Installing clawdSlate

For now: macOS + Claude Code subscription. Windows, Linux, Codex, and Gemini support coming soon.

macOS, Apple Silicon. Two install paths — pick whichever feels natural:

Option A — install.sh: curl | bash. No Gatekeeper approval, no drag. Adds a clawdslate terminal launcher. Same app, different wrapper.
Option B — DMG: the familiar drag-to-Applications flow. Requires approving the app once via System Settings the first time you launch it.

Both end up as /Applications/clawdSlate.app. Both run the same agent pipeline; both pull updates with the same install.sh script.

Both require the Claude Code CLI at runtime — see Prerequisites.

1. Download clawdSlate — curl or DMG.
2. First launch: approve the app — DMG users only. Option A skips this.
3. Prerequisites — Claude Code CLI.
4. Build from source — modify or inspect clawdSlate.
5. Embed inside another app — npm package consumed by your own host.
6. Where clawdSlate stores your data
7. Verifying it works

1. Download clawdSlate

Option A — `install.sh` (primary)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashryaagr/clawdslate/main/install.sh | bash

That’s it. The script:

Downloads clawdSlate-arm64.zip from the latest GitHub Release.
Extracts to /Applications/clawdSlate.app (or ~/Applications/ if the system directory isn’t writable).
Clears the com.apple.quarantine xattr — Gatekeeper treats the bundle as a locally-built app, so no “Open Anyway” prompt the first time you launch.
Re-applies ad-hoc signing so the loader is satisfied.

Installs a clawdslate launcher at ~/.local/bin/clawdslate:

clawdslate                  # launch the app
clawdslate update           # pull latest (same script runs again)
clawdslate --version
clawdslate uninstall

Launches clawdSlate — you land on the welcome screen in one motion.

If ~/.local/bin isn’t already on your PATH, the script prints the one line you need to add to ~/.zshrc (or ~/.bashrc).

Want to read the script before piping it to bash?

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ashryaagr/clawdslate/main/install.sh -o install.sh
less install.sh
bash install.sh

The script lives here in the repo — about 230 lines.

Install a specific version:

curl -fsSL …/install.sh | bash -s -- --version v0.1.8

Uninstall:

clawdslate uninstall

Option B — DMG

If you’d rather drag-to-Applications:

Download clawdSlate-arm64.dmg.
Double-click the DMG to mount it.
Drag clawdSlate.app onto the Applications folder shown in the DMG window.
Close the disk image.
Open /Applications/clawdSlate.app. macOS will block it the first time with a “can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it” warning — that’s expected. Continue to Section 2 for the one-time approval.

Architecture	Direct link
Apple Silicon (M1 / M2 / M3 / M4)	clawdSlate-arm64.dmg
Apple Silicon, zipped `.app`	clawdSlate-arm64.zip
Intel	(build from source; prebuilt x64 lands when demand warrants)

Updates are the same one-line re-run of install.sh regardless of which install path you chose.

2. First launch: approve the app

Only needed for the DMG path. Option A clears the quarantine xattr during install so this whole section is bypassed.

clawdSlate is signed ad-hoc — it’s a real, valid signature, but not from an Apple Developer ID, so on first launch macOS asks you to confirm:

Open /Applications/clawdSlate.app. macOS shows “clawdSlate.app can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software”.
Click Done (the dialog only offers that, by design).
Open System Settings → Privacy & Security.
Scroll to the Security section. You’ll see: “clawdSlate.app was blocked to protect your Mac”.
Click Open Anyway next to that line.
macOS prompts for your password (or Touch ID).
A second dialog appears — “macOS cannot verify the developer of clawdSlate.app”. Click Open.

After this one-time approval, double-clicking clawdSlate.app opens it normally. Future updates re-use the same approval.

If you’d rather avoid this dance entirely, switch to Option A — it clears the quarantine xattr at install time, so the first launch is silent.

3. Prerequisites

clawdSlate runs the agent through the Claude Agent SDK, which wraps the Claude Code CLI. You need:

macOS on Apple Silicon for the standalone app. (The npm package is platform-agnostic.)

Claude Code CLI installed, with claude on your $PATH:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | sh
which claude    # should print something like /Users/you/.local/bin/claude
claude --version

Claude Code signed in. clawdSlate uses your existing Claude subscription via the CLI — no API keys, no accounts inside clawdSlate:
```
claude /login
```

If claude isn’t on $PATH when clawdSlate launches, the app surfaces a dialog with the specific command to run. Re-launch and continue.

4. Build from source

clawdSlate is one repo, one npm install. The vendored excalidraw-mcp gets fetched + built by a postinstall hook:

git clone https://github.com/ashryaagr/clawdslate.git
cd clawdslate
npm install
npm run app:build
npm run app           # launch in dev mode

For a packaged Mac app:

npm run dist:mac      # → release/clawdSlate-arm64.dmg + release/clawdSlate-arm64.zip

Requires Node 22+, macOS 14+, Xcode Command Line Tools.

For HMR / DevTools-attached dev:

npm run app:dev       # WB_DEVTOOLS=1 — Cmd+Option+I works

5. Embed inside another app

clawdSlate ships as fathom-whiteboard on npm — the same component, but as a React surface you can mount inside your own Electron / web app:

npm install fathom-whiteboard

import { Whiteboard, useWhiteboardScene } from 'fathom-whiteboard/react';

const host = {
  generate: (cb) => window.api.generate(cb),
  refine: (scene, instruction, cb) => window.api.refine(scene, instruction, cb),
  loadScene: () => window.api.loadScene(),
  saveScene: (scene) => window.api.saveScene(scene),
};

<Whiteboard host={host} />

The host is anything that wires generate / refine to a Claude Agent SDK instance. The library doesn’t open network sockets, mount file handles, or assume a specific runtime.

The pipeline (generateWhiteboard / refineWhiteboard) is also exported as plain functions if you want to drive it without the React surface — see src/pipeline.ts.

6. Where clawdSlate stores your data

clawdSlate writes nothing to your home directory other than the per-session canvas state, kept under:

~/Library/Application Support/clawdSlate/sessions/last/

Inside it:

scene.json — the live Excalidraw scene (boxes, arrows, edits).
paper.json — the most-recently pasted content + any saved attachments.
viewport.json — last-known scroll/zoom position.

Delete the folder any time to reset clawdSlate. The pasted content is gone; the app boots into the empty paste-prompt screen.

There is no telemetry, no analytics, no remote logging. clawdSlate doesn’t even check for updates unless you re-run clawdslate update (or install.sh) yourself.

7. Verifying it works

After install:

clawdslate --version       # prints the installed version, e.g. "0.1.8"
clawdslate                 # launches clawdSlate

Inside the app:

The paste-prompt screen should be visible — empty canvas, “Paste anything…” prompt at the bottom.
Paste any short text (e.g. a paper abstract). Press Return.
Within 1–2 seconds the activity log shows [tool_use] mcp__excalidraw__create_view and the canvas starts drawing.

If step 3 hangs without progress for more than ~15s, check that claude is on your $PATH and signed in (Section 3). The DevTools console (Cmd+Option+I) prints [clawdSlate …] and [fathom-whiteboard …] diagnostic lines for every IPC + agent turn.