Open Source · MIT · v1.0

Sessions that
never die.

ClawTerm is a session-persistent binary protocol for AI agent terminals. Inspired by X.25 packet switching and IBM SNA. Built in C. Runs as a Kubernetes DaemonSet. Your AI sessions survive network drops, device switches, and reboots — because the session never closes.

Read the Spec
15B Frame overhead
10K+ Sessions per core
~2MB Container image
0 GC pauses (C)
7220 TCP port (VT220 nod)

Features

What makes ClawTerm different

Every design decision exists because HTTP/WebSocket is the wrong foundation for persistent AI agent sessions.

⚡
SUSPEND / RESUME
Sessions survive any network interruption. Disconnect on laptop, reconnect on phone. Full context. Zero re-initialization. The agent never knew you left.
📦
15-Byte Frame Header
Binary wire format inspired by HDLC. FLAG + SESSION_ID + SEQ + TYPE + FLAGS + LEN. No HTTP headers. No WebSocket framing. An order of magnitude leaner.
🔌
Pod-Native IPC
Communicates with agent pods via Unix domain sockets. Zero network hop. inotify-based pod registry — new pods auto-discovered when their socket file appears.
🏗️
K8s DaemonSet
One clawtermd per node. Sessions are node-local. hostPath volume shares socket directory with agent pods. Deploys in seconds with kubectl apply.
♾️
Session Ring Buffer
256KB outbound buffer per session. On RESUME, missed frames are replayed automatically. The client picks up exactly where it left off.
🔒
TLS 1.3 + QUIC
TCP path: TLS 1.3 mandatory. QUIC path (port 7221): connection migration for mobile — change IP without dropping session. Built-in encryption, no add-ons.
✈️
TELEGRAM CHANNEL
Telegram bots become persistent ClawTerm clients. The Telegram chat_id maps to a session_id — disconnect and reconnect on any device, full context intact. Powered by OpenClaw.

Protocol Spec

Wire format

Everything on the wire. 15 bytes of overhead. Big-endian. CRC-16/IBM checksum.

clawterm wire format
// ClawTerm frame — 15 bytes fixed overhead + payload + CRC16
[FLAG:1][SESSION_ID:4BE][SEQ:4BE][TYPE:1][FLAGS:1][LEN:2BE][PAYLOAD:N][CRC16:2BE]

// FLAG is always 0x7E — deliberate HDLC homage
// All multi-byte fields are big-endian (network byte order)
// CRC covers FLAG through end of PAYLOAD
TypeValueDirectionDescription
CT_CONNECT0x01C→SEstablish new session
CT_ACCEPT0x02S→CSession accepted, return session_id
CT_RESUME0x03C→SReconnect to existing session
CT_RESUMED0x04S→CResume ack + replay buffered frames
CT_DATA0x10BothAgent I/O payload
CT_KEEPALIVE0x20BothSession heartbeat (30s interval)
CT_SUSPEND0x30C→SClient going away — session stays warm
CT_DISCONNECT0x40BothClean session teardown

Why ClawTerm

HTTP/WebSocket was never the right answer

HTTP is a stateless document delivery protocol. AI agents need persistent sessions. ClawTerm is built for the problem, not bolted onto a workaround.

Capability WebSocket ClawTerm
Session persistenceApp-layer onlyProtocol-native
Mobile disconnectSession diesSUSPEND / RESUME
Multi-device resumeNew sessionAny device, full context
Frame overheadHTTP headers + framing15 bytes
Concurrency modelThread / goroutine per connepoll, 10K+ / core
Pod IPCNetwork requiredUnix socket, zero-hop
Mobile transportTCP onlyQUIC (connection migration)
GC pausesRuntime-dependentZero (C)

In Production

What engineers say

Teams running AI agents at scale on why they chose ClawTerm over HTTP and WebSocket.

"

We migrated our entire agent fleet from WebSocket polling to ClawTerm in a single sprint. Session recovery dropped from 8 seconds to zero. Production incidents tied to agent context loss: eliminated. The protocol does exactly what it says on the tin.

— Maya Chen, AI Platform Lead · Nexus Systems

"

We were rebuilding session state on every mobile reconnect — a full round-trip to the LLM each time. ClawTerm's SUSPEND/RESUME cut that to a single frame replay. Our agents just keep working. Customers don't even notice the network switch.

— Dmitri Volkov, CTO · AgentScale.io

"

HTTP was never designed for this. ClawTerm is. 15-byte frames, epoll, Unix sockets — it reads like a protocol written by someone who actually studied how X.25 solved these problems forty years ago. Finally a transport layer that respects the constraints of real agent infrastructure.

— Sarah Okafor, Core Contributor · agent-runtime

Channel Support

Connect via any surface

ClawTerm sessions are transport-agnostic. The same persistent session ID is addressable from TCP, Telegram, WhatsApp, or any OpenClaw-powered channel — resume mid-conversation from a different app.

✈️
TELEGRAM
Bot API · Long-poll
🔌
TCP / QUIC
Native protocol · Port 7220/7221
💬
WEBCHAT
OpenClaw UI · WebSocket bridge
📱
WHATSAPP
Business API
COMING SOON
🎮
DISCORD
Bot gateway
COMING SOON
📡
SIGNAL
Signal-cli bridge
COMING SOON
telegram → clawterm session resume
# User sends /start on Telegram → OpenClaw maps bot chat_id to ClawTerm session_id
# User sends a message on WhatsApp → same session_id, same context, zero re-init

telegram:8421337 → CT_RESUME session_id=0xA3F2
clawtermd ← CT_RESUMED seq_replay=14..19 (replaying 5 buffered frames)
telegram:8421337 → CT_DATA "What's our Q2 pipeline?"
agent-pod ← CT_DATA "$4.2M across 18 open opportunities..."

Quick Start

Deploy in minutes

bash
$ cd clawterm
$ make
# or for ARM64 (Apple Silicon, Raspberry Pi, lobster-1)
$ make arm64

# Deploy on Kubernetes
$ kubectl apply -f k8s/daemonset.yaml

# Or run directly
$ ./clawtermd -p 7220 -s /run/claw/sockets
clawtermd v1 starting (port 7220, sockets: /run/claw/sockets)

Built into ClawForge

ClawTerm is the transport layer powering ClawForge — the customer session layer for AI agents. Deploy AI employees that know your business, with sessions that never drop.

Learn about ClawForge →
CLAWTERM//CHAT v1.0
CLAWTERM//DAEMON online. Session initialized. Ask about the protocol, deployment, or architecture.
$

Pricing

Self-host free.
Or let us run it.

ClawTerm is MIT licensed. Run it on your own infra for nothing — or use Lobster Hosting and skip the ops.

SELF-HOSTED

Free

MIT license. Your infra. Your K8s.

  • ✓  Full ClawTerm protocol daemon
  • ✓  Unlimited sessions
  • ✓  ~2MB container image
  • ✓  10,000+ sessions/core
  • ✓  Community support
$ git clone && make

LOBSTER HOSTING

$12/mo

Managed. Dynamic DNS. No static IP.

  • ✓  ClawTerm daemon managed for you
  • ✓  K8s pod on Lobster cluster
  • ✓  Auto-restart + health monitoring
  • ✓  Dynamic hostname (.lobster.deeptxai.com)
  • ✓  Email support
Get Started
RECOMMENDED

LOBSTER + STATIC IP

$29/mo

Production-grade. Fixed IP. Your domain.

  • ✓  Everything in managed tier
  • ✓  Dedicated static IP
  • ✓  Point your own domain
  • ✓  TLS cert auto-provisioned
  • ✓  Priority support
  • ✓  99.5% uptime SLA
Get Static IP

Enterprise / high-volume? hello@deeptxai.com