenClaw dispatch — but resized, stripped down, and with all the unimportant stuff thrown away. It takes the bloated instructions from the outside, compresses them, and just executes what actually matters.
88 KB binary. 324 KB RAM. scp it anywhere and run it. Zero runtime deps. 14 source files. Pure C.
Benchmark Snapshot
| OpenClaw | NanoBot | PicoClaw | ZeroClaw | NullClaw | NoClaw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Language | TypeScript | Python | Go | Rust | Zig | C |
| RAM | > 1 GB | > 100 MB | < 10 MB | < 5 MB | ~1 MB* | 324 KB |
| Startup | > 500 s | > 30 s | < 1 s | < 10 ms | < 8 ms | idk man |
| Binary | ~28 MB | 363 MB | ~8 MB | 3.4 MB | 678 KB | 88 KB |
| Build Deps | node, 1219 pkgs | pip, 103 pkgs | go, 82 modules | cargo, 737 crates | zig, libsqlite3 | cc, libbearssl |
| Runtime Deps | node + npm | python + pip | libc | libc | libc + curl | 0 |
| Source Files | ~400+ | ~54 | ~129 | ~120 | ~110 | ~14 |
| Cost | $599 | ~$50 | $10 | $10 | $5 | 50¢ |
noclaw numbers measured on arm64 Linux (Debian bookworm). RAM is peak RSS with static musl build.
NullClaw's ~1 MB RAM excludes TLS — it shells out to curl. noclaw does TLS in-process.
Features
2 providers. OpenAI-compatible + Anthropic.
4 channels. CLI, Telegram, Discord, Slack.
5 tools. shell, file_read, file_write, memory_store, memory_recall.
324 KB peak RSS. Less memory than a favicon.
88 KB binary. Single file, scp and go.
14 source files. ~5,350 lines of C11.
Quick Start
git clone https://github.com/angristan/noclaw.git
cd noclaw
make release
# Setup
./noclaw onboard --api-key sk-... --provider openrouter
# Chat
./noclaw agent -m "Hello, noclaw!"
# Interactive mode
./noclaw agent
cd noclaw
make release
# Setup
./noclaw onboard --api-key sk-... --provider openrouter
# Chat
./noclaw agent -m "Hello, noclaw!"
# Interactive mode
./noclaw agent
Architecture
Every subsystem is a function-pointer vtable — swap implementations at build or runtime.
| Subsystem | Interface | Ships with |
|---|---|---|
| AI Models | nc_provider | OpenAI-compatible, Anthropic |
| Channels | nc_channel | CLI, Telegram, Discord, Slack |
| Memory | nc_memory | Flat-file (keyword search) |
| Tools | nc_tool | shell, file_read, file_write, memory |
| Gateway | HTTP server | /health, /pair, /webhook |
Source Layout
src/
main.c // CLI entry point
nc.h // Single header: all types
arena.c // Arena allocator
util.c // String utils, file I/O
json.c // JSON parser (zero deps)
config.c // Config loader
http.c // HTTP client + TLS
provider.c // AI provider vtable
channel.c // Channel vtable
tools.c // Tool vtable
memory.c // Flat-file memory
agent.c // Agent loop
gateway.c // HTTP gateway
commands.c // CLI commands
main.c // CLI entry point
nc.h // Single header: all types
arena.c // Arena allocator
util.c // String utils, file I/O
json.c // JSON parser (zero deps)
config.c // Config loader
http.c // HTTP client + TLS
provider.c // AI provider vtable
channel.c // Channel vtable
tools.c // Tool vtable
memory.c // Flat-file memory
agent.c // Agent loop
gateway.c // HTTP gateway
commands.c // CLI commands