Skip to main content

​
Pairing

“Pairing” is Clawdbot’s explicit owner approval step. It is used in two places:
  1. DM pairing (who is allowed to talk to the bot)
  2. Node pairing (which devices/nodes are allowed to join the gateway network)
Security context: Security

​
1) DM pairing (inbound chat access)

When a provider is configured with DM policy pairing, unknown senders get a short code and their message is not processed until you approve. Default DM policies are documented in: Security Pairing codes:
  • 8 characters, uppercase, no ambiguous chars (0O1I).
  • Expire after 1 hour. The bot only sends the pairing message when a new request is created (roughly once per hour per sender).

​
Approve a sender

clawdbot pairing list --provider telegram
clawdbot pairing approve --provider telegram <CODE>
Supported providers: telegram, whatsapp, signal, imessage, discord, slack.

​
Where the state lives

Stored under ~/.clawdbot/credentials/:
  • Pending requests: <provider>-pairing.json
  • Approved allowlist store: <provider>-allowFrom.json
Treat these as sensitive (they gate access to your assistant).

​
2) Node pairing (iOS/Android nodes joining the gateway)

Nodes (iOS/Android, future hardware, etc.) connect to the Gateway and request to join. The Gateway keeps an authoritative allowlist; new nodes require explicit approve/reject.

​
Approve a node

clawdbot nodes pending
clawdbot nodes approve <requestId>

​
Where the state lives

Stored under ~/.clawdbot/nodes/:
  • pending.json (short-lived; pending requests expire)
  • paired.json (paired nodes + tokens)

​
Details

Full protocol + design notes: Gateway pairing