# ClawCap — Complete Product Reference

> ClawCap is the spending cap for OpenClaw. A proxy that enforces hard daily and monthly budget limits, stops runaway heartbeats and loops, and gives you phone-first control via Telegram. Your agents literally can't spend more than you set.

## Product Overview

ClawCap is a cost-control proxy that sits between OpenClaw agents and LLM API providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek, Mistral, xAI, Groq, Moonshot/Kimi, MiniMax). Every API request passes through ClawCap, which tracks spend in real-time, enforces hard budget caps, detects wasteful patterns like heartbeats and infinite loops, and provides remote agent control via Telegram.

ClawCap was built because OpenClaw agents can easily burn $50-$100+ overnight through heartbeat polling, infinite retry loops, and session history bloat. Provider-level caps only work monthly and don't catch daily spikes. ClawCap enforces caps in real-time — when your daily cap is hit, requests are blocked immediately.

Website: https://clawcap.co
Author: Percy Kintu

## Core Features

### Hard Budget Caps
- Set daily and monthly spending limits in USD
- Requests blocked once a cap is reached (returns HTTP 429)
- Works across all providers simultaneously — one cap covers everything
- Default free tier: $5/day cap

### Prepaid Wallet Mode
- Load a balance via Stripe checkout
- Agents stop when balance reaches zero
- No surprise bills — you can only spend what you've loaded

### Heartbeat Detection & Routing
- Automatically detects OpenClaw's periodic heartbeat calls
- Routes heartbeats to cheapest configured model instead of expensive default
- Can block heartbeats entirely during configurable sleep hours
- Saves $50-$150/month for typical OpenClaw users

### Loop Detection & Auto-Throttle
- Detects when agents enter infinite retry loops
- Graduated response: warn, throttle, pause, kill
- Configurable to your workload
- Alerts sent via Telegram at each stage

### Telegram Remote Control
- /status — View current spend, caps, and agent state from your phone
- /kill — Immediately stop all agent API requests
- /resume — Re-enable agent access after a kill
- Proactive alerts at 80% and 95% of caps

### Multi-Provider Support
- Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (GPT/o-series), Google Gemini
- DeepSeek, Mistral, xAI (Grok), Groq, Moonshot/Kimi, MiniMax
- 60+ model pricing entries for accurate cost tracking
- Automatic provider detection from model name

## Pricing Tiers

### Free — $0/month
- $5/day fixed spending cap
- Loop + heartbeat detection
- CLI kill switch
- Self-hosted

### Solo — $5/month
- Custom daily and monthly caps
- Prepaid wallet via Stripe
- Telegram bot + alerts
- Heartbeat + loop blocking

### Pro — $15/month
- Everything in Solo
- Priority support
- Extended request logs
- Spend analytics

### Agency — $49/month
- Everything in Pro
- Dedicated support
- Volume discounts
- Priority support

## How ClawCap Compares

### ClawCap vs RelayPlane
RelayPlane optimizes costs by routing tasks to cheaper models. ClawCap enforces hard budget caps that prevent overspend entirely. They complement each other — use RelayPlane to optimize, ClawCap to cap.

### ClawCap vs ClawWatcher
ClawWatcher is a free monitoring dashboard. It's passive — it shows you what's happening but doesn't stop anything. ClawCap actively blocks requests when caps are reached. ClawWatcher monitors; ClawCap enforces.

### ClawCap vs Provider-Level Caps
Provider caps are monthly only and don't work across providers. ClawCap adds daily caps, cross-provider enforcement, heartbeat protection, and loop detection.

### ClawCap vs Claude Code Remote Control
Claude Code Remote Control only covers Claude Code sessions. ClawCap provides model-agnostic remote control with budget enforcement for any agent framework.

## Installation

```bash
npm install -g clawcap
clawcap init        # Interactive setup wizard
clawcap start       # Start the proxy
```

Then point your OpenClaw config to ClawCap's proxy URL.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do I set a spending cap on OpenClaw?
Install ClawCap and run `clawcap init` to set your daily and monthly caps. ClawCap will block all API calls once your cap is reached.

### How do I stop OpenClaw from overspending?
ClawCap enforces hard budget caps in real-time. Unlike provider-level limits, it stops calls immediately and detects heartbeat waste and infinite loops.

### How much does the OpenClaw heartbeat cost?
The OpenClaw heartbeat sends a full context call every 30 minutes. With Claude Sonnet, this costs ~$5/day or $50-$150/month. ClawCap detects and reroutes heartbeats to save most of this cost.

### Can I stop OpenClaw from my phone?
Yes. ClawCap's Telegram bot lets you /kill to stop all requests, /resume to restart, and /status to check spend. You get proactive alerts at 80% and 95% of your caps.

### What happens when my budget cap is reached?
ClawCap returns HTTP 429 with a clear error message. OpenClaw stops making further calls. Daily caps reset at midnight UTC, monthly caps reset on the 1st.

### Does ClawCap work with all LLM providers?
Yes. ClawCap supports Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, xAI, Groq, Moonshot/Kimi, and MiniMax. Provider detection is automatic.