ZeroClaw-Android: Run AI Agents 24/7 on Your Phone

Your old phone in a drawer is a better AI server than you think.

ZeroClaw-Android turns your Android phone into an always-on AI agent host. Not a Termux hack. Not a WebView. Native Rust compiled to ARM. Connect to 32+ providers -- OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Groq, DeepSeek, Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, Novita, Telnyx, and more -- and run autonomous agents around the clock with encrypted API key storage (AES-256-GCM) and a battery-optimized foreground service. No server required. No cloud bills. Just your phone.

Quick Start

Got an old phone? Give it a new job.

1. Download the latest APK from GitHub Releases
2. Add a provider -- paste your API key or point to a local Ollama instance
3. Create an agent -- pick a model and configure its behavior
4. Tap Start -- the daemon launches as a foreground service and runs until you stop it

The onboarding wizard walks you through all of this on first launch.

Disclaimer: This app is a personal project not associated with the ZeroClaw Labs team. It might break.

Features

• 32 providers -- OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq, DeepSeek, Mistral, Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, LocalAI, OpenRouter, Together AI, Cohere, Perplexity, xAI, Novita, Telnyx, and more. Plus custom OpenAI-compatible and Anthropic-compatible endpoints.
• Terminal REPL -- command-line interface with slash commands for every gateway operation, powered by a Rhai scripting engine in Rust. Autocomplete, command history, image attachments, and raw Rhai expressions for power users.
• Plugin browser -- extend agents with tools for web search, code execution, file access, MQTT, and webhooks
• Encrypted key storage -- AES-256-GCM via Android Keystore, hardware-backed on StrongBox devices, biometric unlock to reveal
• Battery-optimized -- START_STICKY foreground service with OEM battery killer detection, auto-restart on boot, network transition handling
• Material You -- dynamic color theming on Android 12+, adaptive navigation (bottom bar / rail / drawer), WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility
• Auto-restart -- your agents survive reboot, survive task kill, survive sleep. Exponential backoff on failures.
• Rust core -- ZeroClaw's router runs natively via UniFFI, with catch_unwind at every FFI boundary. No JNI crashes.

Terminal REPL

The Terminal replaces the old Console with a command-line interface for interacting with the ZeroClaw daemon. Type natural language to chat with your agent, or use slash commands to access every gateway operation directly.

How it works

You type:     /cost daily 2026 2 27
Kotlin:       translates to Rhai expression "cost_daily(2026, 2, 27)"
Rust (FFI):   eval_repl() evaluates the expression in the Rhai engine
Rhai engine:  calls the registered cost_daily() function
Result:       JSON string returned to Kotlin for rich terminal rendering

Plain text (anything not starting with /) is routed as a chat message through the agent, same as before.

Slash commands

| Command | Description | |---|---| | /status | Show daemon status | | /version | Show ZeroClaw version | | /health [component] | Health summary or component detail | | /doctor | Run diagnostic checks | | /cost | Total cost summary | | /cost daily <y> <m> <d> | Cost for a specific day | | /cost monthly <y> <m> | Cost for a specific month | | /budget <amount> | Check spend against budget | | /events [limit] | Show recent events | | /cron | List all cron jobs | | /cron add <expr> <cmd> | Add a recurring job | | /cron oneshot <delay> <cmd> | Add a one-shot delayed job | | /cron get/pause/resume/remove <id> | Manage individual jobs | | /skills | List installed skills | | /skills install/remove/tools <arg> | Manage skills | | /tools | List available tools | | /memories [category] | List memories | | /memory recall <query> | Search memories | | /memory forget <key> | Delete a memory | | /memory count | Total memory count | | /help | Show available commands | | /clear | Clear terminal history |

Image support

Attach images through the input bar to send vision messages. Staged images appear as text labels (terminal aesthetic), and the attached files are passed to the vision API alongside your message.

Raw Rhai expressions

Power users can type Rhai expressions directly for scripting:

let x = cost_daily(2026, 2, 27); x.total

The Rhai engine has access to all 33 gateway functions, so any combination of calls works.

Terminal design

• JetBrains Mono font for readability
• Dark surface (surfaceContainerLowest) even in light theme
• Braille spinner (⠋⠙⠹⠸⠼⠴⠦⠧⠇⠏) while awaiting responses, with static fallback in battery saver mode
• Autocomplete popup filters commands as you type
• Command history persisted in Room, accessible by swiping up on the input field
• Screen reader support with semantic annotations on all terminal blocks, live regions for status changes, and linearized content descriptions
• Font scaling to 200% without clipping (all sizing in sp, no fixed-height containers)

Why a Phone?

You already carry a computer with a multi-core ARM chip, 8GB RAM, always-on connectivity, and a built-in battery backup. Why buy another one?

Phones are designed to stay on. They handle push notifications, background services, and power management better than any Raspberry Pi. Add a cellular fallback and WiFi, and you have an always-connected edge device in your pocket.

Best for:

• Routing calls to cloud providers (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini)
• Running lightweight local models via Ollama on your network
• IoT agent hubs that need always-on connectivity
• Personal automation that runs while your laptop sleeps

Not ideal for:

• Running large local models on-device (use a desktop GPU or Ollama server)
• Workloads that need >8GB RAM
• Latency-critical applications under 100ms

Phone vs Mac Mini

| | Old Android Phone | Mac Mini M4 | | ----------------- | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | | Cost | $0 (you already own it) | $499+ | | Power draw | 2-5W idle | 10-25W idle | | Battery backup | Built in | Requires UPS ($50+) | | Cellular fallback | Built in | Requires hotspot or dongle | | Always-on design | Yes (it's a phone) | Yes (but no battery) | | Local inference | Limited (API routing) | Strong (16-32GB unified memory) | | Setup time | 5 minutes | 30+ minutes | | Also a phone | Yes | No |

Security

API keys are stored in EncryptedSharedPreferences backed by Android Keystore with AES-256-GCM encryption. On devices with a hardware security module (StrongBox), the master key is hardware-backed and never leaves the secure enclave.

• Keys are masked by default (last 4 characters visible)
• Biometric authentication required to reveal full keys
• Encrypted export/import with Argon2 key derivation
• Rust core uses memory-safe FFI -- no buffer overflows, no use-after-free
• The app is not distributed through third-party marketplaces. Builds are reproducible from source.

Your API keys never leave your device unencrypted. Not to a cloud. Not to a marketplace. Not to us.

Supported Providers

OpenAI, Anthropic (Claude), Google Gemini, Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, LocalAI, OpenRouter, Groq, DeepSeek, Mistral, xAI (Grok), Together AI, Fireworks AI, Perplexity, Cohere, GitHub Copilot, Amazon Bedrock, Cloudflare AI, Novita AI, Telnyx, and more. Any OpenAI-compatible or Anthropic-compatible endpoint works via the custom provider options.

| Provider | Auth Type | Category | | --------------------------- | ------------------ | --------- | | OpenAI | API Key | Primary | | Anthropic | API Key | Primary | | Google Gemini | API Key | Primary | | OpenRouter | API Key | Pri