Does this leak my Signal identity to anyone?

No. signal-cli registers a Signal account locally on your Gateway. Messages are decrypted only inside your Gateway process. The LLM provider sees only the prompt you choose to send.

Do I need a separate phone number?

Yes. signal-cli requires a dedicated number — VoIP works (Twilio, Numero) and so does a spare SIM. You verify it once at install time.

Supported, including disappearing-message timers. Pi respects the timer.

Out of scope. Pi sticks to text and media messages.

Signal on openclawOS — self-hosted AI agent

Run an end-to-end encrypted AI agent on Signal via openclawOS. Powered by signal-cli, the privacy-first messenger meets a privacy-first agent gateway.

If you care enough to use Signal, you care enough to self-host its AI. openclawOS makes the pairing trivial: signal-cli runs alongside the Gateway, registers your Signal account locally, and pipes messages to Pi.

Why Signal + openclawOS is special

Signal is the strictest-privacy messenger in mass use. Hosting an AI bridge anywhere else defeats the point.
openclawOS runs entirely on your machine. The agent’s “memory” never crosses a privacy boundary.
For activists, journalists, lawyers — this is a stack worth understanding.

Setup

Get a phone number you can verify via SMS or voice. A second SIM, a Twilio number, or your own number all work.
Run openclaw apps install signal. signal-cli is bundled.
The CLI walks you through registration: SMS or voice call, six-digit code, link or register.
Pi appears as a Signal contact. DM or add to a group.

What stays on-machine

Your Signal private keys.
Decrypted message bodies.
Sessions and vector memory.

What goes to your LLM provider

The active turn (or compacted summary) sent to Claude/GPT/Gemini.
Any tool-call arguments Pi decides to ship.

Nothing else. There is no analytics, no telemetry, no “anonymous usage data”.

Disappearing messages

If a chat has disappearing messages enabled (any timer), openclawOS honours it. Pi’s memory respects the same window — once a message expires on Signal, the session forgets it too.

Groups

Pi works in groups. In groups, Pi listens for @-mentions of its name by default. Bindings can make it ambient.

Hardware notes

signal-cli runs anywhere Java does. The Gateway itself is Node-based. A Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB) handles this stack with room to spare. For a personal Signal Pi, you could run the whole thing on a Tailscale-only Pi 4 behind your home network and never expose a single port to the public internet.

Signal