openclaw

name: openclaw description: Comprehensive guide for installing, configuring, operating, and troubleshooting OpenClaw — a self-hosted, multi-channel AI agent gateway. Use when the user asks about OpenClaw setup, configuration, channel management (WhatsApp/Telegram/Discord/Slack/iMessage/etc.), model provider setup, Gateway operations, multi-agent routing, security hardening, troubleshooting, or any maintenance task related to their local OpenClaw installation. Also use when encountering errors from openclaw CLI commands or the Gateway daemon.

OpenClaw Maintenance Skill

OpenClaw is a self-hosted, open-source (MIT) gateway that routes AI agents across WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, iMessage, Signal, and 15+ other channels simultaneously. It runs on macOS, Linux, or Windows.

Reference Files

Quick Reference

Key Paths

Essential Commands

openclaw status                    # Overall status
openclaw gateway status            # Gateway daemon status
openclaw gateway status --deep     # Deep scan including system services
openclaw doctor                    # Diagnose config/service issues
openclaw doctor --fix              # Auto-fix safe issues
openclaw logs --follow             # Tail gateway logs
openclaw channels status --probe   # Channel health check
openclaw security audit            # Security posture check
openclaw security audit --fix      # Auto-fix security issues
openclaw update                    # Self-update
openclaw dashboard                 # Open Control UI in browser
openclaw tui                       # Terminal UI (interactive REPL)
openclaw agent                     # Direct agent interaction via CLI
openclaw health                    # Health check
openclaw usage                     # Usage tracking
openclaw config validate           # Validate config file
openclaw config file               # Print active config path
openclaw sessions cleanup          # Session disk cleanup
openclaw agents bindings           # Agent-channel bindings
openclaw agents bind               # Bind agent to account
openclaw agents unbind             # Unbind agent
openclaw update --dry-run          # Preview update
openclaw system presence           # View connected clients/nodes
openclaw system heartbeat last     # Last heartbeat info
openclaw system heartbeat now      # Trigger heartbeat immediately
openclaw memory search <query>     # CLI memory search
openclaw docs <query>              # Search OpenClaw docs
openclaw nodes pending             # List pending pairing requests
openclaw nodes approve <id>        # Approve node pairing
openclaw nodes status              # Show all paired nodes
openclaw health --json             # Full health snapshot (JSON)
openclaw message send --media <p>  # Send media message

Default Gateway

• Bind: 127.0.0.1:18789 (loopback)
• Dashboard: http://127.0.0.1:18789/
• Protocol: WebSocket (JSON text frames)

Core Workflow

Diagnosing Issues

Always follow this command ladder:

1. openclaw status — quick overview
2. openclaw gateway status — daemon running? RPC probe ok?
3. openclaw logs --follow — watch for errors
4. openclaw doctor — config/service diagnostics
5. openclaw channels status --probe — per-channel health

Starting / Restarting Gateway

# Foreground with verbose logging
openclaw gateway --port 18789 --verbose

# Force-kill existing listener then start
openclaw gateway --force

# Service management (launchd on macOS, systemd on Linux)
openclaw gateway install
openclaw gateway start
openclaw gateway stop
openclaw gateway restart

Configuration

Edit config via any method:

# Interactive wizard
openclaw onboard                    # Full setup
openclaw configure                  # Config wizard

# CLI one-liners
openclaw config get <path>          # Read value
openclaw config set <path> <value>  # Set value (JSON5 or raw string)
openclaw config unset <path>        # Remove value

# Direct edit
# Edit ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json (JSON5 format)
# Gateway hot-reloads on save (if gateway.reload.mode != "off")

Minimal config example:

{
  agents: { defaults: { workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace" } },
  channels: { whatsapp: { allowFrom: ["+15555550123"] } },
}

Channel Setup

For detailed per-channel setup, see references/channels.md. For per-channel troubleshooting (failure signatures, setup walkthroughs), see references/channel_troubleshooting.md. For plugins adding new channels (Matrix, Nostr, MS Teams, etc.), see references/plugins.md.

Quick channel add:

# Interactive wizard
openclaw channels add

# Non-interactive
openclaw channels add --channel telegram --account default --name "My Bot" --token $BOT_TOKEN
openclaw channels login --channel whatsapp     # QR pairing for WhatsApp
openclaw channels status --probe               # Verify

Model Provider Setup

For detailed provider setup, see references/providers.md.

# Set default model
openclaw models set anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5

# List available models
openclaw models list --all

# Check auth/token status
openclaw models status --probe

# Add auth interactively
openclaw models auth add

Config example:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: {
        primary: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5",
        fallbacks: ["openai/gpt-5.2"],
      },
    },
  },
}

Multi-Agent Routing

For detailed multi-agent config, see references/multi_agent.md.

openclaw agents add <id>                # Create agent
openclaw agents list --bindings         # Show agent-channel bindings
openclaw agents delete <id>             # Remove agent

Nodes (iOS / Android / macOS / Headless)

For detailed node setup, see references/nodes.md.

openclaw nodes status                   # List connected nodes
openclaw nodes describe --node <id>     # Node capabilities
openclaw devices list                   # Pending device approvals
openclaw devices approve <requestId>    # Approve a device
openclaw node run --host <host> --port 18789  # Start headless node host

Security

For detailed security hardening, see references/security.md. For secrets management (SecretRef, vault integration), see references/secrets.md. For sandboxing (Docker isolation for tools), see references/sandboxing.md. For full config field reference, see references/config_reference.md. For remote access (SSH, Tailscale, VPN), see references/remote_access.md.

openclaw security audit                 # Check posture
openclaw security audit --deep          # Live gateway probe
openclaw security audit --fix           # Auto-fix safe issues
openclaw secrets reload                 # Re-resolve secret refs
openclaw secrets audit                  # Scan for plaintext leaks

Update / Uninstall

For detailed installation, updating, rollback, and migration guide, see references/install.md.

# Install (recommended)
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

# Update
openclaw update                    # Self-update command
# Or: npm install -g openclaw@latest
openclaw doctor                    # Run after update to apply migrations

# Uninstall
openclaw uninstall

Tools Reference

For detailed per-tool documentation, see references/tools.md.

For specific tools, see:

• references/exec.md — Exec tool deep-dive
• references/exec_approvals.md — Exec approvals and allowlists
• references/browser.md — Browser automation deep-dive
• references/web_tools.md — Web search/fetch with multiple providers
• references/lobster.md — Lobster workflow runtime
• references/llm_task.md — LLM Task for structured JSON output
• references/openprose.md — OpenProse multi-agent programs
• references/plugins.md — Plugin system (install, author, distribute)
• references/skills.md — Skills system (load, config, ClawHub)

For ACP agents (Codex, Claude Code, Gemini CLI, etc.), see references/acp_agents.md. For Diffs plugin and Firecrawl anti-bot fallback, see references/diffs_firecrawl.md. For chat slash commands (/new, /model, /acp, etc.), see references/slash_commands.md. For thinking levels (/think, /verbose, /reasoning), see references/thinking.md. For polls (Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, MS Teams), see references/polls.md. For Talk Mode and Voice Wake, see references/voice.md. For Gateway architecture and wire protocol, see references/architecture.md. For agent runtime and loop details, see references/agent_runtime.md. For command queue system, see references/queue.md. For model failover and OAuth, see references/model_failover.md. For ClawHub skill registry, see references/clawhub.md. For presence and discovery, see references/presence_discovery.md. For streaming and chunking, see references/streaming.md. For Gateway internals (network model, lock, health, doctor, logging), see references/gateway_internals.md. For heartbeat system, see references/heartbeat.md. For Bonjour/mDNS discovery details, see references/bonjour.md. For Gateway node pairing, see references/pairing.md. For Terminal UI (TUI), see references/tui.md. For media (camera, images, audio), see references/media.md. For channel routing and session keys, see references/channel_routing.md.

Tool profiles: minimal, coding, messaging, full (default).

Tool groups (for allow/deny):

• group:runtime — exec, bash, process
• group:fs — read, write, edit, apply_patch
• group:sessions — sessions_list/history/send/spawn, session_status
• group:memory — memory_search, memory_get
• group:web — web_search, web_fetch
• group:ui — browser, canvas
• group:automation — cron, gateway
• group:messaging — message
• group:nodes — nodes
• group:openclaw — all built-in OpenClaw tools (excludes provider plugins)

Common Failure Signatures

Environment Variables