Why PocketPaw?

There are many AI assistants and agent frameworks available today. Here’s what makes PocketPaw different.

Self-Hosted, Not Cloud-Dependent

PocketPaw runs entirely on your machine. Your conversations, files, and data never leave your control. There’s no cloud service to subscribe to, no usage limits imposed by a platform, and no risk of a provider shutting down your access.

Feature	PocketPaw	Cloud AI Assistants
Data location	Your machine	Provider’s servers
Privacy	Full control	Provider’s policy
Uptime	You control	Provider controls
Customization	Unlimited	Limited
Cost	API costs only	Subscription + API

Multi-Channel by Default

Most AI tools work in a single interface. PocketPaw connects to 9+ messaging platforms simultaneously:

Telegram — Full bot API with topic support
Discord — Slash commands, DM, and mention support
Slack — Socket Mode (no public URL needed)
WhatsApp — Business API or Personal mode via QR scan
Signal — Privacy-focused messaging
Matrix — Decentralized, federated protocol
Microsoft Teams — Enterprise collaboration
Google Chat — Workspace integration
Web Dashboard — Built-in real-time interface

You can run all of them at once. Send a message from Telegram, continue the conversation from Discord, and monitor everything from the web dashboard.

Three Agent Backends

PocketPaw doesn’t lock you into a single AI provider or execution model:

The recommended backend. Uses Anthropic’s official Claude Agent SDK with built-in tools (Bash, Read, Write, Edit). Best for coding tasks and complex reasoning.

Custom orchestrator that combines Anthropic’s SDK for reasoning with Open Interpreter for code execution. Good balance of capability and control.

Standalone execution engine that supports Ollama, OpenAI, and Anthropic models. Best for fully local setups with Ollama.

Extensible Tool System

PocketPaw ships with 30+ built-in tools and supports custom tool creation:

Web Search — Tavily and Brave Search providers
Image Generation — Google Gemini models
Voice & TTS — OpenAI and ElevenLabs
Speech to Text — OpenAI Whisper
Browser Automation — Playwright with accessibility tree
OCR — GPT-4o Vision with pytesseract fallback
Research — Multi-step web research chains
Delegation — Spawn sub-agents for parallel work
Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs — Full Google Workspace
Spotify — Search, playback control, playlists
Reddit — Search, read threads, trending content
MCP Servers — Connect any Model Context Protocol server

Tools are governed by a policy system with profiles (minimal, coding, full) and per-tool allow/deny lists.

Security Built In

PocketPaw takes security seriously with seven independent defense layers:

PocketPaw security stack: every request passes through seven defense layers before reaching your system.

Credential Encryption — Fernet AES-128 with machine-derived key
Session Authentication — WebSocket token + per-channel allowlists
Rate Limiting — Configurable per-channel throttle
Injection Scanner — Two-tier detection (regex + LLM) for prompt injection
Tool Policy Engine — Per-tool allow/deny with profiles
Command Blocking — Dangerous shell command interception
Guardian AI — Secondary LLM safety review before execution

Modular Installation

PocketPaw’s core is lightweight (~10 packages). Everything else is an optional extra:

# One-line install
curl -fsSL https://pocketpaw.xyz/install.sh | sh

# Or with pip — pick your extras
pip install pocketpaw[telegram,discord,slack]
pip install pocketpaw[all-tools]
pip install pocketpaw[all]

You only install what you actually use. No bloated dependencies.

Open Source

PocketPaw is fully open source. You can inspect every line of code, contribute improvements, and fork it to build your own agent. No black boxes, no proprietary lock-in.

Last updated: February 12, 2026

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