Tool Paws

Tool Paws provide capabilities the Brain can call during the Act phase. Each runs in a subprocess sandbox with capability-based permissions.

Available Tool Paws

paw-browser

Browser automation via Puppeteer. Navigate pages, click elements, extract content, take screenshots.

npx vole paw add @openvole/paw-browser

Requires childProcess: true (Puppeteer spawns Chrome).

paw-shell

Shell command execution. Run arbitrary commands in the system shell.

npx vole paw add @openvole/paw-shell

Env Variable	Purpose
VOLE_SHELL_ALLOWED_DIRS	Directories where commands can run

Requires childProcess: true.

paw-filesystem

File system operations — read, write, list, delete files and directories.

npx vole paw add @openvole/paw-filesystem

paw-mcp

Bridge MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers into the tool registry. MCP tools appear alongside Paw tools — the Brain doesn't know the difference.

npx vole paw add @openvole/paw-mcp

• MCP tools are auto-discovered at runtime as MCP servers connect
• Late tool registration — tools appear after the engine starts
• Config lives in .openvole/paws/paw-mcp/servers.json

Requires childProcess: true (spawns MCP server processes).

Example .openvole/paws/paw-mcp/servers.json:

{
  "servers": [
    {
      "name": "resend",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "resend-mcp"],
      "env": { "RESEND_API_KEY": "$RESEND_API_KEY" }
    }
  ]
}

paw-email

Email sending and reading via SMTP/IMAP.

npx vole paw add @openvole/paw-email

Env Variable	Purpose
EMAIL_SMTP_HOST	SMTP server hostname
EMAIL_SMTP_PORT	SMTP port
EMAIL_USER	Email username
EMAIL_PASS	Email password

paw-resend

Email sending via the Resend API — simpler alternative to SMTP.

npx vole paw add @openvole/paw-resend

Env Variable	Purpose
RESEND_API_KEY	Resend API key

paw-github

GitHub integration — create issues, PRs, read repos, manage workflows.

npx vole paw add @openvole/paw-github

Env Variable	Purpose
GITHUB_TOKEN	GitHub personal access token

paw-calendar

Google Calendar integration — create events, list upcoming events, manage calendars.

npx vole paw add @openvole/paw-calendar

Env Variable	Purpose
GOOGLE_CALENDAR_CREDENTIALS	Google service account credentials

paw-tts

Text-to-speech via ElevenLabs or OpenAI.

npx vole paw add @openvole/paw-tts

Env Variable	Purpose
ELEVENLABS_API_KEY	ElevenLabs API key
OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI API key (for OpenAI TTS)

paw-stt

Speech-to-text via OpenAI Whisper.

npx vole paw add @openvole/paw-stt

Env Variable	Purpose
OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI API key

paw-computer

Desktop automation — mouse control, keyboard input, screen capture. Enables the agent to interact with desktop applications.

npx vole paw add @openvole/paw-computer

Requires childProcess: true and --allow-addons for native addon support.