Connectivity

Connectivity

ClawDE connects your client apps (desktop, mobile, web) to the clawd daemon running on your machine. Three transport modes are supported.

Transport modes

Mode	When used	Latency
Local	Client and daemon on the same machine	< 1ms
Direct	LAN/mDNS peer discovered on same network	1–10ms
VPN	Explicit IP configured, no relay hop	1–20ms
Relay	Off-LAN, internet connection via api.clawde.io	20–300ms

The current mode is shown in the status bar. Tap the RTT dot to see details.

Relay (default)

The relay at wss://api.clawde.io/relay/ws forwards encrypted frames between the client and your daemon. End-to-end encryption (X25519 + ChaCha20-Poly1305) ensures Anthropic cannot read your messages.

Required: Personal Remote tier ($9.99/yr) or any Cloud tier.

Direct LAN (mDNS)

When your client and daemon are on the same local network, the client can skip the relay entirely:

1. The daemon advertises _clawde._tcp.local. via mDNS/DNS-SD
2. The client browses for peers and connects directly via WebSocket
3. No relay server involved — lowest latency, works offline

Enable via Settings → Connectivity → Prefer Direct or set prefer_direct = true in config.toml.

Peer discovery is visible in Settings → Connectivity → LAN Peer Discovery.

VPN / enterprise

For enterprise setups where the daemon runs on a VPN IP:

1. Enter the VPN host in Settings → Connectivity → VPN / Enterprise IP
2. The client connects directly — no relay, no mDNS needed

See VPN Mode for full setup guide.

Connection quality indicator

The RTT dot in the bottom status bar shows live connection health:

Color	Meaning
Green	< 50ms — excellent
Amber	50–150ms — good
Red	≥ 150ms or packet loss — degraded

Tap the dot to see the full connectivity detail sheet (mode, RTT, packet loss, LAN peers).

A connectivity_degraded push event fires when RTT exceeds 500ms or packet loss exceeds 5%. The UI shows a warning toast.

Daemon-side config

# ~/.config/clawd/config.toml (Linux) or ~/Library/Application Support/clawd/config.toml (macOS)

[connectivity]
prefer_direct = false   # try LAN before relay (2s timeout)
vpn_host = ""           # explicit VPN IP — leave blank for relay
air_gap = false         # disable all outbound calls (enterprise)

connectivity.status RPC

{
  "method": "connectivity.status",
  "params": {}
}

Response:

{
  "mode": "relay",
  "rtt_ms": 42,
  "packet_loss_pct": 0.0,
  "degraded": false,
  "last_ping_at": 1709000000,
  "prefer_direct": false,
  "vpn_host": null,
  "air_gap": false,
  "lan_peers": [
    {
      "name": "clawd-abc12345._clawde._tcp.local.",
      "address": "192.168.1.10",
      "port": 4300,
      "version": "0.2.0",
      "daemon_id": "abc12345...",
      "last_seen": 1709000000
    }
  ]
}

Push events

Event	When fired
connectivity_degraded	RTT > 500ms or packet loss > 5%
connectivity_restored	Quality returns to normal after degradation

See also

• VPN Mode — enterprise LAN / VPN setup
• Background Mode — keeping the daemon running when the window is closed
• CLI Reference