Adding Boards and Tools — ZeroClaw Hardware Guide

This guide explains how to add new hardware boards and custom tools to ZeroClaw.

Quick Start: Add a Board via CLI

# Add a board (updates ~/.zeroclaw/config.toml)
zeroclaw peripheral add nucleo-f401re /dev/ttyACM0
zeroclaw peripheral add arduino-uno /dev/cu.usbmodem12345
zeroclaw peripheral add rpi-gpio native   # for Raspberry Pi GPIO (Linux)

# Restart daemon to apply
zeroclaw daemon --host 127.0.0.1 --port 3000

Supported Boards

Board	Transport	Path Example
nucleo-f401re	serial	/dev/ttyACM0, /dev/cu.usbmodem*
arduino-uno	serial	/dev/ttyACM0, /dev/cu.usbmodem*
arduino-uno-q	bridge	(Uno Q IP)
rpi-gpio	native	native
esp32	serial	/dev/ttyUSB0

Manual Config

Edit ~/.zeroclaw/config.toml:

[peripherals]
enabled = true
datasheet_dir = "docs/datasheets"   # optional: RAG for "turn on red led" → pin 13

[[peripherals.boards]]
board = "nucleo-f401re"
transport = "serial"
path = "/dev/ttyACM0"
baud = 115200

[[peripherals.boards]]
board = "arduino-uno"
transport = "serial"
path = "/dev/cu.usbmodem12345"
baud = 115200

Adding a Datasheet (RAG)

Place .md or .txt files in docs/datasheets/ (or your datasheet_dir). Name files by board: nucleo-f401re.md, arduino-uno.md.

Pin Aliases (Recommended)

Add a ## Pin Aliases section so the agent can map "red led" → pin 13:

# My Board

## Pin Aliases

| alias       | pin |
|-------------|-----|
| red_led     | 13  |
| builtin_led | 13  |
| user_led    | 5   |

Or use key-value format:

## Pin Aliases
red_led: 13
builtin_led: 13

PDF Datasheets

With the rag-pdf feature, ZeroClaw can index PDF files:

cargo build --features hardware,rag-pdf

Place PDFs in the datasheet directory. They are extracted and chunked for RAG.

Adding a New Board Type

Create a datasheet — docs/datasheets/my-board.md with pin aliases and GPIO info.
Add to config — zeroclaw peripheral add my-board /dev/ttyUSB0
Implement a peripheral (optional) — For custom protocols, implement the Peripheral trait in src/peripherals/ and register in create_peripheral_tools.

See docs/hardware-peripherals-design.md for the full design.

Adding a Custom Tool

Implement the Tool trait in src/tools/.
Register in create_peripheral_tools (for hardware tools) or the agent tool registry.
Add a tool description to the agent's tool_descs in src/agent/loop_.rs.

CLI Reference

Command	Description
`zeroclaw peripheral list`	List configured boards
`zeroclaw peripheral add <board> <path>`	Add board (writes config)
`zeroclaw peripheral flash`	Flash Arduino firmware
`zeroclaw peripheral flash-nucleo`	Flash Nucleo firmware
`zeroclaw hardware discover`	List USB devices
`zeroclaw hardware info`	Chip info via probe-rs

Troubleshooting

Serial port not found — On macOS use /dev/cu.usbmodem*; on Linux use /dev/ttyACM0 or /dev/ttyUSB0.
Build with hardware — cargo build --features hardware
Probe-rs for Nucleo — cargo build --features hardware,probe

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