thinclaw

thinclaw — Thin Inference-Less MCP Server

What thinclaw is

thinclaw is a zero-inference MCP server that acts as a bridge between Claude Desktop/Cowork and the OpenClaw Gateway. It performs ZERO inference — only HTTP relay.

┌─────────────────┐  MCP stdio   ┌──────────────┐  HTTP REST  ┌──────────────────┐
│  Claude Desktop │ ───────────► │   thinclaw   │ ──────────► │  OpenClaw         │
│  Claude Cowork  │   zero LLM   │   (bridge)   │  /tools/    │  Gateway         │
│  Perplexity     │ ◄─────────── │  Node.js     │  invoke     │  localhost:18789 │
└─────────────────┘  tool result└──────────────┘ ◄────────── └──────────────────┘

All reasoning happens in the calling AI. thinclaw only proxies tool calls to the Gateway.

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Available Tools

Use these tools in Claude Desktop after thinclaw is installed and Claude Desktop is restarted.

1. openclaw_execute

Universal proxy — call ANY OpenClaw tool by name.

Tool: openclaw_execute
Arguments: {
  "tool": "bash",
  "params": { "command": "ls -la", "cwd": "/tmp" }
}

Supported tool names: bash, read_file, grep, todo_list_write, slack_postMessage, whatsapp_send, memory_search, etc.

2. run_shell

Shorthand for executing shell commands.

Tool: run_shell
Arguments: {
  "command": "find . -name '*.js' | head -10"
}

3. send_whatsapp

Send a WhatsApp message (requires whatsapp_send tool registered in Gateway).

Tool: send_whatsapp
Arguments: {
  "to": "+1234567890",
  "message": "Hello from thinclaw!"
}

4. schedule_cron

Schedule a recurring task via Gateway cron.

Tool: schedule_cron
Arguments: {
  "schedule": "*/5 * * * *",
  "task": "check-deployments"
}

5. trigger_cowork_workflow

Trigger a Claude Cowork workflow by writing a flag file to ~/AI_Bridge/inbox/.

Tool: trigger_cowork_workflow
Arguments: {
  "workflow": "daily-standup",
  "context": { "channel": "#engineering", "time": "09:30" }
}

This creates ~/AI_Bridge/inbox/trigger-<timestamp>.json. Cowork monitors this folder.

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Architecture Notes

• Gateway must be running at http://localhost:18789
• Token auto-read from ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json or set via GATEWAY_TOKEN
• AI_Bridge folder: ~/AI_Bridge/{inbox,outbox,processed} for cron → Cowork handoff
• No inference — thinclaw is a pure HTTP relay, zero LLM calls

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Troubleshooting

Issue	Fix
Gateway not responding	Start Gateway: openclaw gateway start
Token missing	Check: cat ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json | jq '.gateway.auth.token'
Health check	curl http://localhost:18789/health
Tools not showing	Restart Claude Desktop after installing thinclaw

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Installation (for reference)

thinclaw is installed via Claude Desktop config at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "thinclaw": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["$HOME/thinclaw/server.js"],
      "env": { "GATEWAY_TOKEN": "..." }
    }
  }
}