claw-code/USAGE.md

Claw Code Usage

This guide covers the current Rust workspace under rust/ and the claw CLI binary.

Prerequisites

• Rust toolchain with cargo
• One of:
  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for direct API access
  • claw login for OAuth-based auth
• Optional: ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL when targeting a proxy or local service

Build the workspace

cd rust
cargo build --workspace

The CLI binary is available at rust/target/debug/claw after a debug build.

Quick start

Interactive REPL

cd rust
./target/debug/claw

One-shot prompt

cd rust
./target/debug/claw prompt "summarize this repository"

Shorthand prompt mode

cd rust
./target/debug/claw "explain rust/crates/runtime/src/lib.rs"

JSON output for scripting

cd rust
./target/debug/claw --output-format json prompt "status"

Model and permission controls

cd rust
./target/debug/claw --model sonnet prompt "review this diff"
./target/debug/claw --permission-mode read-only prompt "summarize Cargo.toml"
./target/debug/claw --permission-mode workspace-write prompt "update README.md"
./target/debug/claw --allowedTools read,glob "inspect the runtime crate"

Supported permission modes:

• read-only
• workspace-write
• danger-full-access

Model aliases currently supported by the CLI:

• opus → claude-opus-4-6
• sonnet → claude-sonnet-4-6
• haiku → claude-haiku-4-5-20251213

Authentication

API key

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

OAuth

cd rust
./target/debug/claw login
./target/debug/claw logout

Common operational commands

cd rust
./target/debug/claw status
./target/debug/claw sandbox
./target/debug/claw agents
./target/debug/claw mcp
./target/debug/claw skills
./target/debug/claw system-prompt --cwd .. --date 2026-04-04

Session management

REPL turns are persisted under .claw/sessions/ in the current workspace.

cd rust
./target/debug/claw --resume latest
./target/debug/claw --resume latest /status /diff

Useful interactive commands include /help, /status, /cost, /config, /session, /model, /permissions, and /export.

Config file resolution order

Runtime config is loaded in this order, with later entries overriding earlier ones:

1. ~/.claw.json
2. ~/.config/claw/settings.json
3. <repo>/.claw.json
4. <repo>/.claw/settings.json
5. <repo>/.claw/settings.local.json

Mock parity harness

The workspace includes a deterministic Anthropic-compatible mock service and parity harness.

cd rust
./scripts/run_mock_parity_harness.sh

Manual mock service startup:

cd rust
cargo run -p mock-anthropic-service -- --bind 127.0.0.1:0

Verification

cd rust
cargo test --workspace

Workspace overview

Current Rust crates:

• api
• commands
• compat-harness
• mock-anthropic-service
• plugins
• runtime
• rusty-claude-cli
• telemetry
• tools