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Build from source — DefenseClaw

Overview

A full developer install compiles the Go gateway (./cmd/defenseclaw → defenseclaw-gateway), installs the Python CLI from the repo root via uv into .venv, builds the OpenClaw plugin in extensions/defenseclaw/ with npm and tsc, and optionally installs openshell-sandbox via scripts/install-openshell-sandbox.sh (Linux). make install ties the first three to ~/.local/bin and ~/.defenseclaw/extensions/defenseclaw/.

Component steps

Python CLI (pycli)

  • Requires uv. From repo root: uv venv .venv --python 3.12 --clear then uv pip install -e . --python .venv/bin/python (as in Makefile pycli).
  • Package layout: setuptools discovers packages under cli/ per pyproject.toml.
  • Entry point: defenseclaw → defenseclaw.main:main.

Go gateway

  • Module version Go 1.26.2 (go.mod).
  • make gateway runs go build -ldflags "-X main.version=$(Makefile)" -o defenseclaw-gateway ./cmd/defenseclaw.
  • Install: make gateway-install places defenseclaw-gateway in ~/.local/bin with atomic replace.

TypeScript plugin (extensions/defenseclaw)

  • package.json: npm run build → tsc (ES2022, dist/ output, openclaw.plugin.json manifest).
  • make plugin copies internal/configs/providers.json into the plugin tree, runs npm ci --include=dev, then npm run build.
  • make plugin-install copies package.json, openclaw.plugin.json, dist/, and selected node_modules (js-yaml, argparse) into ~/.defenseclaw/extensions/defenseclaw/ (and syncs ~/.openclaw/extensions/defenseclaw/ when that directory exists).

openshell-sandbox

  • Not produced by go build. Install openshell-sandbox with scripts/install-openshell-sandbox.sh (OCI layer download; defaults OPENSHELL_Makefile / OPENSHELL_INSTALL_DIR documented in the script).
  • Curl installer flag --sandbox (Linux) chains this after the main install.
  • Go code in internal/sandbox/install.go verifies the binary via exec.LookPath and --version.

End-to-end graph

Rendering diagram…

make install wires the gateway, venv CLI symlinks, and plugin copy targets; the sandbox binary is installed by scripts/install-openshell-sandbox.sh (or install.sh --sandbox on Linux) and should land on the same PATH as defenseclaw (typically ~/.local/bin).

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