Overview

OpenClaw

OpenClaw 🦞

OpenClaw

"EXFOLIATE! EXFOLIATE!" — A space lobster, probably

Your AI assistant, on your own hardware, in every chat app you already use.

One Gateway. Any model. Any device. No hosted service in the middle.

Developed in the open by the OpenClaw Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3). No paid tier, no telemetry by default beyond a version check you can turn off, no lab owns it.

Get Started

Install OpenClaw and bring up the Gateway in minutes.

Run Onboarding

Guided setup with openclaw onboard and pairing flows.

Connect a Channel

Link Discord, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, and more to chat from anywhere.

Open the Control UI

Launch the browser dashboard for chat, config, and sessions.

Browse docs

Mobile browsers may show the section menu without the full desktop tab bar. Use these hub links to reach the same top-level docs areas from the page body.

Get started

Overview, showcase, first steps, and setup guides.

Install

Install paths, updates, containers, hosting, and advanced setup.

Channels

Messaging channels, pairing, routing, access groups, and channel QA.

Agents

Architecture, sessions, context, memory, and multi-agent routing.

Capabilities

Tools, skills, cron, webhooks, and automation capabilities.

ClawHub

Plugin marketplace, publishing, curation, and trust guidance.

Models

Providers, model configuration, failover, and local model services.

Platforms

macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, nodes, and web surfaces.

Gateway & Ops

Gateway configuration, security, diagnostics, and operations.

Reference

CLI reference, schemas, RPC, and templates.

Releases

Release notes for each version, with highlights and source links.

Help

Troubleshooting, FAQs, testing, diagnostics, and environment checks.

What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is a self-hosted gateway that connects your favorite chat apps — Discord, Google Chat, iMessage, Matrix, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Zalo, and more via channel plugins — to AI coding agents. You run a single Gateway process on your own machine (or a server), and it becomes the bridge between your messaging apps and an always-available AI assistant.

Who is it for? Developers, power users, and teams who want an AI assistant they can message from anywhere — without giving up control of their data or relying on a hosted service. The same gateway runs as a personal assistant on one laptop or as a shared team deployment; configuration is the only difference.

What makes it different?

Self-hosted: runs on your hardware, your rules
Multi-channel: one Gateway serves every configured channel plugin simultaneously
Agent-native: built for coding agents with tool use, sessions, memory, and multi-agent routing
Open source: MIT licensed, community-driven

The full architecture case — a trusted gateway, untrusted execution, deterministic policy, and how one product spans personal and team use — is in Why OpenClaw.

What do you need? Node 26 (recommended), or another supported release: Node 24.16+ or Node 26.1+. You also need an API key from your chosen provider and 5 minutes. For best quality and security, use the strongest latest-generation model available.

How it works

flowchart LR
  A["Chat apps + plugins"] --> B["Gateway"]
  B --> C["OpenClaw agent"]
  B --> D["CLI"]
  B --> E["Web Control UI"]
  B --> F["macOS app"]
  B --> G["iOS and Android nodes"]

The Gateway is the single source of truth for sessions, routing, and channel connections.

Key capabilities

Multi-channel gateway

Discord, iMessage, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, WebChat, and more with a single Gateway process.

Plugin channels

Channel plugins add Matrix, Nostr, Twitch, Zalo, and more; official plugins install on demand.

Multi-agent routing

Isolated sessions per agent, workspace, or sender.

Media support

Send and receive images, audio, and documents.

Web Control UI

Browser dashboard for chat, config, sessions, and nodes.

Mobile nodes

Pair iOS and Android nodes for camera, screen, and voice-enabled workflows.

Skills

Teach the agent repeatable procedures it loads on demand.

Automation

Run work on a schedule with cron jobs, hooks, and webhooks.

Build plugins

Write your own channel, provider, and tool plugins against the plugin SDK.

Quick start

Install OpenClaw

macOS / Linux / WSL2

bash

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell)

powershell

iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex

The installer detects your OS, installs Node if needed, installs OpenClaw, and then starts onboarding. Other install methods (npm, pnpm, bun, Docker, Nix, from source) are on the Install page.

Complete onboarding

Onboarding offers Quick start and Custom setup. Quick start reuses detected AI access, verifies it with a real completion, and opens the web dashboard with a Gateway in the foreground. Custom setup walks the full guided flow. openclaw onboard --classic opens the classic step-by-step wizard instead.

Install the Gateway service

Quick start leaves the Gateway in the foreground. Press Ctrl+C, then install the background service:

bash

openclaw gateway install

Chat

Open the Control UI in your browser and send a message:

bash

openclaw dashboard

Or connect a channel (Telegram is fastest) and chat from your phone.

Need the full install and dev setup? See Getting Started.

Dashboard

Open the browser Control UI after the Gateway starts.

Local default: http://127.0.0.1:18789/
Remote access: Web surfaces and Tailscale

Configuration (optional)

Config lives at ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.

If you do nothing, OpenClaw uses the bundled OpenClaw agent runtime; DMs share the agent's main session, and each group chat gets its own session.
If you want to lock it down, start with channels.whatsapp.allowFrom and (for groups) mention rules.

Example:

json5

{  channels: {    whatsapp: {      allowFrom: ["+15555550123"],      groups: { "*": { requireMention: true } },    },  },  messages: { groupChat: { mentionPatterns: ["@openclaw"] } },}