Inboxclaw

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Step 4: Run Your Pipeline ​

Your sources and sinks are configured. Time to start Inboxclaw for real and make sure everything is working.

Start Inboxclaw ​

bash
inboxclaw listen

Inboxclaw will start all your configured sources and sinks. You should see log output showing each source starting its polling loop and each sink becoming ready to deliver.

Verify Events Are Flowing ​

Check Recent Events ​

In a separate terminal, run:

bash
inboxclaw events

This shows the latest events that have been processed and published. You should see events from your configured sources appearing here.

Check Pending Events ​

If you have coalescing enabled, some events may be waiting to settle before being published:

bash
inboxclaw pending-events

Check System Status ​

For a full overview of what's running:

bash
inboxclaw status

This shows whether the service is running, any recent errors, and database statistics.

Troubleshooting ​

No events appearing? ​

  • Check your source configuration. Make sure API tokens and credentials are correct.
  • Check the poll interval. If you set poll_interval: "1h", you'll need to wait up to an hour for the first poll. Try a shorter interval like "1m" for testing.
  • Google sources: Make sure you ran inboxclaw google auth first. See the Google Auth CLI Guide.
  • Check the logs. Look for error messages in the terminal output. If running as a service, use inboxclaw logs.

Events appear but aren't being delivered? ​

  • Check your sink configuration. Make sure URLs, tokens, and paths are correct.
  • Check the match filter. If your sink has a match filter, make sure it matches the event types your sources produce.
  • Webhook sinks: Make sure the target server is running and reachable. Check for authentication errors in the logs.
  • Command sinks: Make sure the command path is correct and the program is executable.

Running as a Background Service ​

For long-term use, you'll want Inboxclaw running as a background service that starts automatically. On Linux with systemd:

bash
# The CLI can manage the service for you
inboxclaw restart

The restart command validates your configuration before restarting, so you won't accidentally break a running service with a bad config.

For more details on the application lifecycle, see App Lifecycle.

Next Step ​

→ Step 5: Maintenance — keeping Inboxclaw running smoothly over time.