Files
agent-claw/framework-notes.md
daniel 0369a74ac1 Initial research: OpenClaw on AgentCore architecture
- Architecture comparison (OpenClaw daemon vs AgentCore serverless)
- Component compatibility analysis
- Fargate analysis
- AgentCore rebuild plan (Telegram, zero always-on compute)
- Memory strategy: AgentCore Memory + factbase as structured KB
- Serverless relay patterns per channel
- All open questions resolved
- OpenClaw feature delta March→May 2026
- Build phases and cost estimates
2026-05-04 08:28:52 -05:00

1.8 KiB

Framework & Runtime Notes

OpenClaw's Agent Framework

OpenClaw does not use any mainstream agent framework. No LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, Strands, or similar.

Custom Stack: pi-mono

The agent runtime is built on pi-mono by Mario Zechner (@mariozechner), a custom TypeScript agent runtime:

Package Role
@mariozechner/pi-agent-core Core agent loop: LLM call → tool parse → execute → loop
@mariozechner/pi-ai LLM provider abstraction (Bedrock, Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama, etc.)
@mariozechner/pi-coding-agent Coding agent runtime (Codex/Claude Code style sub-agents)
@mariozechner/pi-tui Terminal UI for interactive sessions

OpenClaw Owns Everything Else

On top of pi-mono, OpenClaw implements:

  • Session management (JSONL transcripts, compaction, pruning)
  • Channel routing (inbound message → agent → response → channel)
  • Tool wiring (exec, read, write, edit, browser, canvas, nodes, message, etc.)
  • Context engine (system prompt construction, bootstrap file injection)
  • Heartbeat / Cron scheduling
  • Device pairing and trust
  • Config management and hot-reload
  • Multi-agent routing
  • Webhook/hook system

Observability

No LangSmith, LangFuse, Arize, or OpenTelemetry integration.

  • Internal JSONL session transcripts
  • stdout/stderr logging (CloudWatch-compatible)
  • openclaw logs --follow for live tailing
  • Control UI for session inspection

Implications for AgentCore

  • No off-the-shelf framework adapter for AgentCore (unlike LangGraph/Strands starters)
  • Would need custom /invocations + /ping HTTP wrapper around pi-mono
  • LLM provider layer (pi-ai) could potentially be swapped for direct Bedrock SDK calls
  • Tool definitions would need to be re-expressed as AgentCore-compatible tool schemas

Added 2026-03-10