PinchChat/README.md

PinchChat

A sleek, dark-themed webchat UI for OpenClaw — monitor sessions, stream responses, and inspect tool calls in real-time.

🖼️ Screenshot coming soon — contributions welcome!

✨ Features

• 🌑 Dark neon theme — easy on the eyes, built with Tailwind CSS v4
• 📊 Token progress bars — track token usage per session in real-time
• 🔧 Tool call badges — expandable panels with syntax-highlighted JSON
• 📋 Session sidebar — browse active sessions with live activity indicators
• 📝 Markdown rendering — full GFM support with code highlighting
• 📎 File upload — attach files to your messages
• ⚡ Streaming responses — watch the AI think in real-time
• 🔐 Runtime login — enter gateway credentials at runtime, no secrets in the build
• 🌐 i18n support — English and French, configurable via VITE_LOCALE

🚀 Quick Start

Docker (recommended)

docker run -p 3000:80 ghcr.io/marlburrow/pinchchat:latest

Open http://localhost:3000 and enter your OpenClaw gateway URL + token on the login screen.

Or use Docker Compose:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MarlBurroW/pinchchat/main/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d

From source

Prerequisites: Node.js 18+, an OpenClaw gateway running and accessible.

git clone https://github.com/MarlBurroW/pinchchat.git
cd pinchchat
npm install
cp .env.example .env
npm run dev

Optionally edit .env to pre-fill the gateway URL:

VITE_GATEWAY_WS_URL=ws://localhost:18789
VITE_LOCALE=en          # or "fr" for French UI

Production build

npm run build
npx vite preview

Or serve the dist/ folder with nginx, Caddy, or any static file server.

⚙️ Configuration

All configuration is optional — credentials are entered at runtime via the login screen.

Variable	Description	Default
VITE_GATEWAY_WS_URL	Pre-fill the gateway URL on the login screen	ws://<hostname>:18789
VITE_LOCALE	UI language (en or fr)	en

Note: The gateway token is entered at runtime and stored in localStorage — it is never baked into the build.

🏗 Architecture

graph TD
    subgraph Browser["🌐 PinchChat (Browser)"]
        Login["LoginScreen<br/><i>credentials</i>"]
        App["App.tsx<br/><i>router</i>"]
        UI["Chat + Sidebar<br/><i>main UI</i>"]
        Hook["useGateway<br/><i>WebSocket state machine</i><br/>auth · sessions · messages"]

        Login --> App --> UI
        App & UI --> Hook
    end

    Hook <-->|"WebSocket (JSON frames)"| Gateway["🔌 OpenClaw Gateway<br/><code>ws://host:18789</code>"]
    Gateway <-->|API| LLM["🤖 LLM Provider<br/><i>Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.</i>"]

Key Components

File	Role
src/hooks/useGateway.ts	WebSocket connection, auth, message streaming, session management
src/components/LoginScreen.tsx	Runtime credential entry (stored in localStorage)
src/components/Chat.tsx	Message list with auto-scroll and streaming display
src/components/ChatInput.tsx	Input with file upload, paste, drag & drop, image compression
src/components/ChatMessage.tsx	Markdown rendering, tool calls, thinking blocks
src/components/Sidebar.tsx	Session list with token usage bars and activity indicators
src/components/Header.tsx	Connection status, token progress bar, logout
src/lib/i18n.ts	Lightweight i18n (English + French)
src/lib/gateway.ts	WebSocket protocol helpers and message types

Data Flow

1. Login — User enters gateway URL + token → stored in localStorage
2. Connect — useGateway opens a WebSocket and authenticates with the token
3. Sessions — Gateway pushes session list; user selects one in the sidebar
4. Messages — Messages stream in via WebSocket frames; the hook assembles partial chunks into complete messages
5. Send — User input (+ optional file attachments) is sent as a JSON frame over the WebSocket

🛠 Tech Stack

• React 19
• Vite 7
• Tailwind CSS v4
• Radix UI primitives
• highlight.js via rehype-highlight
• Lucide React icons
• react-markdown with GFM

📄 License

MIT © Nicolas Varrot

📋 Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for a detailed history of changes.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

🔗 Links

• OpenClaw — the AI agent platform PinchChat connects to