Installation

Netclaw has two components: a CLI (netclaw) and a daemon (netclawd). The CLI is a thin client — all inference, tool execution, and session state live in the daemon. Install both on the same machine to get started; for remote setups, see Pairing Remote Devices.

Linux (recommended)

curl -sSL https://releases.netclaw.dev/install.sh | bash

Installs both CLI and daemon to ~/.netclaw/bin and adds it to your PATH. Supports x86_64 and ARM64.

# CLI only
curl -sSL https://releases.netclaw.dev/install.sh | bash -s -- cli

# Daemon only
curl -sSL https://releases.netclaw.dev/install.sh | bash -s -- daemon

# Pin a version
NETCLAW_VERSION=0.1.0 curl -sSL https://releases.netclaw.dev/install.sh | bash

# Custom install directory
INSTALL_DIR=/opt/netclaw curl -sSL https://releases.netclaw.dev/install.sh | bash

Windows

iwr -useb https://releases.netclaw.dev/install.ps1 | iex

Installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\netclaw. To install a specific component or version:

$script = Join-Path $env:TEMP "netclaw-install.ps1"
iwr -useb https://releases.netclaw.dev/install.ps1 -OutFile $script
& $script -Component cli           # CLI only
& $script -Component daemon        # Daemon only
& $script -Version 0.1.0           # Pinned version

Docker

Run the daemon as a container — useful for servers, homelab setups, or if you don’t want to install anything on the host.

docker run -d \
  --name netclaw \
  -v ~/.netclaw:/root/.netclaw \
  -p 127.0.0.1:5199:5199 \
  ghcr.io/netclaw-dev/netclaw

Setting	Value
Image	ghcr.io/netclaw-dev/netclaw
Architectures	linux/amd64, linux/arm64
Port	5199
Volume	/root/.netclaw (config, identity, sessions, logs)

The container runs the daemon only. You still need the CLI installed on whatever machine you’re talking to it from — install it with the Linux or Windows script above (bash -s -- cli), then pair the CLI to the container’s daemon.

Pass provider credentials as environment variables:

docker run -d \
  --name netclaw \
  -v ~/.netclaw:/root/.netclaw \
  -p 127.0.0.1:5199:5199 \
  -e NETCLAW_Providers__openrouter__Type=openrouter \
  -e NETCLAW_Providers__openrouter__ApiKey=sk-or-v1-... \
  -e NETCLAW_Models__Main__Provider=openrouter \
  -e NETCLAW_Models__Main__ModelId=anthropic/claude-sonnet-4 \
  ghcr.io/netclaw-dev/netclaw

For Docker Compose setups (including bundling Ollama), see Docker Deployment.

Build from source

Requires .NET 10 SDK.

git clone https://github.com/netclaw-dev/netclaw.git
cd netclaw
dotnet publish src/Netclaw.Cli/Netclaw.Cli.csproj -c Release -o ./out
dotnet publish src/Netclaw.Daemon/Netclaw.Daemon.csproj -c Release -o ./out
export PATH="$PWD/out:$PATH"

Verify the install

netclaw --version

You should see the version, commit hash, and build timestamp.

Next step

netclaw init

The init wizard walks you through provider setup, security posture, channels, identity, and network exposure — then starts the daemon. See the Quickstart for the full walkthrough.

Updating

netclaw update          # check for and install updates
netclaw update --check  # check only, don't install

Self-update is disabled in the Docker image — update by pulling a new image tag instead.

Resources

• .NET 10 SDK — required for building from source
• Docker Engine — container runtime for the Docker install method
• Docker Deployment — Docker Compose, Ollama sidecar, and production container configuration