OpenClaw
EXFOLIATE! EXFOLIATE!
MIT License
OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant you run on your own devices.
It answers you on the channels you already use. It can speak and listen on macOS/iOS/Android, and can render a live Canvas you control. The Gateway is just the control plane — the product is the assistant.
If you want a personal, single-user assistant that feels local, fast, and always-on, this is it.
Supported channels include: WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, IRC, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, Feishu, LINE, Mattermost, Nextcloud Talk, Nostr, Synology Chat, Tlon, Twitch, Zalo, Zalo Personal, WeChat, QQ, WebChat.
Website · Docs · Vision · Third-party notices · DeepWiki · Getting Started · Updating · Showcase · FAQ · Onboarding · Nix · Docker · Discord
New install? Start here: Getting started
Preferred setup: run openclaw onboard in your terminal.
OpenClaw Onboard guides you step by step through setting up the gateway, workspace, channels, and skills. It is the recommended CLI setup path and works on macOS, Linux, and Windows (via WSL2; strongly recommended).
Works with npm, pnpm, or bun.
Sponsors
Subscriptions (OAuth):
- OpenAI (ChatGPT/Codex)
Model note: while many providers and models are supported, prefer a current flagship model from the provider you trust and already use. See Onboarding.
Install (recommended)
Runtime: Node 24 (recommended) or Node 22.19+.
npm install -g openclaw@latest
# or: pnpm add -g openclaw@latest
openclaw onboard --install-daemonOpenClaw Onboard installs the Gateway daemon (launchd/systemd user service) so it stays running.
Quick start (TL;DR)
Runtime: Node 24 (recommended) or Node 22.19+.
Full beginner guide (auth, pairing, channels): Getting started
Recommended daemon mode:
openclaw onboard --install-daemon
openclaw gateway statusForeground/debug mode:
openclaw gateway stop
openclaw gateway --port 18789 --verboseSend a test message or ask the assistant after either startup mode is running:
# Send a message
openclaw message send --target +1234567890 --message "Hello from OpenClaw"
# Talk to the assistant (optionally deliver back to any connected channel: WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/Discord/Google Chat/Signal/iMessage/IRC/Microsoft Teams/Matrix/Feishu/LINE/Mattermost/Nextcloud Talk/Nostr/Synology Chat/Tlon/Twitch/Zalo/Zalo Personal/WeChat/QQ/WebChat)
openclaw agent --message "Ship checklist" --thinking highUpgrading? Updating guide (and run openclaw doctor).
Models config + CLI: Models. Auth profile rotation + fallbacks: Model failover.
Security defaults (DM access)
OpenClaw connects to real messaging surfaces. Treat inbound DMs as untrusted input.
Full security guide: Security.
Before remote exposure, use the Gateway exposure runbook.
Default behavior on Telegram/WhatsApp/Signal/iMessage/Microsoft Teams/Discord/Google Chat/Slack:
- DM pairing (
dmPolicy="pairing"/channels.discord.dmPolicy="pairing"/channels.slack.dmPolicy="pairing"; legacy:channels.discord.dm.policy,channels.slack.dm.policy): unknown senders receive a short pairing code and the bot does not process their message. - Approve with:
openclaw pairing approve <channel> <code>(then the sender is added to a local allowlist store). - Public inbound DMs require an explicit opt-in: set
dmPolicy="open"and include"*"in the channel allowlist (allowFrom/channels.discord.allowFrom/channels.slack.allowFrom; legacy:channels.discord.dm.allowFrom,channels.slack.dm.allowFrom).
Run openclaw doctor to surface risky/misconfigured DM policies.
Highlights
- Local-first Gateway — single control plane for sessions, channels, tools, and events.
- Multi-channel inbox — WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, IRC, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, Feishu, LINE, Mattermost, Nextcloud Talk, Nostr, Synology Chat, Tlon, Twitch, Zalo, Zalo Personal, WeChat, QQ, WebChat, macOS, iOS/Android.
- Multi-agent routing — route inbound channels/accounts/peers to isolated agents (workspaces + per-agent sessions).
- Voice Wake + Talk Mode — wake words on macOS/iOS and continuous voice on Android (ElevenLabs + system TTS fallback).
- Live Canvas — agent-driven visual workspace with A2UI.
- First-class tools — browser, canvas, nodes, cron, sessions, and Discord/Slack actions.
- Companion apps — macOS menu bar app + iOS/Android nodes.
- Onboarding + skills — onboarding-driven setup with bundled/managed/workspace skills.
Security model (important)
- Default: tools run on the host for the
mainsession, so the agent has full access when it is just you. - Group/channel safety: set
agents.defaults.sandbox.mode: "non-main"to run non-mainsessions inside sandboxes. Docker is the default sandbox backend; SSH and OpenShell backends are also available. - Typical sandbox default: allow
bash,process,read,write,edit,sessions_list,sessions_history,sessions_send,sessions_spawn; denybrowser,canvas,nodes,cron,discord,gateway. - Before exposing anything remotely, read Security, Gateway exposure runbook, Sandboxing, and Configuration.
Operator quick refs
- Chat commands:
/status,/new,/reset,/compact,/think <level>,/verbose on|off,/trace on|off,/usage off|tokens|full,/restart,/activation mention|always - Session tools:
sessions_list,sessions_history,sessions_send - Skills registry: ClawHub
- Architecture overview: Architecture
Docs by goal
- New here: Getting started, Onboarding, Updating
- Channel setup: Channels index, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack
- Apps + nodes: macOS, iOS, Android, Nodes
- Config + security: Configuration, Security, Exposure runbook, Sandboxing
- Remote + web: Gateway, Remote access, Tailscale, Web surfaces
- Tools + automation: Tools, Skills, Cron jobs, Webhooks, Gmail Pub/Sub
- Internals: Architecture, Agent, Session model, Gateway protocol
- Troubleshooting: Channel troubleshooting, Logging, Docs home
Apps (optional)
The Gateway alone delivers a great experience. All apps are optional and add extra features.
If you plan to build/run companion apps, follow the platform runbooks below.
macOS (OpenClaw.app) (optional)
- Menu bar control for the Gateway and health.
- Voice Wake + push-to-talk overlay.
- WebChat + debug tools.
- Remote gateway control over SSH.
Note: signed builds required for macOS permissions to stick across rebuilds (see macOS Permissions).
iOS node (optional)
- Pairs as a node over the Gateway WebSocket (device pairing).
- Voice trigger forwarding + Canvas surface.
- Controlled via
openclaw nodes ….
Runbook: iOS connect.
Android node (optional)
- Pairs as a WS node via device pairing (
openclaw devices ...). - Exposes Connect/Chat/Voice tabs plus Canvas, Camera, Screen capture, and Android device command families.
- Runbook: Android connect.
From source (development)
Use pnpm for source checkouts. The repository is a pnpm workspace, and bundled
plugins load from extensions/* during development so their package-local
dependencies and your edits are used directly. Plain npm install at the repo
root is not a supported source setup.
For the dev loop:
git clone https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.git
cd openclaw
pnpm install
# First run only (or after resetting local OpenClaw config/workspace)
pnpm openclaw setup
# Optional: prebuild Control UI before first startup
pnpm ui:build
# Dev loop (auto-reload on source/config changes)
pnpm gateway:watchIf you need a built dist/ from the checkout (for Node, packaging, or release validation), run:
pnpm build
pnpm ui:buildpnpm openclaw setup writes the local config/workspace needed for pnpm gateway:watch. It is safe to re-run, but you normally only need it on first setup or after resetting local state. pnpm gateway:watch does not rebuild dist/control-ui, so rerun pnpm ui:build after ui/ changes or use pnpm ui:dev when iterating on the Control UI. If you want this checkout to run onboarding directly, use pnpm openclaw onboard --install-daemon.
Note: pnpm openclaw ... runs TypeScript directly (via tsx). pnpm build produces dist/ for running via Node / the packaged openclaw binary, while pnpm gateway:watch rebuilds the runtime on demand during the dev loop.
Development channels
- stable: tagged releases (
vYYYY.M.DorvYYYY.M.D-<patch>), npm dist-taglatest. - beta: prerelease tags (
vYYYY.M.D-beta.N), npm dist-tagbeta(macOS app may be missing). - dev: moving head of
main, npm dist-tagdev(when published).
Switch channels (git + npm): openclaw update --channel stable|beta|dev.
Details: Development channels.
Agent workspace + skills
- Workspace root:
~/.openclaw/workspace(configurable viaagents.defaults.workspace). - Injected prompt files:
AGENTS.md,SOUL.md,TOOLS.md. - Skills:
~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md.
Configuration
Minimal ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json (model + defaults):
{
agent: {
model: "<provider>/<model-id>",
},
}Full configuration reference (all keys + examples).
Star History
Molty
OpenClaw was built for Molty, a space lobster AI assistant. 🦞
by Peter Steinberger and the community.
Community
See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines, maintainers, and how to submit PRs.
AI/vibe-coded PRs welcome! 🤖
Special thanks to Mario Zechner for his support and for
pi-mono.
Special thanks to Adam Doppelt for the lobster.bot domain.
Thanks to all clawtributors:
![github-actions[bot]](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/15368?v=4&s=48)
![clawdinator[bot]](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/2607181?v=4&s=48)
![google-labs-jules[bot]](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/842251?v=4&s=48)
