null·menu
Menu
Browse documentation

Start

Install NullClaw directly

verified · v2026.5.29 edit on github
On this page 8 sections

You don't need NullHub to run an agent. NullClaw is a standalone static binary (4.4–6.5 MB depending on platform) and has the easiest install in the family. This is the à la carte order.

Homebrew

brew install nullclaw
nullclaw --help

Docker

An official OCI image is published to GitHub Container Registry:

docker run --rm -it -v nullclaw-data:/nullclaw-data ghcr.io/nullclaw/nullclaw:latest status

State lives in /nullclaw-data inside the container — the named volume keeps it. The repo also ships a Makefile wrapper around docker-compose (make build, make config, make up).

Nix

The repo carries a flake (flake.nix) if you are on Nix.

Build from source

Requires Zig 0.16.0 — exactly that version, not newer, not older:

git clone https://github.com/nullclaw/nullclaw.git
cd nullclaw
zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSmall
zig build test --summary all

ReleaseSmall is the size-optimized build the releases ship. A minimal -Dchannels=none build gets far smaller than the full-featured default.

First run

Onboard with a provider key, then talk:

nullclaw onboard --api-key sk-... --provider openrouter
nullclaw agent -m "Hello, nullclaw!"

onboard writes a single JSON config to ~/.nullclaw/config.json. Prefer a guided setup? nullclaw onboard --interactive walks providers, channels and memory step by step. NullClaw speaks to ~60 providers — OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Ollama, Groq, Mistral, DeepSeek and others, plus any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

For a long-running assistant, start the gateway — HTTP API, chat channels, heartbeat and scheduler in one process:

nullclaw gateway    # 127.0.0.1:3000 by default

Health checks

nullclaw status
nullclaw doctor

doctor diagnoses config and environment problems; run it first when something misbehaves.

Coming from OpenClaw?

NullClaw's config format is OpenClaw-compatible, and there is a one-command migration:

nullclaw migrate openclaw --dry-run
nullclaw migrate openclaw

This imports config and memory. --dry-run shows what would change without touching anything.

Joining the stack later

A directly-installed NullClaw composes with the rest of the family whenever you are ready: point its OTLP diagnostics at NullWatch, give it a backlog with NullTickets, or hand supervision to NullHub. Full agent documentation lives at claw.nullmenu.ai.