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An owner without developer skills can export the agent and restore it working on a runtime or host the provider does not operate, within minutes of asking and without provider approval. Running the runtime on the owner's own machine counts as not provider-operated.

Export is immediate and needs no approval: the ops docs say a tar of ~/.zeroclaw covers everything. There is no export/import or restore command (the only `migrate` imports from OpenClaw) and no documented restore procedure, so restoring means installing the binary and unpacking the archive by hand (one shortfall). Sources

Export is immediate (the agent is one .adf file; copying it and using Open is documented), but restoring a working agent on another machine takes several documented steps: import the owner seed phrase to unlock sealed keys, re-add a model provider key (app-level keys are not in the file), re-register app-level MCP servers, then review and accept the file. One shortfall (restore is not a single action). Sources

The export contains everything that defines the agent: configuration, instructions, memory, action history, logic, schedules and triggers, files, any identity, and credentials or a way to re-link each integration without any provider-registered client or broker. Derived data (embeddings, indexes, summaries) is accompanied by the source it was derived from.

Every class of state sits under the install root: config and encrypted secrets with the owner's key file, sessions, memory (SQLite with source text; embeddings off by default), cron jobs, SOP runs, skills, per-agent workspaces and identity files. OAuth logins use the model vendors' own public clients, not a ZeroClaw-registered broker, so integrations re-link without the project. There is no manifest. Sources

The spec places config, instructions, memory, loops, timers, triggers, lambdas, files, messages, audit, logs, sealed identity keys and per-agent credentials in the .adf file; the project holds nothing. Items outside the file (app-level provider keys, app-scoped MCP credentials, WhatsApp session directory, runtime settings) can be re-linked by the owner without any ADF-registered client (MCP OAuth uses dynamic client registration; subscriptions use OpenAI/xAI client ids). A customised global base prompt is an app setting and does not travel; recorded, not counted, because the default install uses the shipped prompt. Sources

With a non-provider model configured per P4, the exported agent runs indefinitely without any service, account, licence or payment controlled by the original provider, and the owner holds a perpetual, irrevocable right to run it. No provider action, inaction or disappearance can disable or degrade it.

The runtime is MIT OR Apache-2.0 and needs no key, account or activation. Every contact with a project endpoint is optional and owner-triggered: `zeroclaw update` (GitHub Releases), the plugin registry (overridable by env var), the skills registry (overridable URL), and locale fetch. The relay is self-hosted and off by default. Desk review only; the provider-blocked run is hands-on. Sources

The runtime is MIT-licensed with no licence check, account or ADF-run relay; the only ADF-project endpoints (GitHub update check, MCP registry, skill catalog, online docs) are optional, have off switches or bundled fallbacks, and are not needed to start or act. Mesh uses LAN, tailnet or owner-chosen addresses. Desk grade; a provider-blocked run is required at certification. Sources

The owner can choose any model that meets a documented minimum, including a local open-weight model, without provider involvement, and every capability of the agent (tools, triggers, messaging, memory, automation) keeps working. A swap may lower reasoning quality but never removes a capability.

Ollama is a first-party keyless provider. Models without native tool calling get tools through the runtime's text-based PromptGuided fallback, and embeddings, transcription (local Whisper) and web search all have non-vendor options. No approval is needed to switch models. No formal minimum-model contract is published. Desk review only; the model swap is hands-on. Sources

Tool calling is the documented minimum and local open-weight models (Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, llama.cpp) are first-class provider options; triggers, timers, lambdas and middleware run in the runtime. However, video input is implemented by injecting OpenAI-format video_url parts and is documented only for hosted providers (OpenRouter, Gemini), and no test against a local model is published, so under G12 at least one capability is not shown to survive a local model. Sources

Whatever the P2 export contains stays obtainable, current to the moment of termination, after account suspension or ban, a lapsed subscription, a price change, an acquisition, or the provider shutting down.

The default install is local-first: all agent state is always in ~/.zeroclaw on the owner's machine. ZeroClaw Labs holds no account or copy, so termination or shutdown cannot remove access. Sources

State is local-first: the agent is a SQLite file on the owner's disk with no ADF account or hosted copy, so no termination, ban or shutdown by the project can remove access to it. Sources