sundl123/miniclaw

Your tiny coding claw Learn to build an AI coding agent in ~2000 lines of Python

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What is miniclaw?

Ever wondered how tools like Claude Code or OpenClaw actually work under the hood? miniclaw is the answer – a minimal, hackable AI coding agent you can read through in an afternoon.

The name says it all: mini + claw (from OpenClaw). No sprawling architecture, no thousand-file monorepo. Just the essential loop that powers every AI coding assistant:

You type a request
  -> LLM thinks
    -> LLM calls tools (read / write / edit / grep / glob / bash)
      -> Tools execute in your workspace
        -> LLM sees the result
          -> Repeat until done

If you want to learn, teach, or hack on an AI agent, start here.

Features

• 12 Tools – read, write, edit, glob, grep, bash, Skill, todo_write, ask_followup_question, memory, session_search, Agent. Workspace file ops plus task tracking, user clarification, on-demand skills, persistent memory, past-session recall, and sub-agents.
• Project Rules – Automatically loads AGENTS.md and .miniclaw/rules/*.md into the system prompt. Project conventions and coding guidelines are always visible to the agent.
• Plan Mode – The agent can enter a read-only planning phase: explore code, produce a structured plan, then execute only after you approve. Write operations are blocked until you say go.
• Skills System – Drop a SKILL.md into .miniclaw/skills// and the agent learns new tricks. Skills are injected into the system prompt automatically; the Skill tool loads full instructions on demand.
• Memory – Durable facts live in ~/.miniclaw/memory/MEMORY.md and are auto-injected each session. The agent can read/write topic files for longer notes.
• Session Search – Conversations are recorded locally; the agent can browse, full-text search, or scroll through past sessions.
• Sub-agents – Optional Agent tool spawns an isolated sub-agent (explore / general) so research or side tasks don’t pollute the main context. Enable with subagent.enabled.