nanoclaw/.claude/skills/add-atomic-chat-tool/SKILL.md

---
name: add-atomic-chat-tool
description: Add Atomic Chat MCP server so the container agent can call local models served by the Atomic Chat desktop app via its OpenAI-compatible API.
---

# Add Atomic Chat Integration

This skill adds a stdio-based MCP server that exposes models running in the local [Atomic Chat](https://github.com/AtomicBot-ai/Atomic-Chat) desktop app as tools for the container agent. Claude remains the orchestrator but can offload work to local models served by Atomic Chat on `http://127.0.0.1:1337/v1` (OpenAI-compatible).

Tools exposed:
- `atomic_chat_list_models` — list models currently available in Atomic Chat (`GET /v1/models`)
- `atomic_chat_generate` — send a prompt to a specified model and return the response (`POST /v1/chat/completions`)

Model management (download, delete) is done through the **Atomic Chat desktop UI** — the app is a fork of Jan and manages its own model library.

## Phase 1: Pre-flight

### Check if already applied

Check if `container/agent-runner/src/atomic-chat-mcp-stdio.ts` exists. If it does, skip to Phase 3 (Configure).

### Check prerequisites

Verify Atomic Chat is installed and its local API server is running. On the host:

```bash
curl -s http://127.0.0.1:1337/v1/models | head
```

If the request fails:

1. Install Atomic Chat from the [latest release](https://github.com/AtomicBot-ai/Atomic-Chat/releases) (macOS only for now — `atomic-chat.dmg`).
2. Open the app.
3. Open **Settings → Local API Server** and make sure it's enabled on port `1337`.
4. Go to the **Hub** (or **Models**) tab and download at least one model (e.g. Llama 3.2 3B, Qwen 2.5 Coder 7B).
5. Load the model once by sending any message in Atomic Chat's UI to warm it up.

## Phase 2: Apply Code Changes

### Ensure upstream remote

```bash
git remote -v
```

If `upstream` is missing, add it:

```bash
git remote add upstream https://github.com/qwibitai/nanoclaw.git
```

### Merge the skill branch

```bash
git fetch upstream skill/atomic-chat-tool
git merge upstream/skill/atomic-chat-tool
```

This merges in:
- `container/agent-runner/src/atomic-chat-mcp-stdio.ts` (Atomic Chat MCP server, run directly via `bun`)
- Atomic Chat MCP registration in `container/agent-runner/src/index.ts` (`mcpServers.atomic_chat`)
- `mcp__atomic_chat__*` added to `TOOL_ALLOWLIST` in `container/agent-runner/src/providers/claude.ts`
- `[ATOMIC]` log surfacing and `ATOMIC_CHAT_HOST` / `ATOMIC_CHAT_API_KEY` forwarding in `src/container-runner.ts`
- `ATOMIC_CHAT_HOST` / `ATOMIC_CHAT_API_KEY` stubs in `.env.example`

If the merge reports conflicts, resolve them by reading the conflicted files and understanding the intent of both sides.

### Validate code changes

```bash
pnpm run build
./container/build.sh
```

Build must be clean before proceeding.

## Phase 3: Configure

### Set Atomic Chat host (optional)

By default, the MCP server connects to `http://host.docker.internal:1337` (Docker Desktop) with a fallback to `localhost`. To use a custom host, add to `.env`:

```bash
ATOMIC_CHAT_HOST=http://your-atomic-chat-host:1337
```

### Set API key (optional)

Atomic Chat does **not require authentication** when running locally — leave this unset. Only set it if you've put Atomic Chat behind a reverse proxy that enforces auth:

```bash
ATOMIC_CHAT_API_KEY=sk-...
```

### Restart the service

```bash
launchctl kickstart -k gui/$(id -u)/com.nanoclaw  # macOS
# Linux: systemctl --user restart nanoclaw
```

## Phase 4: Verify

### Test inference

Tell the user:

> Send a message like: "use atomic chat to tell me the capital of France"
>
> The agent should use `atomic_chat_list_models` to find available models, then `atomic_chat_generate` to get a response.

### Check logs if needed

```bash
tail -f logs/nanoclaw.log | grep -i atomic
```

Look for:
- `[ATOMIC] Listing models...` — list request started
- `[ATOMIC] Found N models` — models discovered
- `[ATOMIC] >>> Generating with <model>` — generation started
- `[ATOMIC] <<< Done: <model> | Xs | N tokens | M chars` — generation completed

## Troubleshooting

### Agent says "Atomic Chat is not installed" or tries to run a CLI

The agent is looking for a CLI that doesn't exist instead of using the MCP tools. This means:
1. The MCP server wasn't registered — check `container/agent-runner/src/index.ts` has the `atomic_chat` entry in `mcpServers`
2. The allowlist wasn't updated — check `container/agent-runner/src/providers/claude.ts` includes `mcp__atomic_chat__*` in `TOOL_ALLOWLIST`
3. The container wasn't rebuilt — run `./container/build.sh`

### "Failed to connect to Atomic Chat"

1. Verify the host API is reachable: `curl http://127.0.0.1:1337/v1/models`
2. Confirm the Local API Server is enabled in Atomic Chat's settings
3. Check Docker can reach the host: `docker run --rm curlimages/curl curl -s http://host.docker.internal:1337/v1/models`
4. If using a custom host, check `ATOMIC_CHAT_HOST` in `.env`

### `model not found` / 404 on generate

The model ID passed to `atomic_chat_generate` must exactly match one of the IDs returned by `atomic_chat_list_models`. Ask the agent to list models first, then pick one from that list.

### Slow first response

Atomic Chat lazy-loads models into memory on first use. The initial call may take longer while the model warms up. Subsequent calls against the same model are fast.

### Agent doesn't use Atomic Chat tools

The agent may not know about the tools. Try being explicit: "use the atomic_chat_generate tool with llama3.2-3b-instruct to answer: ..."

### Context window or output size issues

Atomic Chat respects each model's native context length. If you hit limits, pass `max_tokens` explicitly when calling `atomic_chat_generate`, or switch to a model with a larger context window in the Atomic Chat UI.