iMessage

openclaw apps install imessage

iMessage is a status symbol. Blue bubbles. Tapbacks. Read receipts. openclawOS lets your AI agent send and receive them like any other contact.

What you need

• A Mac (Mini, MacBook, Studio, anything). macOS Sonoma+.
• Your Apple ID signed into Messages.app.
• openclawOS installed and given Full Disk Access (for reading the chat.db) and Automation permission (for sending).

The Mac becomes your AI server. The rest of your devices keep doing their thing.

Setup

1. Install openclawOS on the Mac: npm install -g openclawos@latest && openclawos onboard.
2. Run openclaw apps install imessage. The CLI walks you through the permission grants.
3. Pi appears as a participant in any conversation where you @-mention them, reply to one of their messages, or DM the configured handle.

How routing works

iMessage doesn’t have bots. openclawOS gives Pi a “handle” — either:

• An invented contact stored on your Mac. Friends message that contact; Pi replies from it.
• Your own number/email in a “Pi mode” where Pi only responds when you start a message with ^^ (or whatever sentinel you pick).

Privacy

Messages stay on the Mac. The Messages.app database (~/Library/Messages/chat.db) is encrypted at rest by FileVault if you have it on. Pi’s outbound LLM call ships only the relevant turn — not your entire iMessage history.

Limits

• Sending is rate-limited by macOS (a handful of messages per second is fine; bulk blasting will be queued).
• Group chats work but Pi can’t see participant join/leave events without a polling loop (we do it; it’s reliable but not real-time).
• iMessage attachments larger than ~25MB are not forwarded to the LLM by default — the binding can be configured to upload them to S3 and pass a URL instead.

The Mac mini play

The classic openclawOS-on-iMessage setup is a base-model Mac mini (M2 or M4), tucked behind a monitor, running on Energy Saver auto-wake. iMessage, WhatsApp (via the QR-paired phone), Telegram, Signal — all on the same little box. Total cost: $600 once, then just LLM tokens. Better than every “AI girlfriend” startup you’ll see on TechCrunch.