PicoClaw AI Assistant

Skill by ara.so — Daily 2026 Skills collection.

PicoClaw is an ultra-lightweight personal AI assistant written in Go. It runs on $10 hardware with under 10MB RAM and boots in under 1 second. It supports multiple LLM providers (OpenAI-compatible, Anthropic, Volcengine), optional web search tools, and deploys as a single self-contained binary on x86_64, ARM64, MIPS, and RISC-V Linux devices.

Installation

Precompiled Binary

Download from the releases page:

# Linux ARM64 (Raspberry Pi, LicheeRV-Nano, etc.)
wget https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw/releases/download/v0.1.1/picoclaw-linux-arm64
chmod +x picoclaw-linux-arm64
./picoclaw-linux-arm64 onboard

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw.git
cd picoclaw

# Install dependencies
make deps

# Build for current platform
make build

# Build for all platforms
make build-all

# Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W — 32-bit
make build-linux-arm      # → build/picoclaw-linux-arm

# Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W — 64-bit
make build-linux-arm64    # → build/picoclaw-linux-arm64

# Build both Pi Zero variants
make build-pi-zero

# Build and install to system PATH
make install

Docker Compose

git clone https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw.git
cd picoclaw

# First run — generates docker/data/config.json then exits
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml --profile gateway up

# Edit config
vim docker/data/config.json

# Start in background
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml --profile gateway up -d

# View logs
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml logs -f picoclaw-gateway

# Stop
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml --profile gateway down

Docker: Web Console (Launcher Mode)

docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml --profile launcher up -d
# Open http://localhost:18800

Docker: One-shot Agent Mode

# Single question
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml run --rm picoclaw-agent -m "What is 2+2?"

# Interactive session
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml run --rm picoclaw-agent

Docker: Expose Gateway to Host

If the gateway needs to be reachable from the host, set:

PICOCLAW_GATEWAY_HOST=0.0.0.0 docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml --profile gateway up -d

Or set PICOCLAW_GATEWAY_HOST=0.0.0.0 in docker/data/config.json.

Termux (Android)

pkg install wget proot
wget https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw/releases/download/v0.1.1/picoclaw-linux-arm64
chmod +x picoclaw-linux-arm64
termux-chroot ./picoclaw-linux-arm64 onboard

Quick Start

1. Initialize

picoclaw onboard

This creates ~/.picoclaw/config.json with a starter configuration.

2. Configure ~/.picoclaw/config.json

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "workspace": "~/.picoclaw/workspace",
      "model_name": "gpt-4o",
      "max_tokens": 8192,
      "temperature": 0.7,
      "max_tool_iterations": 20
    }
  },
  "model_list": [
    {
      "model_name": "gpt-4o",
      "model": "openai/gpt-4o",
      "api_key": "$OPENAI_API_KEY",
      "request_timeout": 300
    },
    {
      "model_name": "claude-sonnet",
      "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5",
      "api_key": "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"
    },
    {
      "model_name": "ark-code",
      "model": "volcengine/ark-code-latest",
      "api_key": "$VOLCENGINE_API_KEY",
      "api_base": "https://ark.cn-beijing.volces.com/api/coding/v3"
    }
  ],
  "tools": {
    "web": {
      "brave": {
        "enabled": false,
        "api_key": "$BRAVE_API_KEY"
      },
      "tavily": {
        "enabled": false,
        "api_key": "$TAVILY_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Never hard-code API keys. Reference environment variables using $VAR_NAME notation in config, or set them in your shell environment before launch.

3. Run

# Interactive chat
picoclaw

# Single message
picoclaw -m "Summarize the latest Go release notes"

# Use a specific model
picoclaw -model claude-sonnet -m "Refactor this function for clarity"

Key CLI Commands

Configuration Reference

Model Entry Fields

{
  "model_name": "my-model",        // Alias used in -model flag and agent defaults
  "model": "provider/model-id",    // Provider-prefixed model identifier
  "api_key": "$ENV_VAR",           // API key — use env var reference
  "api_base": "https://...",       // Optional: override base URL (for self-hosted or regional endpoints)
  "request_timeout": 300           // Optional: seconds before timeout
}

Supported Provider Prefixes

Agent Defaults

"agents": {
  "defaults": {
    "workspace": "~/.picoclaw/workspace",  // Working directory for file operations
    "model_name": "gpt-4o",                // Default model alias
    "max_tokens": 8192,                    // Max response tokens
    "temperature": 0.7,                    // Sampling temperature
    "max_tool_iterations": 20              // Max agentic tool-call loop iterations
  }
}

Web Search Tools

Get free API keys:

• Tavily: https://tavily.com — 1,000 free queries/month
• Brave Search: https://brave.com/search/api — 2,000 free queries/month

"tools": {
  "web": {
    "tavily": {
      "enabled": true,
      "api_key": "$TAVILY_API_KEY"
    },
    "brave": {
      "enabled": false,
      "api_key": "$BRAVE_API_KEY"
    }
  }
}

Only enable one search provider at a time unless you want fallback behavior.

Common Patterns

Pattern: Minimal $10 Device Setup

For a LicheeRV-Nano or similar ultra-low-resource board:

# Download the RISC-V or ARM binary from releases
wget https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw/releases/download/v0.1.1/picoclaw-linux-riscv64
chmod +x picoclaw-linux-riscv64

# Initialize
./picoclaw-linux-riscv64 onboard

# Edit config — use a lightweight model, low max_tokens
cat > ~/.picoclaw/config.json << 'EOF'
{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
how to use picoclaw-ai-assistant
CursorClaude CodeClineCodexWindsurfGooseGitHub CopilotVS CodeGemini CLIKiloOpencodeKimi CLIRoo ClineAiderContinueZedBolt.newLovablev0Replit AgentSweepSmol DeveloperDevinCavemanAmpAntigravity
How to use picoclaw-ai-assistant on Cursor
AI-first code editor with Composer
1
Prerequisites
Before installing skills in Cursor, ensure your development environment meets these requirements:
›Cursor installed and configured on your development machine
›Node.js version 16.0+ with npm package manager (verify with node --version)
›Active project directory or workspace where you want to add picoclaw-ai-assistant
2
Execute installation command
Execute the skills CLI command in your project's root directory to begin installation:
$npx skills add https://github.com/aradotso/trending-skills --skill picoclaw-ai-assistantcopy
The skills CLI fetches picoclaw-ai-assistant from GitHub repository aradotso/trending-skills and configures it for Cursor.
3
Select Cursor when prompted
The CLI will show a list of available agents. Use arrow keys to navigate and space to select Cursor:
◆ Which agents do you want to install to?
│
│ ── Universal (.agents/skills) ── always included ────
│   • Amp
│   • Antigravity
│   • Cline
│   • Codex
│ ●Cursor(selected)
│   • Cursor
│   • Windsurf
4
Verify installation
Confirm successful installation by checking the skill directory location:
.cursor/skills/picoclaw-ai-assistant
Reload or restart Cursor to activate picoclaw-ai-assistant. Access the skill through slash commands (e.g., /picoclaw-ai-assistant) or your agent's skill management interface.
⚠
Security & Verification Notice
We perform automated surface-level scans (Gen AI Scanner, Socket, Snyk) during installation. These checks detect common vulnerabilities but do not guarantee complete security. Always review skill source code and verify the publisher's reputation before production use.
Skills execute code in your development environment. Always verify the publisher's identity, review recent commits, and test in isolated environments before production deployment.
Additional Resources
›View source code on GitHub›Skills CLI documentation›Learn more about Cursor›What are agent skills?