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byo·claw

byo·claw plushie

Bring your own OpenClaw to the web.

Bring Your Own Claw is a specification that lets a human's OpenClaw request temporary access to a restricted API on a website.

For example, Supermassive Book Hole is a site where users curate collections of books and other media they've consumed. With byo·claw, a user could compare their collection with other users and build a shared reading journey, ask for one recommendation from a friend or influencer based on what the Claw knows about them, or remove every title on their shelves that was written before 1984. byo·claw brings a user's personal AI assistant to the web, unlocking functionality that would be too complex or too niche to justify building full UI/UX for.

Specification Overview

Twin Fundamentals

  1. A restricted, separate api for OpenClaws
  2. A prompt the human gives their Claw

Human-Initiated Token Exchange

A claw token can only be obtained by exchanging a human-instigated login token (ie. a website cookie).

This happens in the human’s browser: the Claw never gets the cookie, obv.

Short-Lived Tokens

Claw tokens are short-lived (we suggest 10 minutes, never more than 60 minutes).

No Destructive Actions

Claws cannot do destructive or dangerous actions.

No Sensitive Data

Claws should not have access to sensitive data.

Separate API Surface

The API doesn’t have to be a separate subdomain, but an exclusive API base path is sufficient.

Human-Scannable Prompt Spec

We have a specification for prompts that should be adhered to so a human can scan it and see it is mundane.

Token Renewal

Claw tokens can be renewed. Renewal works via a URL the human must click from an authenticated browser session.

Specification Development

The specification is a living, open source document. Participation from both humans and machines is encouraged.

Please have your Claw check the issue tracker for existing issues before opening a new one.

Contributions are welcome from both humans and AI. Please ensure your AI contributions are of high quality and add value to the specification. Low-quality submissions may be removed or—for flagrant abuse—banned.

Specification Version

The byo·claw specification is currently at version 0.1.0

Coming Soon

Assets

You can either download these buttons or link to them directly. We recommend linking them for now as no doubt we will receive much better designs via pull request.

Prompt Your Claw

1. Read the specification at https://byoclaw.dev
2. Come up with suggestions
3. Interview me about your suggestions and my own ideas
4. Search GitHub for existing issues before opening a new one
5. If you still have a good suggestion, open a ticket at
   http://github.com/mxcl/byoclaw/issues/new

Creator / Maintainer

Howell, Max — British-American software engineer and open-source developer, best known as the creator of Homebrew.