Build Moonclaw, Keep It Small

Moonclaw is a Lua-based claw built from scratch. The goal is simple: keep dependencies low, wire it to Prosody cleanly, and ship a setup you can reason about.

[=^..^=] minimal stack // explicit config // no magic

Install Prosody Configure Host Start Moonclaw

moonclaw@terminal:~$ setup

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install -y prosody lua5.4 luarocks lua-sec git
$ sudo prosodyctl cert generate chat.mydomain.com

# /etc/prosody/conf.avail/chat.mydomain.com.cfg.lua
VirtualHost "chat.mydomain.com"
  authentication = "internal_hashed"
  modules_enabled = { "tls", "disco", "ping", "smacks", "carbons" }

Component "muc.chat.mydomain.com" "muc"

$ sudo ln -s /etc/prosody/conf.avail/chat.mydomain.com.cfg.lua /etc/prosody/conf.d/
$ sudo systemctl restart prosody

Step 1: Base Install

Install only what is needed: Prosody, Lua, LuaRocks, and the Lua TLS package. Keep your runtime surface area small from day one.

sudo apt install prosody lua5.4 luarocks lua-sec

Step 2: Prosody Config

Prosody is a lightweight XMPP server written in Lua. It handles user accounts, rooms (MUC), and message routing so Moonclaw has a clean chat transport.

/etc/prosody/conf.avail/chat.mydomain.com.cfg.lua

Step 3: Claw Wiring

Message your Moonclaw bot from Monal on your phone. Keep commands short, run actions server-side, and reply with plain status.

Monal -> /deploy restart | /mail ops "done"

chat control flow

Message Moonclaw From Monal

Monal (phone) -> muc.chat.mydomain.com / room: #ops

> monal: /deploy restart
moonclaw: deploy restarted

> monal: /mail ops@mydomain.com "Deploy done"
moonclaw: sent via gog

Keep it safe: require auth per user/JID, restrict commands with an allowlist, and require confirmations for destructive tmux commands.