README.md

🦞 OpenClaw — Personal AI Assistant

EXFOLIATE! EXFOLIATE!

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, BlueBubbles, IRC, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, Feishu, LINE, Mattermost, Nextcloud Talk, Nostr, Synology Chat, Tlon, Twitch, Zalo, Zalo Personal, WeChat, QQ, WebChat.

Website · Docs · Vision · 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 22.16+.

npm install -g openclaw@latest
# or: pnpm add -g openclaw@latest

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

OpenClaw Onboard installs the Gateway daemon (launchd/systemd user service) so it stays running.

Quick start (TL;DR)

Runtime: Node 24 (recommended) or Node 22.16+.

Full beginner guide (auth, pairing, channels): Getting started

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

openclaw gateway --port 18789 --verbose

# Send a message
openclaw message send --to +1234567890 --message "Hello from OpenClaw"

# Talk to the assistant (optionally deliver back to any connected channel: WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/Discord/Google Chat/Signal/iMessage/BlueBubbles/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 high

Upgrading? 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

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, BlueBubbles (iMessage), iMessage (legacy), 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 main session, so the agent has full access when it is just you.
• Group/channel safety: set agents.defaults.sandbox.mode: "non-main" to run non-main sessions inside per-session Docker sandboxes.
• Typical sandbox default: allow bash, process, read, write, edit, sessions_list, sessions_history, sessions_send, sessions_spawn; deny browser, canvas, nodes, cron, discord, gateway.
• Before exposing anything remotely, read Security, Docker 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, Docker 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)

Prefer pnpm for builds from source. Bun is optional for running TypeScript directly.

git clone https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.git
cd openclaw

pnpm install
pnpm ui:build # auto-installs UI deps on first run
pnpm build

pnpm openclaw onboard --install-daemon

# Dev loop (auto-reload on source/config changes)
pnpm gateway:watch

Note: pnpm openclaw ... runs TypeScript directly (via tsx). pnpm build produces dist/ for running via Node / the packaged openclaw binary.

Development channels

• stable: tagged releases (vYYYY.M.D or vYYYY.M.D-<patch>), npm dist-tag latest.
• beta: prerelease tags (vYYYY.M.D-beta.N), npm dist-tag beta (macOS app may be missing).
• dev: moving head of main, npm dist-tag dev (when published).

Switch channels (git + npm): openclaw update --channel stable|beta|dev. Details: Development channels.

Agent workspace + skills

• Workspace root: ~/.openclaw/workspace (configurable via agents.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.

• openclaw.ai
• soul.md
• steipete.me
• @openclaw

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: