Overview

OpenClaw

OpenClaw 🦞

OpenClaw

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

Any OS gateway for AI agents across Discord, Google Chat, iMessage, Matrix, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Zalo, and more.

Send a message, get an agent response from your pocket. Run one Gateway across channel plugins, WebChat, and mobile nodes.

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, release notes, and templates.

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 and power users who want a personal AI assistant they can message from anywhere — without giving up control of their data or relying on a hosted service.

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

What do you need? Node 24 (recommended), or Node 22 LTS (22.19+) for compatibility, 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 Canvas, camera, and voice-enabled workflows.

Quick start

Install OpenClaw

bash

npm install -g openclaw@latest

Onboard and install the service

bash

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

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"] } },}