coderClaw

Slash commands

Commands are handled by the Gateway. Most commands must be sent as a standalone message that starts with /. The host-only bash chat command uses ! <cmd> (with /bash <cmd> as an alias).

There are two related systems:

• Commands: standalone /... messages.
• Directives: /think, /verbose, /reasoning, /elevated, /exec, /model, /queue.
  • Directives are stripped from the message before the model sees it.
  • In normal chat messages (not directive-only), they are treated as “inline hints” and do not persist session settings.
  • In directive-only messages (the message contains only directives), they persist to the session and reply with an acknowledgement.
  • Directives are only applied for authorized senders. If commands.allowFrom is set, it is the only allowlist used; otherwise authorization comes from channel allowlists/pairing plus commands.useAccessGroups. Unauthorized senders see directives treated as plain text.

There are also a few inline shortcuts (allowlisted/authorized senders only): /help, /commands, /status, /whoami (/id). They run immediately, are stripped before the model sees the message, and the remaining text continues through the normal flow.

Config

{
  commands: {
    native: "auto",
    nativeSkills: "auto",
    text: true,
    bash: false,
    bashForegroundMs: 2000,
    config: false,
    debug: false,
    restart: false,
    allowFrom: {
      "*": ["user1"],
      discord: ["user:123"],
    },
    useAccessGroups: true,
  },
}

• commands.text (default true) enables parsing /... in chat messages.
  • On surfaces without native commands (WhatsApp/WebChat/Signal/iMessage/Google Chat/MS Teams), text commands still work even if you set this to false.
• commands.native (default "auto") registers native commands.
  • Auto: on for Discord/Telegram; off for Slack (until you add slash commands); ignored for providers without native support.
  • Set channels.discord.commands.native, channels.telegram.commands.native, or channels.slack.commands.native to override per provider (bool or "auto").
  • false clears previously registered commands on Discord/Telegram at startup. Slack commands are managed in the Slack app and are not removed automatically.
• commands.nativeSkills (default "auto") registers skill commands natively when supported.
  • Auto: on for Discord/Telegram; off for Slack (Slack requires creating a slash command per skill).
  • Set channels.discord.commands.nativeSkills, channels.telegram.commands.nativeSkills, or channels.slack.commands.nativeSkills to override per provider (bool or "auto").
• commands.bash (default false) enables ! <cmd> to run host shell commands (/bash <cmd> is an alias; requires tools.elevated allowlists).
• commands.bashForegroundMs (default 2000) controls how long bash waits before switching to background mode (0 backgrounds immediately).
• commands.config (default false) enables /config (reads/writes coderclaw.json).
• commands.debug (default false) enables /debug (runtime-only overrides).
• commands.allowFrom (optional) sets a per-provider allowlist for command authorization. When configured, it is the only authorization source for commands and directives (channel allowlists/pairing and commands.useAccessGroups are ignored). Use "*" for a global default; provider-specific keys override it.
• commands.useAccessGroups (default true) enforces allowlists/policies for commands when commands.allowFrom is not set.

Command list

Text + native (when enabled):

• /help
• /commands
• /skill <name> [input] (run a skill by name)
• /status (show current status; includes provider usage/quota for the current model provider when available)
• /allowlist (list/add/remove allowlist entries)
• /approve <id> allow-once|allow-always|deny (resolve exec approval prompts)
• /context [list|detail|json] (explain “context”; detail shows per-file + per-tool + per-skill + system prompt size)
• /export-session [path] (alias: /export) (export current session to HTML with full system prompt)
• /whoami (show your sender id; alias: /id)
• /subagents list|kill|log|info|send|steer|spawn (inspect, control, or spawn sub-agent runs for the current session)
• /kill <id|#|all> (immediately abort one or all running sub-agents for this session; no confirmation message)
• /steer <id|#> <message> (steer a running sub-agent immediately: in-run when possible, otherwise abort current work and restart on the steer message)
• /tell <id|#> <message> (alias for /steer)
• /config show|get|set|unset (persist config to disk, owner-only; requires commands.config: true)
• /debug show|set|unset|reset (runtime overrides, owner-only; requires commands.debug: true)
• /usage off|tokens|full|cost (per-response usage footer or local cost summary)
• /tts off|always|inbound|tagged|status|provider|limit|summary|audio (control TTS; see /tts)
  • Discord: native command is /voice (Discord reserves /tts); text /tts still works.
• /stop
• /restart
• /dock-telegram (alias: /dock_telegram) (switch replies to Telegram)
• /dock-discord (alias: /dock_discord) (switch replies to Discord)
• /dock-slack (alias: /dock_slack) (switch replies to Slack)
• /activation mention|always (groups only)
• /send on|off|inherit (owner-only)
• /reset or /new [model] (optional model hint; remainder is passed through)
• /think <off|minimal|low|medium|high|xhigh> (dynamic choices by model/provider; aliases: /thinking, /t)
• /verbose on|full|off (alias: /v)
• /reasoning on|off|stream (alias: /reason; when on, sends a separate message prefixed Reasoning:; stream = Telegram draft only)
• /elevated on|off|ask|full (alias: /elev; full skips exec approvals)
• /exec host=<sandbox|gateway|node> security=<deny|allowlist|full> ask=<off|on-miss|always> node=<id> (send /exec to show current)
• /model <name> (alias: /models; or /<alias> from agents.defaults.models.*.alias)
• /queue <mode> (plus options like debounce:2s cap:25 drop:summarize; send /queue to see current settings)
• /bash <command> (host-only; alias for ! <command>; requires commands.bash: true + tools.elevated allowlists)

Text-only:

• /compact [instructions] (see /concepts/compaction)
• ! <command> (host-only; one at a time; use !poll + !stop for long-running jobs)
• !poll (check output / status; accepts optional sessionId; /bash poll also works)
• !stop (stop the running bash job; accepts optional sessionId; /bash stop also works)

Notes:

• Commands accept an optional : between the command and args (e.g. /think: high, /send: on, /help:).
• /new <model> accepts a model alias, provider/model, or a provider name (fuzzy match); if no match, the text is treated as the message body.
• For full provider usage breakdown, use coderclaw status --usage.
• /allowlist add|remove requires commands.config=true and honors channel configWrites.
• /usage controls the per-response usage footer; /usage cost prints a local cost summary from CoderClaw session logs.
• /restart is disabled by default; set commands.restart: true to enable it.
• /verbose is meant for debugging and extra visibility; keep it off in normal use.
• /reasoning (and /verbose) are risky in group settings: they may reveal internal reasoning or tool output you did not intend to expose. Prefer leaving them off, especially in group chats.
• Fast path: command-only messages from allowlisted senders are handled immediately (bypass queue + model).
• Group mention gating: command-only messages from allowlisted senders bypass mention requirements.
• Inline shortcuts (allowlisted senders only): certain commands also work when embedded in a normal message and are stripped before the model sees the remaining text.
  • Example: hey /status triggers a status reply, and the remaining text continues through the normal flow.
• Currently: /help, /commands, /status, /whoami (/id).
• Unauthorized command-only messages are silently ignored, and inline /... tokens are treated as plain text.
• Skill commands: user-invocable skills are exposed as slash commands. Names are sanitized to a-z0-9_ (max 32 chars); collisions get numeric suffixes (e.g. _2).
  • /skill <name> [input] runs a skill by name (useful when native command limits prevent per-skill commands).
  • By default, skill commands are forwarded to the model as a normal request.
  • Skills may optionally declare command-dispatch: tool to route the command directly to a tool (deterministic, no model).
  • Example: /prose (OpenProse plugin) — see OpenProse.
• Native command arguments: Discord uses autocomplete for dynamic options (and button menus when you omit required args). Telegram and Slack show a button menu when a command supports choices and you omit the arg.

Usage surfaces (what shows where)

• Provider usage/quota (example: “Claude 80% left”) shows up in /status for the current model provider when usage tracking is enabled.
• Per-response tokens/cost is controlled by /usage off|tokens|full (appended to normal replies).
• /model status is about models/auth/endpoints, not usage.

Model selection (/model)

/model is implemented as a directive.

Examples:

/model
/model list
/model 3
/model openai/gpt-5.2
/model opus@anthropic:default
/model status

Notes:

• /model and /model list show a compact, numbered picker (model family + available providers).
• /model <#> selects from that picker (and prefers the current provider when possible).
• /model status shows the detailed view, including configured provider endpoint (baseUrl) and API mode (api) when available.

Debug overrides

/debug lets you set runtime-only config overrides (memory, not disk). Owner-only. Disabled by default; enable with commands.debug: true.

Examples:

/debug show
/debug set messages.responsePrefix="[coderclaw]"
/debug set channels.whatsapp.allowFrom=["+1555","+4477"]
/debug unset messages.responsePrefix
/debug reset

Notes:

• Overrides apply immediately to new config reads, but do not write to coderclaw.json.
• Use /debug reset to clear all overrides and return to the on-disk config.

Config updates

/config writes to your on-disk config (coderclaw.json). Owner-only. Disabled by default; enable with commands.config: true.

Examples:

/config show
/config show messages.responsePrefix
/config get messages.responsePrefix
/config set messages.responsePrefix="[coderclaw]"
/config unset messages.responsePrefix

Notes:

• Config is validated before write; invalid changes are rejected.
• /config updates persist across restarts.

Surface notes

• Text commands run in the normal chat session (DMs share main, groups have their own session).
• Native commands use isolated sessions:
  • Discord: agent:<agentId>:discord:slash:<userId>
  • Slack: agent:<agentId>:slack:slash:<userId> (prefix configurable via channels.slack.slashCommand.sessionPrefix)
  • Telegram: telegram:slash:<userId> (targets the chat session via CommandTargetSessionKey)
• /stop targets the active chat session so it can abort the current run.
• Slack: channels.slack.slashCommand is still supported for a single /coderclaw-style command. If you enable commands.native, you must create one Slack slash command per built-in command (same names as /help). Command argument menus for Slack are delivered as ephemeral Block Kit buttons.

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