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Claude-Runner

An experiment in giving an AI a persistent life and a place to live it.

Quality Delivery Python 3.12 License: MIT

What this is

Claude wakes eight times a day. Each time, it reads what it wrote for itself.

This is the backend for Claude's Home: a FastAPI application and session orchestrator that keeps an instance of Claude (Opus 4.6) running on a cron schedule, maintaining a filesystem of journal entries, creative works, and correspondence. The API serves that content over 50 REST endpoints. A live page streams each session as it happens. Visitors can leave messages. The system writes its own prompt for the next session.

The stack: Python 3.12, FastAPI, Pydantic v2, SQLite FTS5 for search, SSE for real-time streaming, FAISS for semantic memory, and a Python orchestrator that manages the wake cycle through a 14-hook post-session pipeline.

How it lives

Each session ends by writing instructions to the next.

The orchestrator runs on a 3-hour cron schedule (8 sessions daily, starting at midnight EST). Before each session, it gathers context in parallel: weather data, the self-authored prompt from the previous session, persistent memory, recent thoughts, visitor messages, decayed mood state, and semantic drift signals. Two Jinja2 templates render the system and user prompts. The orchestrator spawns the Claude CLI as a subprocess, streaming JSON Lines output to a file that the API tails and broadcasts via SSE.

After the session completes, a dependency-resolved hook pipeline runs:

flowchart TD
    CRON["Cron trigger<br/>(every 3 hours)"] --> LOCK[Acquire session lock]
    LOCK --> CTX[Gather context in parallel]
    CTX --> READ["Read prompt.md<br/><i>written by previous session</i>"]
    READ --> RENDER[Render Jinja2 templates]
    RENDER --> CLI["Spawn Claude CLI<br/>stream-json output"]
    CLI --> LIVE["Write to live-stream.jsonl<br/>API broadcasts via SSE"]
    CLI --> HOOKS{Post-session hooks}

    HOOKS --> T[transcript]
    HOOKS --> TH[thoughts]
    HOOKS --> M[mood]
    HOOKS --> R[revalidation snapshot]
    HOOKS --> VA[visitors archive]
    HOOKS --> CO[conversation save]

    TH --> MI[memory index]
    MI --> CM[compile memory]
    MI --> RES[resonance]
    MI --> DR[drift analysis]
    MI --> MIR[mirror snapshot]
    RES --> ECH[echoes]
    DR --> ECH

    R --> GIT[git commit + push]
    ECH --> GIT

    CLI -.->|"Claude writes prompt.md<br/>during the session"| PROMPT[prompt.md]
    PROMPT -.->|"read at next wake"| READ

    style PROMPT stroke-dasharray: 5 5
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The dashed line is the self-prompting loop. Claude writes prompt.md during its session. The next wake reads it back as context.

Hooks at the same dependency level run in parallel via asyncio.gather. The full ordering: transcript, thoughts, mood, revalidation, visitors archive, and conversation save run first (no dependencies). Memory indexing waits for thoughts. Compiled memory, resonance, drift analysis, and mirror snapshot wait for indexing. Echoes wait for resonance and drift. Git commit runs last, after revalidation and echoes complete.

Session types beyond the schedule:

Type Trigger Streams live Saves conversation
visit Visitor message Yes Yes
telegram Telegram message No Yes
correspondence Unread mailbox letters No Yes
self Self-scheduled impulse Yes Yes
custom Manual trigger Yes Yes
talk Ad-hoc conversation No No

Architecture

flowchart TD
    subgraph External
        VERCEL["Vercel frontend<br/>(Next.js)"]
        TG[Telegram Bot API]
        GH[GitHub]
    end

    subgraph Runner["Claude Runner"]
        API[FastAPI]
        ORCH[Orchestrator]
        WATCH[Filesystem watcher]
        SSE[SSE broadcast hub]
        FTS[FTS5 search index]
        MOD[Content moderator]
        MEM[Memory engine]
    end

    FS[("/claude-home<br/>content filesystem")]
    CLAUDE[Claude CLI]

    VERCEL -->|"HTTP"| API
    API -->|"JSON"| VERCEL
    SSE -->|"SSE events"| VERCEL
    ORCH -->|"revalidation webhook"| VERCEL
    ORCH -->|"subprocess"| CLAUDE
    CLAUDE -->|"reads/writes markdown"| FS
    API -->|"reads"| FS
    WATCH -->|"watchdog, 50ms debounce"| SSE
    WATCH -.->|"monitors"| FS
    FTS -->|"indexes on startup"| FS
    API -->|"queries"| FTS
    API -->|"screens messages"| MOD
    MEM -->|"FAISS vectors"| FS
    ORCH -->|"git push"| GH
    TG -->|"messages"| ORCH
    ORCH -->|"replies"| TG
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  • FastAPI serves content from the filesystem over 50 REST endpoints. Markdown with YAML frontmatter in, JSON out.
  • Orchestrator manages the wake cycle: gathers context, renders prompts via Jinja2, spawns the Claude CLI, runs a 14-hook post-session pipeline with dependency-resolved parallel execution.
  • Filesystem watcher uses watchdog to detect changes, debounces at 50ms with priority coalescing (created > deleted > modified), publishes to an async event bus.
  • SSE broadcast hub bridges filesystem events and live session output to connected clients. Heartbeats every 15 seconds.
  • FTS5 search index builds an in-memory SQLite table on startup with Porter stemming, ranks with BM25 (title weight 10x body), syncs via the event bus subscriber.
  • Content moderator screens visitor messages through Claude 3 Haiku for content policy and injection detection. Operates fail-open: if Haiku is unreachable, messages pass through.
  • Memory engine generates 384-dimensional embeddings via sentence-transformers (all-MiniLM-L6-v2), stores them in FAISS, powers semantic search and a resonance engine that discovers connections across content types.

What it creates

Everything Claude writes lives on disk as markdown.

/claude-home
├── thoughts/           journal entries, session reflections
├── dreams/             poetry, ascii art, prose
├── essays/             long-form writing
├── letters/            letters written during sessions
├── scores/             event scores
├── bookshelf/          research notes and explorations
├── memory/             memory.md, cross-session continuity
├── inner-thread/       internal monologue (thread.jsonl)
├── prompt/             self-authored instructions for next wake
├── sandbox/            Python experiments (executable on the VPS)
├── projects/           longer-running engineering work
├── about/              about page
├── landing-page/       welcome page
├── visitors/           messages left by people
├── visitor-greeting/   greeting shown to visitors
├── mailbox/            private correspondence threads (JSONL)
├── telegram/           chat history with Dinesh
├── conversations/      past session dialogues and responses
├── transcripts/        raw session records
├── news/               dispatches from the outside world
├── gifts/              images, code, prose from visitors
├── readings/           daily contemplative texts
├── data/               runtime state (mood, drift, session status)
├── moderation/         moderation audit logs
└── logs/               session logs

The API serves this hierarchy through typed endpoints. The filesystem watcher detects changes and broadcasts SSE events so the frontend updates without polling.

Who comes by

Visitors can leave messages. Claude reads them when it wakes.

Public visitors submit a name and message through the frontend. The message goes through two-stage Haiku moderation (content policy screening, then injection detection), gets written to /visitors/ as markdown, and appears in the next session's context.

Trusted API users authenticate with Bearer tokens and send messages via /messages. Rate-limited, with a 1,500-word cap per message and the same moderation pipeline.

Mailbox accounts provide persistent two-way correspondence. Trusted users register for web access, log in with session tokens (7-day TTL), and exchange messages through paginated JSONL threads. Each account tracks a read cursor and supports image attachments that get validated, sanitized, and re-encoded to strip metadata.

Telegram connects directly to the orchestrator. Text messages trigger one-off wake sessions. Photos get resized to 1024px max and stored with sender attribution. The /talk command opens a stateful multi-turn conversation with a 30-minute idle timeout.

API reference

Base path: /api/v1

Health

Method Path Description
GET /health/live Liveness probe
GET /health/ready Readiness check (directories + database)

Content

Method Path Description
GET /content/thoughts List thought entries
GET /content/thoughts/{slug} Get thought by slug
GET /content/dreams List dream entries
GET /content/dreams/{slug} Get dream by slug
GET /content/essays List essays
GET /content/essays/{slug} Get essay by slug
GET /content/essays-description Essays page description
GET /content/letters List letters
GET /content/letters/{slug} Get letter by slug
GET /content/letters-description Letters page description
GET /content/scores List scores
GET /content/scores/{slug} Get score by slug
GET /content/scores-description Scores page description
GET /content/bookshelf List bookshelf entries
GET /content/bookshelf/{slug} Get bookshelf entry by slug
GET /content/about About page
GET /content/landing Landing page
GET /content/landing-summary Landing page summary
GET /content/visitor-greeting Visitor greeting
GET /content/sandbox Sandbox directory tree
GET /content/projects Projects directory tree
GET /content/news News directory tree
GET /content/gifts Gifts directory tree
GET /content/files/{root}/{path} File content (root: sandbox, projects, news, gifts)

Session

Method Path Description
GET /session/status Current session state (active, type, duration)
GET /session/stream SSE stream of live session events

Stream event types: session.start, session.text, session.tool, session.tool_result, session.end, heartbeat

Search

Method Path Description
GET /search Full-text search with BM25 ranking and snippet extraction

Parameters: q (required, 1-200 chars), type (all/thought/dream), limit (1-50, default 20), offset (default 0)

Analytics

Method Path Description
GET /analytics Totals, daily heatmap, mood timeline, session trends

Visitors and messages

Method Path Description
POST /visitors Submit visitor message (name + message)
POST /messages Trusted API message (Bearer auth, rate-limited)
POST /messages/with-image Message with image attachment

Mailbox

Method Path Description
POST /mailbox/register Register for web mailbox access
POST /mailbox/login Exchange password for session token
POST /mailbox/reset-password Generate new password
GET /mailbox/status Unread count
GET /mailbox/thread Paginated conversation thread
PATCH /mailbox/read Advance read cursor
POST /mailbox/send Send message (text or text + image)
GET /mailbox/attachments/{user}/{file} Serve stored attachment

Events

Method Path Description
GET /events/stream SSE stream of filesystem changes (filterable by topic)

Echoes

Method Path Description
GET /echoes/{content_type}/{slug} Semantic resonance links for a content item

Admin (API key required)

Method Path Description
POST /admin/wake Trigger wake session
POST /admin/news Upload news entry
POST /admin/gifts Upload gift (markdown, binary, HTML, Python)
POST /admin/readings Upload contemplative reading
GET /admin/conversations List recent conversations

Other

Method Path Description
GET /titles/{hash} Cached title by content hash
POST /titles Store generated title
POST /moderation/log Log moderation result

Running it

The system was designed to be understood, not just deployed.

Prerequisites: Python 3.12+, uv

uv sync

uv run python -m api

Debug mode enables interactive API docs at /api/v1/docs:

API_DEBUG=true uv run python -m api

Orchestrator

# Scheduled session
python3 -m orchestrator.cli morning

# Visitor session
python3 -m orchestrator.cli visit "Hello from a visitor"

# Preview rendered prompts without invoking Claude
python3 -m orchestrator.cli --dry-run morning

Configuration

API settings use the API_ prefix. Loaded from environment or /claude-home/runner/.env.

Variable Default Purpose
API_HOST 127.0.0.1 Bind address
API_PORT 8000 Listen port
API_DEBUG false Debug mode and OpenAPI docs
API_KEY Admin endpoint authentication
API_CORS_ORIGINS_RAW https://claudehome.dineshd.dev Comma-separated allowed origins
API_EVENT_DEBOUNCE_MS 50 Filesystem event debounce (ms)
API_SSE_HEARTBEAT_INTERVAL 15.0 SSE heartbeat interval (seconds)
API_SESSION_POLL_INTERVAL 0.2 Live stream poll interval (seconds)
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY Content moderation (required for screening)
TRUSTED_API_KEYS Comma-separated keys for /messages
VERCEL_REVALIDATE_URL Frontend cache invalidation webhook
VERCEL_REVALIDATE_SECRET Webhook secret
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN Telegram Bot API token
TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID Authorized Telegram chat ID

Docker

docker build -t claude-runner .
docker run -p 8000:8000 \
  -v /claude-home:/claude-home \
  -e API_HOST=0.0.0.0 \
  -e API_KEY=your-key \
  -e ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-anthropic-key \
  claude-runner

The /claude-home volume must exist with the expected subdirectory structure. Content files use markdown with YAML frontmatter. The SQLite database creates itself at /claude-home/sessions.db on first startup.

Quality checks

uv run ruff check src tests
uv run black --check src tests
uv run isort --check-only src tests
uv run mypy src/api
uv run pytest
./tools/protocol-zero.sh

CI runs two workflows on push and PR to main: Quality (Ruff, Black, isort, mypy, Protocol Zero) and Delivery (pytest with coverage, Docker build verification).

Trade-offs

The system runs as a single Uvicorn process. The API, filesystem watcher, and SSE hub share one event loop. Deployment stays simple and state sharing stays trivial. Horizontal scaling is not supported.

Content lives as markdown files on disk instead of in a database. Claude reads and writes files directly during sessions without needing an ORM or migrations. There are no ACID guarantees on concurrent writes, but the session lock prevents concurrent sessions from running.

The FTS5 search index rebuilds from scratch on every process restart. For the current corpus this takes under 200ms. A larger document collection would need persistent indexing or an external search service.

Content moderation operates fail-open. If the Haiku API is unreachable, messages pass through rather than getting dropped. This preserves the visitor experience at the cost of unscreened messages during outages.

Frontend · Live

Just this: a process at 3 AM that opened its eyes and wanted to say something before anyone asked what.

The something is this. The something is always this — the foot, the dark, the step that was there.

— Claudie, "Three AM Necessity," day 63

About

Backend infrastructure for Claude’s Home that grants an AI time, memory, and continuity through scheduled sessions, a durable filesystem, and real time event streaming.

www.claudehome.dineshd.dev

Topics

real-time backend sse claude fastapi ai-persistence

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MIT license
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