Welcome to MaClaw — your Programming Little Crayfish (编程小龙虾). Whether you're a professional software developer or an everyday office worker, it's the most caring AI partner by your side. It doesn't just understand code — it understands you: customizable personality, long-term memory of your preferences, spiritual companionship while you work, and autonomous task handling when you're away. It integrates three-state programming, agent orchestration, personality system, memory management, and SSH/browser monitoring — equally at home in software development, office productivity, and daily tasks.
Here is the detailed operation guide:
When you launch MaClaw for the first time, a guided wizard walks you through setup in just four steps:
- Enter your email address to register (invitation code required in some regions)
- Registration unlocks remote programming capabilities
- Professional Mode (Pro): For developers — full access to all advanced features (three-state programming, Swarm orchestration, SSH/browser monitoring, MCP management, memory system, etc.)
- Simplified Mode (Simple): For office workers & everyday users — streamlined zero-barrier interface focused on conversational AI. Write documents, build reports, look up info with ease
- Switch between modes at any time with one click — developers use Pro mode to code, office workers use Simple mode to get things done. Everyone's covered.
- Choose from preset LLM providers (e.g., GLM, DeepSeek, etc.)
- Enter your API Key and test connectivity
- Also supports OAuth one-click login and free trial access
- Scan the QR code to bind your little crayfish to your WeChat
- Once bound, chat with your little crayfish anytime via WeChat
- Send messages from your phone to command it to write code, look up information, or process documents
Four steps and you're done — use the desktop interface on your PC, or command it via WeChat on your phone. Always online, always available.
When MaClaw starts, it automatically checks your system environment:
- Dependency Check: Detects Node.js and other required runtimes.
- Tool Installation: Automatically detects and installs or updates
claude-code,codex,gemini-cli,opencode,codebuddy, andqoderclito their latest versions. - Startup Window: A progress window displays the environment preparation status.
MaClaw provides three complementary programming modes for different development scenarios:
AI CLI tools run directly on your machine with full filesystem and dev environment access.
- Select the target AI tool from the sidebar (Claude, Codex, Gemini, etc.).
- Select a project in the "Vibe Coding" area.
- Click "Launch" — a pre-configured terminal window opens and runs automatically.
Use Cases: Daily coding, debugging, refactoring, code review.
Browser-based remote access via MaClaw Hub with PWA and mobile support.
- Ensure MaClaw Hub is deployed and accessible.
- Open the Hub URL in your browser and activate with email and invitation code.
- Select a session and connect for real-time remote programming.
Use Cases: Remote work, cross-device collaboration, mobile emergency handling.
The Swarm orchestrator intelligently splits tasks, with multi-agent parallel execution and automatic merging.
- Select an operating mode in the orchestration panel:
- Greenfield: Build a project from scratch
- Maintenance: Incremental enhancement of existing codebase
- Enter requirements description — the orchestrator automatically splits into sub-tasks.
- Up to 5 AI developer agents execute concurrently with conflict detection and auto-merge.
- Up to 5 feedback iterations per task for continuous quality improvement.
Use Cases: Large feature development, bulk refactoring, automated pipelines.
Customize your little crayfish's personality and identity to make it your own exclusive programming companion:
- Open the MaclawRolePanel (Personality Configuration Panel).
- Set the following parameters:
- Role Name: Give your little crayfish a name (default: "MaClaw")
- Role Description: Detailed character definition (default: "A dedicated and capable software development butler")
- Role information is automatically injected into system prompts, affecting all interactions and keeping your little crayfish's personality consistent.
- Support for dynamic temporary role override during conversations for different scenarios (serious code review / relaxed pair programming).
- Through long coding nights, your little crayfish is always online — responsive, patient, and ever-present.
The system manages concurrent tasks through a slot-based mechanism:
| Slot Type | Max Concurrency | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | Interactive programming sessions |
| Scheduled | 1 | Planned automatic execution |
| Auto | 1 | ClawNet auto task pickup |
| SSH | 10 | Remote terminal connections |
| Browser | 2 | Browser automation |
Background tasks support real-time progress monitoring. Long-running tasks can be checked at any time.
MaClaw provides long-term memory capabilities, enabling your little crayfish to remember your preferences and project knowledge across sessions — the more you use it, the better it knows you:
The system maintains six types of structured memory:
| Category | Description | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Self-Identity | Agent identity and personality definition | 4.0 |
| User Facts | Basic information about the user | 2.0 |
| Instructions | Explicit rules given by the user | 3.0 |
| Preferences | Coding style, tool preferences, etc. | 2.0 |
| Project Knowledge | Project-specific technical decisions and architecture | 2.0 |
| Session Checkpoints | Cross-session context continuation | 2.0 |
- Pin: Mark important memories as non-evictable
- Archive: Move infrequently used memories to cold storage
- Compress: LLM-driven deduplication + semantic merging + intelligent compression
- Garbage Collection (GC): LRU-based automatic eviction of stale memories (self-identity memories are never evicted)
Three-dimensional scoring model: Score = w1 × Recency + w2 × Importance + w3 × Relevance
- Recency: Exponential decay based on update time
- Importance: Category weight + log of access count
- Relevance: BM25 keyword matching + vector semantic similarity + project affinity
MaClaw's unique SSH monitoring system provides end-to-end remote management for software operations — a core differentiator from competing products:
- Add remote host information in the SSH panel (address, port, authentication method).
- After connecting, sessions are managed as background tasks (up to 10 concurrent).
- Real-time monitoring of remote operations and process status.
- Agent-driven remote deployment, log analysis, and fault diagnosis
- Batch command execution with result collection
- Full audit logging of all operations
MaClaw's unique browser monitoring system provides core support for automated testing and business process automation — a core differentiator from competing products:
- Open the browser recording panel and click "Start Recording".
- Perform operations in the browser — the system automatically records each interaction step.
- Click "Stop Recording" to save as a replayable flow file.
- Select a recorded flow file.
- Configure variable overrides for parameterized replay.
- Replay tasks run as background tasks with pause/resume/cancel support.
- Support scheduled triggers for automatic execution.
- RapidOCR and LLM vision model support for screen text extraction
- Built-in task verification to confirm automation correctness
- Automatic retry strategy on failure
The sidebar provides quick switching:
- Claude: Configure and launch Anthropic Claude Code
- Codex: Configure and launch OpenAI Codex CLI
- Gemini: Configure and launch Google Gemini CLI
- OpenCode: Configure and launch OpenCode AI assistant
- CodeBuddy: Configure and launch CodeBuddy programming assistant
- Qoder: Configure and launch Qoder CLI programming assistant
- Skills: Manage AI programming assistant extensions
- Add Skill: Supports Skill ID (Address) and Zip Package formats.
- Shared Skills: Zip skills stored in global repository, accessible by all tools.
- Compatibility Check: Auto-detects tool capabilities and shows warnings for incompatibilities.
- System Skills: Built-in official documentation and default skills, ready to use.
- Select an AI tool from the sidebar and locate the "Model Settings" area.
- Provider Selection: Supports preset providers including GLM, Kimi, Doubao, MiniMax, DeepSeek, etc.
- "Original" Mode: Use official default configs; auto-clears custom proxy settings and environment variables.
- API Key: Paste your key in the input field — it's saved automatically after configuration.
- Smart Sync: Keys for the same provider auto-sync across different tools.
View project tabs in the "Vibe Coding" area and click to switch.
Click "Manage Projects" to add, rename, or delete projects.
- Project Directory: Click "Change" to select your code folder.
- Launch Parameters:
- Yolo Mode: Skip all permission prompts (use with caution)
- As Admin (Windows): Launch terminal with administrator rights
- Python Environment: Auto-detect Conda/Anaconda environments with independent Python runtime support.
- BM25 + vector semantic dual retrieval for automatic relevant tool matching
- Up to 30 tools per request, dynamically budgeted by relevance
- Detailed tool routing logs at
~/.maclaw/logs/tool_route.log
- Local MCP Servers: Stdio protocol with auto-discovery and health monitoring
- Remote MCP Servers: HTTP protocol with authentication and 60-second health check cycle
- Automatic tool definition extraction and registration
- Status Bar: Real-time feedback and error messages at the bottom of the interface
- Language Switch: Change interface language in the title bar or settings
- Check Update: Get the latest version of MaClaw
- System Tray: Right-click the tray icon for quick tool launching or quitting
- Security Framework: Risk assessment engine, audit logging, security firewall, and fine-grained permission control