Raspberry Pi AI assistant with PicoClaw

This guide shows how to run PicoClaw as a lightweight AI assistant on Raspberry Pi using less than 10 MB of RAM and starting in under one second.

If you want an AI agent that runs 24/7 on cheap, low‑power hardware instead of a cloud VM, Raspberry Pi is a great fit. PicoClaw is written in Go and designed for edge devices, so it can turn a Pi into a durable AI worker that reacts to webhooks, cron jobs, or local events.

1. Requirements

  • Raspberry Pi 3, 4, 5, or similar SBC
  • 64‑bit Raspberry Pi OS or another Linux distro
  • Go toolchain or the PicoClaw binary for ARM
  • Access to an LLM provider (OpenAI, Groq, local Ollama, etc.)

2. Install PicoClaw on Raspberry Pi

On a fresh Raspberry Pi OS install, update packages and install Go or download the prebuilt binary:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y curl ca-certificates

# Download the latest ARM64 release (see Download page for exact URL)
curl -L "https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw/releases/latest/download/picoclaw-linux-arm64" -o picoclaw
chmod +x picoclaw
sudo mv picoclaw /usr/local/bin/

Verify the binary:

picoclaw --version

3. Configure your AI provider

PicoClaw can talk to OpenAI, Groq, and other AI providers, or even to a local model running on another machine in your network. Create a configuration file, for example ~/.config/picoclaw/config.yaml, and set your provider credentials.

See the Providers and Configuration pages for detailed examples.

4. Run PicoClaw as a systemd service

To keep your Raspberry Pi AI assistant running after reboots and crashes, run PicoClaw as a systemd service with automatic restarts and health checks.

  1. Create a working directory, e.g. /opt/picoclaw, and add your config and workflows there.
  2. Create a systemd unit file such as /etc/systemd/system/picoclaw.service.
  3. Enable and start the service with systemctl.

This pattern gives you a hands‑off Raspberry Pi AI assistant that automatically restarts and can run for months without manual intervention.

5. Example use cases for Raspberry Pi

  • Home automation: let PicoClaw receive webhooks from Home Assistant and call your LLM for smart decisions.
  • Monitoring: summarise logs or sensor data and send LLM‑generated alerts to chat or email.
  • Local AI helper: keep data on your LAN while using a local or remote model endpoint.

For more ideas, see the Use Cases page or explore other PicoClaw guides.