openclaw approvals

Manage exec approvals for the local host, gateway host, or a node host. With no target flag, commands read/write the local approvals document in shared SQLite state. Use --gateway to target the gateway, or --node <id|name|ip> to target a specific node.

Alias: openclaw exec-approvals

Related: Exec approvals, Nodes

openclaw exec-policy

openclaw exec-policy is the local-only convenience command that keeps requested tools.exec.* config and the local host approvals document in sync in one step:

openclaw exec-policy showopenclaw exec-policy show --json openclaw exec-policy preset yoloopenclaw exec-policy preset cautious --json openclaw exec-policy set --host gateway --security full --ask off --ask-fallback full

Presets (yolo, cautious, deny-all) apply host, security, ask, and askFallback together. set applies only the flags you pass; each accepted value is validated (--host auto|sandbox|gateway|node, --security deny|allowlist|full, --ask off|on-miss|always, --ask-fallback deny|allowlist|full).

Scope:

• Updates the local config file and local approvals document together; does not push policy to the gateway or a node host.
• --host node is rejected: node exec approvals are fetched from the node at runtime, so local exec-policy cannot synchronize them. Use openclaw approvals set --node <id|name|ip> instead.
• exec-policy show marks host=node scopes as node-managed at runtime instead of deriving an effective policy from the local approvals document.

For remote host approvals, use openclaw approvals set --gateway or openclaw approvals set --node <id|name|ip> directly.

Common commands

openclaw approvals getopenclaw approvals get --node <id|name|ip>openclaw approvals get --gatewayopenclaw approvals pendingopenclaw approvals resolve <id> <allow-once|allow-always|deny>

get shows the effective exec policy for the target: the requested tools.exec policy, the host approvals-file policy, and the merged effective result. Nodes with a host-native policy, such as the Windows companion, show that policy directly instead of applying OpenClaw approvals-file policy math.

For file-backed nodes, the merged view requires a host-resolved policy snapshot. Older nodes show the effective policy as unavailable instead of assuming the Gateway's requested policy also applies on the host.

Precedence:

• The host approvals document is the enforceable source of truth.
• Requested tools.exec policy can narrow or broaden intent, but the effective result is derived from host rules.
• --node combines the node host approvals document with gateway tools.exec policy (both apply at runtime).
• If gateway config is unavailable, the CLI falls back to the node approvals snapshot and notes that the final runtime policy could not be computed.

Pending approvals

List pending exec, plugin, and OpenClaw system-agent approvals from the Gateway:

openclaw approvals pendingopenclaw approvals pending --json

Complete enumeration and the matching operator-wide resolve flow use operator.admin because approval records otherwise retain requester/reviewer filtering. Resolution also requests the dedicated operator.approvals scope. The standard CLI operator grant includes both scopes; a restricted third-party client should not request admin merely to emulate this command.

Human output shows the approval kind, agent/session attribution, request age, time until expiry, a shortened command or summary, and a shell-neutral id64_<base64url> id token. A Full request text block always follows the compact table with every complete token and a losslessly escaped request, so terminal-width shortening cannot hide a suffix or the token needed for resolution. Copy the complete token into resolve. Unsafe terminal characters in other fields are shown as visible Unicode escapes. JSON output returns normalized entries under approvals, preserving the original raw id, summary, createdAtMs, and expiresAtMs for scripts; raw ids remain accepted by resolve unless they use the reserved id64_ display-token prefix.

If a supplied id64_ value matches both a literal raw id and the decoded display token for another approval, the CLI rejects it as ambiguous instead of risking resolution of the wrong request.

Resolve one approval by its full id:

openclaw approvals resolve <id> allow-onceopenclaw approvals resolve <id> allow-alwaysopenclaw approvals resolve <id> deny --reason "Not expected during maintenance"

The CLI reads the unified approval record to select its kind, checks the requested decision against the record's allowed decisions, and then calls the unified resolver. A first successful decision exits 0. Repeating the recorded decision also exits 0 and reports already resolved (same decision). A conflicting decision, missing approval, expired approval, or decision unavailable for that approval kind prints a clear error and exits non-zero.

--reason adds a local note to the CLI confirmation. The current Gateway approval record has no free-text resolution-reason field, so this note is not persisted or sent to other approval surfaces.

Replace approvals from a file

openclaw approvals set --file ./exec-approvals.jsonopenclaw approvals set --stdin <<'EOF'{ version: 1, defaults: { security: "full", ask: "off", askFallback: "full" } }EOFopenclaw approvals set --node <id|name|ip> --file ./exec-approvals.jsonopenclaw approvals set --gateway --file ./exec-approvals.json

set accepts JSON5, not only strict JSON. Use either --file or --stdin, not both.

Host-native Windows nodes use their own policy shape:

openclaw approvals set --node <id|name|ip> --stdin <<'EOF'{  defaultAction: "deny",  rules: [{ pattern: "hostname", action: "allow" }]}EOF

The CLI reads the node's current hash first and sends it with the update, so concurrent local edits are rejected instead of overwritten. rules is required because this operation replaces the node's complete rule list; defaultAction is optional. A node that reports its native policy as disabled cannot be configured remotely; enable or configure the policy on that host first. Host-native policies do not support the allowlist add|remove helpers.

"Never prompt" / YOLO example

Set the host approvals defaults to full + off for a host that should never stop on exec approvals:

openclaw approvals set --stdin <<'EOF'{  version: 1,  defaults: {    security: "full",    ask: "off",    askFallback: "full"  }}EOF

For nodes that expose an OpenClaw approvals document, use the same body with openclaw approvals set --node <id|name|ip> --stdin. Host-native nodes require their owner-specific shape shown above.

This changes the host approvals document only. To keep the requested OpenClaw policy aligned, also set:

openclaw config set tools.exec.host gatewayopenclaw config set tools.exec.mode full

tools.exec.host=gateway is explicit here because host=auto still means "sandbox when available, otherwise gateway": YOLO is about approvals, not routing. Use gateway (or /exec host=gateway) when you want host exec even with a sandbox configured.

Omitted askFallback defaults to deny. Set askFallback: "full" explicitly when upgrading a no-UI host that should keep never-prompt behavior.

Local shortcut for the same intent, on the local machine only:

openclaw exec-policy preset yolo

Allowlist helpers

openclaw approvals allowlist add "~/Projects/**/bin/rg"openclaw approvals allowlist add --agent main --node <id|name|ip> "/usr/bin/uptime"openclaw approvals allowlist add --agent "*" "/usr/bin/uname" openclaw approvals allowlist remove "~/Projects/**/bin/rg"

Common options

get, set, and allowlist add|remove all support:

• --node <id|name|ip> (resolves id, name, IP, or id prefix; same resolver as openclaw nodes)
• --gateway
• shared node RPC options: --url, --token, --timeout, --json

No target flag means the local approvals row in the shared state database.

allowlist add|remove also supports --agent <id> (defaults to "*", applying to all agents).

pending and resolve always use the Gateway because pending requests are live Gateway state. They support the shared Gateway connection options --url, --token, and --timeout; pending also supports --json.

Notes

• The node host must advertise system.execApprovals.get/set (macOS app, headless node host, or Windows companion).
• Approvals are stored per host in $OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR/state/openclaw.sqlite#exec_approvals_config, or ~/.openclaw/state/openclaw.sqlite#exec_approvals_config when the variable is unset. The suffix identifies the singleton SQLite row.

Related

• CLI reference
• Exec approvals