3 unstable releases

new 0.4.0 Feb 15, 2026
0.3.1 Feb 14, 2026
0.3.0 Feb 14, 2026

#2151 in Command line utilities

Apache-2.0

2.5MB
47K SLoC

Zippy — ZeptoClaw mascot

ZeptoClaw

Ultra-lightweight personal AI assistant.

Documentation

CI Release License


$ zeptoclaw agent --stream -m "Analyze our API for security issues"

🤖 ZeptoClaw — Streaming analysis...

  [web_fetch]        Fetching API docs...
  [shell]            Running integration tests...
  [longterm_memory]  Storing findings...

 Found 12 endpoints, 3 missing auth headers, 1 open redirect
 Saved findings to long-term memory under "api-audit"

 Analysis complete in 4.2s

We studied the best AI assistants — and their tradeoffs. OpenClaw's integrations without the 100MB. NanoClaw's security without the TypeScript bundle. PicoClaw's size without the bare-bones feature set. One Rust binary with 17 tools, 5 channels, 8 providers, and container isolation.

~4MB binary ~50ms startup ~6MB RAM 1,300+ tests 8 providers

Why ZeptoClaw

We studied what works — and what doesn't.

OpenClaw proved an AI assistant can handle 12 channels and 100+ skills. But it costs 100MB and 400K lines. NanoClaw proved security-first is possible. But it's still 50MB of TypeScript. PicoClaw proved AI assistants can run on $10 hardware. But it stripped out everything to get there.

ZeptoClaw took notes. The integrations, the security, the size discipline — without the tradeoffs each one made. One 4MB Rust binary that starts in 50ms, uses 6MB of RAM, and ships with container isolation, prompt injection detection, and a circuit breaker provider stack.

Security

AI agents execute code. Most frameworks trust that nothing will go wrong.

The OpenClaw ecosystem has seen CVE-2026-25253 (CVSS 8.8 — cross-site WebSocket hijacking to RCE), ClawHavoc (341 malicious skills, 9,000+ compromised installations), and 42,000 exposed instances with auth bypass. ZeptoClaw was built with this threat model in mind.

Layer What it does
Container Isolation Every shell command runs in Docker or Apple Container — not on your host
Prompt Injection Detection Aho-Corasick multi-pattern matcher (17 patterns) + 4 regex rules
Secret Leak Scanner 22 regex patterns catch API keys, tokens, and credentials before they reach the LLM
Policy Engine 7 rules blocking system file access, crypto key extraction, SQL injection, encoded exploits
Input Validator 100KB limit, null byte detection, whitespace ratio analysis, repetition detection
Shell Blocklist Regex patterns blocking reverse shells, rm -rf, privilege escalation
SSRF Prevention DNS pinning, private IP blocking, scheme validation for all web requests
Tool Approval Gate Require explicit confirmation before executing dangerous tools

Every layer runs by default. No flags to remember, no config to enable.

Install

# One-liner (macOS / Linux)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/qhkm/zeptoclaw/main/install.sh | sh

# Homebrew
brew install qhkm/tap/zeptoclaw

# Docker
docker pull ghcr.io/qhkm/zeptoclaw:latest

# Build from source
cargo install zeptoclaw --git https://github.com/qhkm/zeptoclaw

Quick Start

# Interactive setup (walks you through API keys, channels, workspace)
zeptoclaw onboard

# Talk to your agent
zeptoclaw agent -m "Hello, set up my workspace"

# Stream responses token-by-token
zeptoclaw agent --stream -m "Explain async Rust"

# Use a built-in template
zeptoclaw agent --template researcher -m "Search for Rust agent frameworks"

# Process prompts in batch
zeptoclaw batch --input prompts.txt --output results.jsonl

# Start as a Telegram/Slack/Discord/Webhook gateway
zeptoclaw gateway

# With full container isolation per request
zeptoclaw gateway --containerized

Deploy

Deploy to DigitalOcean Deploy to Railway Deploy to Render Deploy to Fly.io

Any VPS

curl -fsSL https://zeptoclaw.com/setup.sh | bash

Interactive setup guides you through provider keys and channel selection. Installs the binary, creates a systemd service, starts on boot.

Features

Core

Feature What it does
Multi-Provider LLM Claude + OpenAI with SSE streaming, retry with backoff, auto-failover
17 Tools + Plugins Shell, filesystem, web, memory, cron, WhatsApp, Google Sheets, and more
Agent Swarms Delegate to sub-agents with role-specific prompts and tool whitelists
Batch Mode Process hundreds of prompts from text/JSONL files with template support
Agent Templates 4 built-in (coder, researcher, writer, analyst) + custom JSON templates

Channels & Integration

Feature What it does
5-Channel Gateway Telegram, Slack, Discord, Webhook, CLI — unified message bus
Plugin System JSON manifest plugins auto-discovered from ~/.zeptoclaw/plugins/
Hooks before_tool, after_tool, on_error with Log, Block, and Notify actions
Cron & Heartbeat Schedule recurring tasks, proactive check-ins, background spawning
Memory & History Workspace memory, long-term key-value store, conversation history

Security & Ops

Feature What it does
Container Isolation Shell execution in Docker or Apple Container per request
Tool Approval Gate Policy-based gating — require confirmation for dangerous tools
SSRF Prevention DNS pinning, private IP blocking, scheme validation
Shell Blocklist Regex patterns blocking reverse shells, rm -rf, privilege escalation
Token Budget & Cost Per-session budget enforcement, per-model cost estimation for 8 models
Telemetry Prometheus + JSON metrics export, structured logging, per-tenant tracing
Multi-Tenant Hundreds of tenants on one VPS — isolated workspaces, ~6MB RAM each

Full documentationzeptoclaw.com/docs covers configuration, environment variables, CLI reference, deployment guides, and more.

Inspired By

ZeptoClaw is inspired by projects in the open-source AI agent ecosystem — OpenClaw, NanoClaw, and PicoClaw — each taking a different approach to the same problem. ZeptoClaw's contribution is Rust's memory safety, async performance, and container isolation for production multi-tenant deployments.

Development

cargo test              # 1,100+ tests
cargo clippy -- -D warnings
cargo fmt -- --check

License

Apache 2.0 — see LICENSE


ZeptoClaw — Because your AI assistant shouldn't need more RAM than your text editor.

Built by Aisar Labs

Dependencies

~27–52MB
~737K SLoC