iflytek/astronclaw-tutorial: a VitePress guide to AstronClaw and Loomy

Two assistants, one tutorial repository

The README describes two products. AstronClaw is a cloud AI assistant built on OpenClaw core capabilities, reachable through WeCom, DingTalk and Feishu. Loomy is a desktop AI work companion aimed at local files and system tools, for individuals and small teams. The repository is the teaching material for both, published in Chinese with an English README variant.

The intended reader is stated plainly. People with no programming background who want an always-on assistant. People who want to drive an AI from a chat app. Content and operations teams that move information between tools all day. The README does not target developers building agent frameworks, and the repository contains no agent runtime code to build against.

The scope is the part worth noticing. Most repositories that carry a product name ship the product. This one ships the explanation, and the products live at separate URLs: the AstronClaw console at agent.xfyun.cn/astron-claw and the Loomy desktop download at loomy.xunfei.cn.

What the repository actually contains

The top level holds docs/, api/, scripts/, server.js, test-api.js, vercel.json and a VitePress package manifest. The docs directory is the tutorial body. The api directory and server.js form a small Express service, with cors and dotenv as dependencies, and .env.example defines a single variable, ASTRON_MAAS_API_KEY. A scripts/generate-index.js step runs before both the dev server and the build, which suggests the tutorial index is generated from the docs tree rather than written by hand.

That shape matters for anyone evaluating adoption. The Express service and the API key variable are support infrastructure for the site, not part of AstronClaw or Loomy themselves. Nothing in the repository installs an agent. If you are looking for the runtime that executes skills, it is not here.

The documentation states that a CLA Assistant bot comments on first pull requests to collect a contributor licence agreement, and the repository carries CLA.md alongside CONTRIBUTING.md. So the contribution path is gated before the first merge.

Previewing the tutorial locally

The README gives a four-step local workflow. Clone the repository, install dependencies, start the dev server, and build static files. Because the docs scripts call the index generator first, the generated index is refreshed on each run rather than committed as a stale artifact.

git clone https://github.com/iflytek/astronclaw-tutorial.git
cd astronclaw-tutorial
npm install
npm run docs:dev

After npm run docs:dev, VitePress prints a local URL, typically on port 5173, and serves the tutorial with hot reload. The README does not name the port, so read it from the terminal output rather than assuming. To produce the static output instead:

npm run docs:build

There is also a combined script, npm run dev, that starts server.js in the background and then the docs dev server. That is the one to use if you want to exercise the API layer while reading. The README does not document what server.js serves, and the repository description does not explain it either, so treat the Express side as undocumented until you read the source.

The AstronClaw skills and channel claims

The README makes three concrete claims about AstronClaw. It is deployed in one step with no local environment setup. It ships with over 130 official skills. Those skills install through a marketplace, a repository search, or automatically through conversation, and custom skills are supported. Channels cover Feishu, DingTalk and WeCom.

Those are product claims, not repository facts, and the tutorial is the only place they are written down here. There is no skills manifest in the repository, no channel adapter code, and no version pin that would let you check the count against a release. If the number of skills is the reason you are interested, the number is the thing to verify against the live console rather than against this repository.

Loomy's claims are narrower and more specific: directory-level authorisation for local files, and support for custom large model API providers. The directory-level permission model is the interesting design choice, because a desktop assistant that reads local files needs a boundary, and scoping access to directories is a simpler boundary to reason about than per-file prompts.

Where this tutorial stops being useful

The repository is documentation. It cannot be your integration path. If you need to embed an agent in an application, call an API from your own service, or run the assistant on your own infrastructure, this repository gives you prose and a VitePress site, nothing executable. The README does not document an API surface for AstronClaw or Loomy, does not list endpoints, and does not describe self-hosting either product. The api/ directory belongs to the tutorial site, and the single environment variable in .env.example is named for the tutorial's own backend.

The language split is a second limit. The README links an English variant, but the tutorial content is written in Chinese, and the README itself presents 简体中文 as the primary version. An English-only reader gets the entry page and not much else.

A third gap: there are no retrieved releases for this repository, so there is no changelog to consult for breaking changes in the tutorial's instructions. The last push was on 2026-09-10, which is recent, but recency of commits is not the same as a documented upgrade path, and the README does not describe one.

Alternatives and how they differ in approach

If what you want is the agent runtime rather than the course, the README points at OpenClaw as the core capability underneath AstronClaw, and the repository topics list openclaw and iflytek-astron. That is the layer to look at when you need code, not explanation. The difference in approach is direct: OpenClaw is the thing that runs, this repository is the thing that teaches, and the tutorial's value depends on the product staying close to what it describes.

If you want a desktop assistant that stays entirely on your machine and you are willing to configure models yourself, Loomy's own download page is the entry point the README gives, and the custom model API provider support is the mechanism that makes a bring-your-own-model setup possible. A cloud-first assistant like AstronClaw inverts that: the README describes 7x24 online availability and chat-app channels as the point, which means the assistant is reachable without your machine being on, and the trade is that the work happens off your desktop.

Between the two, the choice is about where the files are. Loomy reaches local files under directory-level authorisation. AstronClaw reaches you through Feishu, DingTalk or WeCom. The tutorial covers both, which is why it is organised in two parts rather than one.

Licence and the cost of keeping up

The repository is Apache-2.0, and the README states this in its licence section, with a LICENSE file at the root. That covers the tutorial text and the site code. It does not automatically cover AstronClaw or Loomy as products, and the repository does not state their terms. If you plan to reuse the tutorial material inside a commercial training programme, read the LICENSE file and check the product terms separately. This is a description of what the repository says, not legal advice.

Upgrade cost is low in the ordinary case. The dependency set is small: vitepress, vue, express, cors, dotenv and medium-zoom. VitePress and Vue are devDependencies, so a site build pulls them, and the Express stack is only needed if you run server.js. The maintenance risk is not in the code but in the content. Tutorial instructions about a cloud console, a skills marketplace and a desktop download go stale when those products change, and the repository has no retrieved release history to signal when that happened.

The contribution gate adds friction for anyone planning to send corrections. The README states that first-time contributors are prompted by a CLA Assistant bot before their pull request can proceed.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt this repository if you want a written path into AstronClaw's cloud channels or Loomy's desktop workflows and you are willing to read Chinese. Skip it if you need a runnable agent runtime, an English-first course, or an npm package that installs an assistant. Before committing time, verify three things: that the online edition at astronclaw-tutorial.space opens, that the linked Loomy download and AstronClaw console pages are still live, and that the skill count and channel list in the README still match what the product pages show. The repository itself only builds a static site.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. iflytek/astronclaw-tutorial on GitHub
2. Issues
3. License: Apache-2.0
4. Project website
5. README