Minimal: in binary size, dependencies, and surface area

ZeroClaw is written in Rust and optimised for a small binary and fast startup. The microkernel split (RFC #5574) factors functionality behind feature flags so you only ship what you use: the foundation builds with --no-default-features, and channels, hardware, and the gateway are opt-in. The v0.8.5 release binaries ranged from about 33 MiB (macOS on Apple silicon) to about 59 MiB (x86_64 Linux), shipped in compressed archives of about 26 to 31 MiB (about 20 MiB for the experimental Android archive, which carries no companion binaries); the WASM plugin host that the 64-bit desktop and server binaries carry adds about 4.7 MiB on top of that (measured on aarch64-apple-darwin), and a minimal feature set trims the binary further.

The same discipline applies to the agent’s prompt surface. Tool descriptions are Fluent-localised and terse. There are no hidden system prompts injecting personality. The model sees what you configure.