Why claw-forge — Features & Capabilities
Description: Explore everything claw-forge offers: multi-provider API rotation, circuit breakers, 18 built-in skills, pure Python, and a live Kanban UI.

Capabilities

## Everything claw-forge offers

A complete picture of what makes claw-forge the right harness for serious autonomous coding pipelines.

7+
AI providers
18
built-in skills
427
tests passing
0
Node.js required

Feature | Status | Details
--- | --- | ---
Language & Installation
Language | ✅ | Pure Python — no Node.js, no Bun, no npm
Package manager | ✅ | `uv tool install claw-forge` — isolated, instant, no venv ceremony
PyPI package | ✅ | Also installable via `pip install claw-forge`
AI Provider Support
API rotation pool | ✅ | Round-robin and weighted routing across 7+ providers with automatic failover
Anthropic (direct) | ✅ | Direct API key or OAuth token from `claude login`
AWS Bedrock | ✅ | IAM credentials or instance role — no key management
Azure AI Foundry | ✅ | Azure OpenAI-compat endpoint with managed identity support
Google Vertex AI | ✅ | ADC credentials, auto model name conversion (`@` format)
Groq (free tier) | ✅ | 14,400 req/day free — ideal for monitoring and lightweight tasks
Cerebras (free tier) | ✅ | 1M tokens/day free — Llama 3.3 70B at near-instant inference
Ollama (local) | ✅ | Any locally-running model via Ollama's OpenAI-compat API
Anthropic-compat proxies | ✅ | Custom `base_url` with `x-api-key` auth — works with any proxy
Circuit breaker per provider | ✅ | Closed → Half-open → Open state machine; auto-recovery after cooldown
Provider health dashboard | ✅ | Live health dots in Kanban UI — RPM, latency, cost per provider
Per-provider cost tracking | ✅ | USD cost tracked per session and per provider
OAuth token support | ✅ | Auto-reads `~/.claude/.credentials.json`; re-reads on 401
Claude Agent SDK Integration
Bidirectional sessions | ✅ | `ClaudeSDKClient` — mid-session follow-ups, model switching, interrupt
In-process MCP server | ✅ | Feature DB tools run in-process — zero subprocess cold-start overhead
File checkpointing + rewind | ✅ | Rewind all files to any prior checkpoint without git
Pre-compact hook | ✅ | Custom compaction instructions preserve feature state across context limits
Structured JSON output | ✅ | Schema-enforced output from reviewer and planning agents
Thinking config | ✅ | Deep thinking for planning, adaptive for coding, disabled for monitoring
Named sub-agents | ✅ | `AgentDefinition` — planner/coder/reviewer with separate prompts and tool sets
Cost cap per session | ✅ | `max_budget_usd` — hard stop when budget is hit
Token-level streaming | ✅ | `StreamEvent` for typewriter effect in terminal UI
Architecture & Concurrency
Concurrency model | ✅ | Pure `asyncio.TaskGroup` — no subprocess+threading mix
State management | ✅ | FastAPI REST + SQLAlchemy + WebSocket — clean separation of concerns
Session hydration | ✅ | `session_manifest.json` survives restarts and process crashes
Plugin system | ✅ | `pyproject.toml` entry points — third-party plugins without forking core
Dependency-aware scheduling | ✅ | Kahn's algorithm + DFS cycle detection — features run in correct order
Security
Bash security hook | ✅ | Hierarchical allowlist: hardcoded blocklist → global defaults → project-specific
CanUseTool callback | ✅ | Programmatic permission control with input mutation before execution
OS-level sandbox | ✅ | `SandboxSettings` — filesystem + network isolation at OS level (macOS/Linux)
Write restriction to project dir | ✅ | File writes sandboxed to the project directory automatically
Agent lock file | ✅ | `.claw-forge.lock` prevents duplicate agents on the same project
Skills & Built-in Tooling
LSP skills (Python) | ✅ | Pyright — type checking, autocomplete, go-to-definition
LSP skills (Go) | ✅ | gopls — full Go language intelligence
LSP skills (Rust) | ✅ | rust-analyzer — borrow checker integration, refactoring
LSP skills (TypeScript) | ✅ | ts-server — JS/TS type checking and navigation
LSP skills (Solidity) | ✅ | Solidity LSP — smart contract analysis
LSP skills (C/C++) | ✅ | clangd — C/C++ intelligence and formatting
Systematic debug skill | ✅ | Structured root-cause analysis workflow
Verification gate skill | ✅ | Run checks before claiming task complete
Parallel dispatch skill | ✅ | Route subtasks to parallel agents automatically
Frontend design skill | ✅ | Production-grade UI design guidance for web agents
Playwright browser skill | ✅ | Browser automation for web testing agents
Workflow Features
YOLO mode | ✅ | `--yolo` — max concurrency, auto-approve permissions, skip verification
Pause / resume | ✅ | Drain mode: finish active features, then pause gracefully
Human input requests | ✅ | Agent raises `needs_human` flag; `claw-forge input` CLI unblocks it
Batch feature mode | ✅ | Implement multiple features per session with `--batch-size`
Slash commands (.claude/) | ✅ | create-spec, expand-project, check-code, checkpoint, review-pr, pool-status
Session resume | ✅ | Continue or fork any prior session by ID
Rate limit handling | ✅ | Parse retry-after headers, exponential backoff, auto-resume after cooldown
UI & Monitoring
Kanban board | ✅ | 5-column board: Pending / In Progress / Passing / Failed / Blocked
Provider health dots | ✅ | Green/amber/red per provider; click for RPM, latency, circuit state
Real-time WebSocket updates | ✅ | Feature status, agent events, cost — live, no polling
Documentation & Quality
Tutorial website | ✅ | This site — quickstart, provider setup, plugin guide, skills reference
SDK API guide | ✅ | 20 Claude Agent SDK APIs documented with claw-forge examples (`docs/sdk-api-guide.md`)
Test coverage ≥ 90% | ✅ | Enforced in CI — 427 tests, all passing
Type annotations (strict) | ✅ | Full mypy strict — no `Any` escapes in core modules
GitHub CI/CD | ✅ | Lint + typecheck + full test suite on every push and PR

Roadmap

## What we're building next

Honest about what's still in progress.

#### 🌐 Multi-machine Agents

Distribute agent waves across multiple machines. The pool manager handles routing — we need the distributed work queue layer.

#### ☁️ Cloud State Backend

Currently SQLite — great for local development. Adding PostgreSQL and a hosted cloud option for team use.

#### 🧩 VS Code Extension

Embed the Kanban UI directly in VS Code. See agent progress without leaving your editor.

#### 📊 Cost Analytics Dashboard

Historical cost breakdown per project, per provider, per feature — so you can optimize spend over time.

Get started → Star on GitHub ⭐