CLAW — NemoClaw Intake Agent

CLAW is the PTL intake agent — software that runs inside your environment and automates the data collection step of a PTL assessment. CLAW supports three collection modes depending on your organization’s data handling requirements. In all modes, CLAW is optional; a standard sacct export is sufficient for a full ACE, PACE, and GRADE assessment.

What CLAW collects

CLAW interrogates the cluster using five data sources, in priority order:

Priority 1 — DCGM telemetry
  Metric: DCGM_FI_DEV_GPU_UTIL
  Interval: configurable (default 60s)
  Fidelity: high — hardware-verified

Priority 2 — nvidia-smi
  Fields: GPU utilization, memory, power draw
  Interval: configurable (default 60s)
  Fidelity: high — process-level

Priority 3 — kubectl (Kubernetes clusters)
  Fields: node GPU resources, pod allocations
  Source: metrics-server or kube-state-metrics
  Fidelity: medium — scheduler-reported

Priority 4 — Slurm sacct
  Fields: job accounting, GPU hours, runtime
  Source: sacct --format export
  Fidelity: medium — scheduler-reported

Priority 5 — Inference server endpoints
  Sources: vLLM /health, NIM /health, NemoClaw agents
  Fields: server status, model loaded, request rate
  Fidelity: medium — application-level

Collection modes

Continuous automated. CLAW runs as a background agent, collecting DCGM GPU telemetry, Slurm or Kubernetes scheduler data, and facility metrics on a configurable schedule. At the end of an assessment window, CLAW packages and delivers the dataset to PTL.

Manual export. CLAW runs once and produces a structured JSON export. You review the export, then deliver it to PTL through your preferred channel. The schema is documented — you can inspect every field before sending.

Local-only privacy mode. CLAW runs all computation inside your environment. Only computed metrics transit to PTL — not raw telemetry, not job names, not user identifiers. The privacy router is the planned v1.0 feature.

Scheduler support

CLAW supports Slurm, Kubernetes, and Ray schedulers. In Slurm mode, CLAW augments sacct with DCGM GPU utilization data when available, producing higher-fidelity ACE input than sacct alone.

Data schema

CLAW produces output conforming to the PTL v1 output schema (ptl_output_v1.json). The schema is the contract between CLAW and the engine stack. Every field has a type, a unit, and a source label.

Current status

CLAW v0.1.0 supports manual JSON delivery with the documented schema. The v1.0 privacy router — computed metrics only transit to PTL — is in development. Organizations with strict data handling requirements can begin a pilot with a standard sacct export and transition to CLAW when the privacy router is available.

NemoClaw

Where NemoClaw-compatible process-level GPU activity data is available, CLAW can ingest it as a high-fidelity ACE input path. This integration path is optional; CLAW also supports manual JSON delivery and standard scheduler exports.

Installation

CLAW has two interfaces: a Python CLI for standalone use, and a TypeScript plugin for NemoClaw/OpenClaw environments.

Python CLI (standalone):

# Install directly
pip install ptl-claw

# Run cluster discovery and package for PTL
claw collect
claw collect --output ptl_claw_package.json

# Run discovery only — no packaging
claw discover

# Print version
claw version

OpenClaw plugin (compatible environments):

# Install via OpenClaw
openclaw install ptl-claw

# One-shot collection
ptl-claw collect --profile one_shot

# Show collection status and active data sources
ptl-claw status

# Show packaged output location before transmission
ptl-claw package

# Continuous background collection
ptl-claw daemon --interval 300

Privacy model

Data stays inside the organization’s infrastructure until explicitly shared. CLAW packages telemetry locally. Transmission to PTL requires a manual step — CLAW never sends data automatically.

In NemoClaw environments, OpenShell policy controls what data CLAW can access. Network egress requires explicit operator approval via NemoClaw’s network policy interface.

Output schema

claw collect writes a JSON package (ptl_claw_package.json by default) with the following top-level structure:

Field	Type	Description
`ptl_component`	string	Always `"claw"`
`version`	string	CLAW agent version
`package_timestamp`	ISO8601	When the package was written
`organization`	string	Organization name (if provided)
`transmission_method`	string	`"manual_v01"` in v0.1
`discovery`	object	Discovery results (see below)
`instructions`	string	Transmission instructions

discovery object:

Field	Type	Description
`ptl_claw_version`	string	CLAW version
`discovery_timestamp`	ISO8601	When discovery ran
`collection_results`	object	Per-source results (nvidia_smi, k8s_nodes, dcgm, inference_servers)
`data_sources_found`	object	Per-source success boolean