System architecture

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High-level overview

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Core components

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Channel factory

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Message router

• Polls SQLite database every 2 seconds for new messages
• Filters messages by registered groups only
• Checks for trigger pattern (@{ASSISTANT_NAME})
• Maintains cursor state to track processed messages
• Routes messages to the appropriate group queue

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Group queue

• Concurrency limiting: Maximum 5 concurrent containers by default (configurable via MAX_CONCURRENT_CONTAINERS)
• Per-group state: Each group has a dedicated queue for messages and tasks
• Retry logic: Exponential backoff (5s base, up to 5 retries) for failed container runs
• Idle management: Keeps containers alive for 30 minutes (default IDLE_TIMEOUT) to handle follow-up messages
• IPC message piping: Follow-up messages are sent to active containers via IPC files

// Queue priority order when draining:
// 1. Pending tasks (won't be re-discovered from DB)
// 2. Pending messages (can be re-fetched from DB)
// 3. Waiting groups (dequeued when slots become available)

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Container runner

1. Build volume mounts based on group privileges
2. Spawn container with Docker CLI
3. Pass prompt and metadata via stdin JSON (credentials handled by secret injection layer, never passed here)
4. Stream stdout/stderr for real-time output
5. Parse output markers (---NANOCLAW_OUTPUT_START--- / ---NANOCLAW_OUTPUT_END---)
6. Clean up automatically on exit (--rm flag)

• Hard timeout: CONTAINER_TIMEOUT (default 30 minutes)
• Grace period: At least IDLE_TIMEOUT + 30s to allow graceful shutdown
• Activity-based reset: Timeout resets on each streaming output
• Post-output timeout: Not considered an error (idle cleanup)

• All container runs logged to groups/{name}/logs/container-{timestamp}.log
• Verbose mode (LOG_LEVEL=debug) logs full input/output
• Error runs log input metadata (prompt length, session ID) and full stderr — prompt content is not included

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Task scheduler

• Polls database every 60 seconds for due tasks
• Supports three schedule types:
  • cron: Cron expressions (e.g., 0 9 * * * for 9am daily)
  • interval: Millisecond intervals (e.g., 3600000 for hourly)
  • once: ISO timestamp for one-time execution
• Tasks run in group context with full agent capabilities
• Results can be sent to the group chat or completed silently
• Task containers close automatically 10 seconds after producing output

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IPC watcher

• Watches data/ipc/{group}/messages/*.json for outbound messages
• Watches data/ipc/{group}/tasks/*.json for task operations
• Validates operations against group privileges (see security.mdx)
• Atomic file writes (.tmp then rename) prevent race conditions
• Each group has isolated IPC namespace

• send_message: Send message to group chat (own chat only for non-main)
• schedule_task, pause_task, resume_task, cancel_task, update_task: Task management
• register_group, refresh_groups: Group management (main only)

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Database

• messages: All messages with timestamps, sender info, and bot-message flag (queries capped at 200 per invocation)
• chats: Chat metadata (name, last activity, channel, is_group)
• sessions: Claude session IDs per group folder
• registered_groups: Active groups with folder, trigger, container config, is_main flag
• router_state: Message cursors and last processed timestamps
• scheduled_tasks: Task definitions with schedule, context_mode (group or isolated), and status
• task_run_logs: Task execution history with duration and results

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Data flow

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Incoming message flow

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Follow-up message flow (piped to active container)

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File system layout

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Container image

• Base: node:24-slim
• Browser: Chromium with all required dependencies
• Tools: agent-browser CLI for browser automation
• Runtime: @anthropic-ai/claude-code (Claude Agent SDK)
• User: Runs as node user (uid 1000, non-root)
• Working directory: /workspace/group (group’s folder)

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Subsystems

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Session management

• Sessions stored at data/sessions/{group}/.claude/
• Include full message history and file contents read
• Auto-compact when context gets too long
• Settings configured per group:
  • CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1 (enable subagent orchestration)
  • CLAUDE_CODE_ADDITIONAL_DIRECTORIES_CLAUDE_MD=1 (load memory from mounts)
  • CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_AUTO_MEMORY=0 (enable persistent memory)

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Skills system

• Skills are available to all agents
• Per-group copies allow customization without affecting others
• Changes to shared skills require container restart to sync
• Built-in container skills include /agent-browser (web automation), /capabilities (system introspection), and /status (health check)
• /capabilities and /status are main-channel only — they check for the /workspace/project mount to enforce access

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Agent runner customization

• Recompiled on every container startup via entrypoint.sh
• Allows agents to add custom tools or modify behavior
• Isolated from other groups (changes don’t affect them)
• MCP servers can be added by modifying the agent runner code

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Startup sequence

1. Container system check: Ensure Docker is running, clean up orphaned containers
2. Database initialization: Create tables if needed, load schema
3. State loading: Restore message cursors, sessions, registered groups
4. OneCLI agent sync: Ensure each registered non-main group has a corresponding OneCLI agent for per-group credential scoping (best-effort, non-blocking)

5. Remote Control restore: Re-adopt any surviving Remote Control session from a previous run
6. Shutdown handlers: Register graceful shutdown on SIGTERM and SIGINT
7. Channel connection: Connect to messaging channels, authenticate if needed
8. Subsystem startup:
   • Task scheduler loop (60s interval)
   • IPC watcher (1s poll interval)
   • Message loop (2s poll interval)
9. Recovery: Check for unprocessed messages from previous crash
10. Ready: System begins processing messages and tasks

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Graceful shutdown

1. GroupQueue enters shutdown mode (stops accepting new work)
2. Active containers are detached (not killed)
3. Channels disconnect gracefully
4. Process exits with code 0

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Related topics

• Security model and isolation
• Group isolation and privileges
• Container isolation details
• Scheduled tasks system