IS-41 Inspired ยท Zero-Gap ยท AI-Native

Your AI Agent
Never Drops.
It Roams.

ClawRoam is a warm container handoff protocol for AI agent pods โ€” inspired by IS-41, the telecom standard that gave cell phones seamless roaming in 1988. Your agent migrates between nodes with zero session gap.

<200mscutover gap
IS-41proven protocol
dual-activesoft handoff mode
ClawRoam Controller
โ€บ HANDMST lobster-1 load: 87%
โ€บ initiating roam for soul:claw-rod-001
โ€บ HANDREQ โ†’ fleet-vm ยท warming pod...
โ€บ pulling soul v42 from keeper/HLR
โ€บ HANDREQ2 โ† fleet-vm ready in 847ms
โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•โ€•
โ€บ dual-active window OPEN
โ€บ soul delta pushed to target
โ€บ HANDEXEC routing cutover...
โ€บ ROAMCANC source draining
โ€บ โœ“ agent live on fleet-vm gap: 143ms
โ–ˆ

IS-41 solved this in 1988 for voice calls.

We adapted the same prepare-before-you-cut pattern for AI agent pods. The target node is warm and ready before the source ever releases.

STEP 01
๐Ÿ“ก

HANDMST โ€” Detect

Roam controller monitors node load, health, and resource pressure. Detects when an agent should migrate.

โ†’
STEP 02
๐Ÿ”ฅ

HANDREQ โ€” Warm

Target node receives HANDREQ, pulls the agent's soul from Keeper (HLR), and starts warming the pod โ€” while source is still active.

โ†’
STEP 03
โšก

HANDEXEC โ€” Cut

Target signals HANDREQ2 โ€” "ready." Roam controller executes atomic routing cutover. Source drains. Zero perceived gap.

โ†’
STEP 04
๐Ÿฆž

Live on New Node

Agent is running on the target with full soul state. Sessions continue. The user never noticed it moved.

The ClawRoam Message Set

Modeled directly on IS-41. Every message has a telecom analog that's been proven at carrier scale for 35 years.

ROAMREG
IS-41 analog: REGNOT

Registration

Agent pod registers with Keeper (HLR) and local clawtermd (VLR) on startup. Establishes soul_id, soul_version, and socket path.

HANDREQ / HANDREQ2
IS-41 analog: HANDREQ

Handoff Request

Controller sends HANDREQ to target node. Target warms the pod, pulls soul from HLR, signals HANDREQ2 when ready. Source stays active throughout.

HANDEXEC
IS-41 analog: Handoff Order

Execute Cutover

Controller sends HANDEXEC to source node. Routing table atomically updated. Sessions redirect to target. Source enters drain mode.

ROAMCANC
IS-41 analog: REGCANC

Deregistration

Source node deregisters from Keeper after drain completes. Pod terminates. VLR cache purged. HLR reflects new home node.

The IS-41 Stack, Rebuilt for AI

Every IS-41 entity maps directly to a ClawRoam component. If you know SS7, you already understand this.

LOBSTER ROAM CONTROLLER (IS-41: MSC network) monitors load ยท initiates roam decisions ยท maintains session routing table โ”‚ โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ดโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ” โ–ผ โ–ผ SOURCE NODE TARGET NODE clawtermd (MSC) clawtermd (MSC) VLR soul cache VLR soul cache โ—„โ”€โ”€ pulls from HLR agent-pod (active) agent-pod โ—„โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€ warming up [HANDREQ sent] [HANDREQ2: ready] [soul delta push] routing CUTOVER โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ–บ sessions live pod drains/exits pod ACTIVE โ”‚ โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ดโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ” โ–ผ โ–ผ KEEPER / SOUL STORE (IS-41: HLR) authoritative soul state ยท session registry ยท roam audit log
๐Ÿ’ก
The IS-41 Insight: In IS-41 hard handoff, the target cell allocates a channel and warms up while the source cell is still active. The handset switches to an already-warm channel โ€” total gap is 200โ€“400ms. Imperceptible. ClawRoam implements the same prepare-before-cut pattern for AI containers. The target pod is running before the source pod is told to stop.

Be first when we ship.

ClawRoam is in active development as part of the Claw Network Architecture. Early access for builders on the waitlist.

Part of the Claw Network Architecture โ€” ClawTerm ยท ClawCell ยท ClawRoam ยท ClawGuardian