clawcam

Turn a Phone Camera into an Agent's Eyes

ClawCam lets AI agents see the real world by turning any phone into a WebRTC camera. Take snapshots for vision models, record clips, or stream live video — all from a single CLI command.

Getting Started

Method 1: Claude Code Skill (Recommended)

The easiest way to use ClawCam is as an agent skill. One command to install, then interact in natural language:

/install-skill https://clawcam.dev/skill.md

Then just ask:

"Set up a new camera called office-cam"

"Take a snapshot of my desk"

"Record 30 seconds of video"

"Start an RTSP stream from my camera"

The agent auto-installs the CLI, sets up devices, captures images, records video, and manages streams. It parses JSON output automatically and can pass snapshots directly to vision models for analysis.

Method 2: npm CLI

For direct command-line usage without an agent:

npm install -g clawcam

# One-time setup: creates a device and prints the phone URL
clawcam setup my-camera

# Open the printed nodeUrl on your phone, grant camera permission, then:
clawcam snapshot                # capture a JPEG frame
clawcam record --duration 60    # record 60s of video
clawcam rtsp                    # start an RTSP stream

All commands output a single line of JSON to stdout. Logs go to stderr.

How It Works

1. Setup — clawcam setup <name> generates a unique camera URL
2. Connect — Open that URL on a phone's browser and grant camera permission
3. Use — snapshot, stream, record, or rtsp to capture from the phone

Under the hood, signaling flows over WebSocket and media travels peer-to-peer via WebRTC (H.264 + Opus), encrypted end-to-end.

Commands

| Command | Description | Key output | |---------|-------------|------------| | setup [name] | Create a new camera device | nodeUrl | | snapshot | Capture a single JPEG frame | path | | stream | Forward live RTP to local UDP ports | sdpFile | | record | Record MP4 segments via ffmpeg | outputDir | | rtsp | Serve camera as a standard RTSP stream | rtspUrl | | device list | List all saved devices | devices | | device remove <name> | Delete a saved device | removed |

For full option details, output schemas, and agent usage patterns, see the skill reference.

Requirements

• Node.js 18.20+
• ffmpeg on PATH (required for record, stream, and rtsp only)
• A phone with a modern browser and camera