Console usage

Connect the board over USB, use idf.py monitor, minicom, or the web flasher Console to reach the basic_demo prompt (default basic_demo> ).

Tip

Logs scroll but you cannot type commands?

• Boards with both UART and USB-JTAG: try the other port.
• Single-USB devices: try a firmware build with JTAG in the name, or build from source and adjust Channel for console output in menuconfig.

Session and Q&A

Switch session

Each session uses its own history file (see Memory). Long-term memory data is managed in the shared memory/ directory.

session demo
session

Chat with the LLM

ask starts a multi-turn chat with history. ask_once is single-turn and does not append to session history.

ask list what you can do for me
ask_once one-off question, do not use history

Tip

If the LLM was not fully configured at boot (missing key / model / profile), claw_core never starts and ask fails. See Configuration for required LLM fields.

cap

List capabilities

cap list

Invoke a capability

The second argument must be valid JSON (mind quoting/escaping).

cap call get_current_time '{}'
cap call list_dir '{"path":"/fatfs"}'

Group management

A capability may expose many tools. They are grouped so you can enable/disable/unload whole sets at once.

cap groups
cap enable <group_id>
cap disable <group_id>
cap unload <group_id>

skill

skill console command is not registered by default

basic_demo does not call register_cap_skill() by default, so the skill command does not appear on the serial console. To enable it, call register_cap_skill() inside basic_demo_cli_start in basic_demo_cli.c and rebuild.

Alternatively, use cap call activate_skill '{"skill_id":"your_skill"}' from the console to manage Skills.

On the model side: activate_skill / deactivate_skill. On serial: the skill command (registered by cmd_cap_skill) can manage Skills, e.g.:

skill --catalog
skill --list --session default
skill --activate weather --session default
skill --deactivate weather --session default
skill --clear --session default

Keep --session aligned with the active session id, otherwise it looks “activated but not in context”.

auto

auto reload
auto rules
auto last
...

Dataflow and automation More commands and details in this doc

Other registered cap commands

basic_demo registers help, cap, auto, time, web_search, mcp_client, mcp_server, llm_inspect, event_router, etc. Type help in the Console for the full list.

Besides the usual cap subcommands (list, call, groups, enable, disable, unload), cap load qq dynamically loads the cap_im_qq group.

System configuration

For runtime Wi‑Fi / LLM edits, Web is often easier:

Web configuration Change settings and files from the LAN

Configuration NVS keys and how values apply