🦞 OpenClaw — Personal AI Assistant

EXFOLIATE! EXFOLIATE!

---

📚 Enhanced Documentation Fork

This is a fork of openclaw/openclaw enhanced with comprehensive, self-contained documentation for users and developers at all skill levels.

Documentation Statistics

Category	Files	Lines	Description
Tutorials	55	48,279	Beginner to intermediate guides
Advanced Tutorials	77	43,806	Developer and expert content
Quick Start Guides	4	2,774	QUICKSTART, DEVELOPER_GUIDE, USER_GUIDE, CLAUDE.md
Total Added	136	94,859	Complete self-contained documentation

Coverage by Skill Level

🟢 Beginners (No Experience Required)

• What is AI? - Complete introduction to AI assistants for those with zero background
• Step-by-step Installation - Detailed guides for Windows, macOS, and Linux with screenshots descriptions
• First Conversations - How to send your first message and understand responses
• Plain English Explanations - No jargon, every term explained, glossary included

🟡 Intermediate Users

• 11 Messaging Channels - Complete setup guides for Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, Slack, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, and more
• Conversation Mastery - Context management, thinking modes, effective prompting
• Automation & Scheduling - Cron jobs, webhooks, email triggers with 20+ practical examples
• Skills & Customization - Creating, managing, and using 60+ built-in skills
• Tools & Capabilities - Browser automation, canvas, media processing, system commands

🔴 Advanced Users & Developers

• Architecture Deep Dives - System overview, message flow, component interactions, data models
• Gateway Internals - WebSocket protocol, session resolution, routing engine, authentication
• Channel Development - Building custom channel integrations from scratch
• Plugin Development - Creating plugins for channels, tools, services, and providers
• Security Hardening - Threat models, authentication modes, execution controls, secrets management
• Performance Optimization - Profiling, context windows, memory management, concurrency
• Testing Strategies - Unit, integration, E2E, live testing, mocking, coverage analysis
• Deployment Operations - Daemon management, TLS, monitoring, cloud deployment (AWS, GCP, Azure, Fly.io)
• AI Engineering - Prompt engineering, model selection, safety guardrails, cost optimization

Documentation Structure

📁 Root Documentation
├── QUICKSTART.md          # 12 hands-on use cases for quick wins
├── USER_GUIDE.md          # Non-technical user documentation
├── DEVELOPER_GUIDE.md     # Full developer tutorial (C/C++/Java → TypeScript)
└── CLAUDE.md              # AI assistant guidance

📁 tutorials/              # 55 files - Beginner to Intermediate
├── 00-orientation/        # Welcome, learning paths, prerequisites
├── 01-getting-started/    # Installation, first steps, gateway basics
├── 02-messaging-channels/ # Complete guides for all 11 channels
├── 03-conversations-sessions/ # Context, thinking, prompting
├── 04-automation-scheduling/  # Cron, webhooks, email triggers
├── 05-skills-customization/   # Creating and managing skills
├── 06-tools-capabilities/     # Browser, canvas, media, system
└── 07-troubleshooting-mastery/ # Diagnostics, 50+ solutions

📁 advanced-tutorials/     # 77 files - Developer to Expert
├── 00-prerequisites/      # Development environment setup
├── 01-architecture-deep-dives/ # System internals
├── 02-gateway-internals/  # WebSocket, routing, auth
├── 03-channel-development/ # Building custom channels
├── 04-plugin-development/ # Plugin architecture
├── 05-security-hardening/ # Security model, hardening
├── 06-performance-optimization/ # Profiling, tuning
├── 07-testing-strategies/ # Complete testing guide
├── 08-deployment-operations/ # Production deployment
├── 09-ai-engineering/     # Prompts, models, safety
├── 10-advanced-workflows/ # Multi-agent, enterprise
└── 11-reference/          # Config schema, API docs

Why This Fork?

The original OpenClaw repository has excellent code but relies on external Mintlify-hosted documentation. This fork adds:

• Self-contained docs - Everything you need is in the repository, no internet required
• Beginner-friendly - Written for people with NO prior AI or messaging bot experience
• Step-by-step guidance - Hand-holding tutorials that don't skip any steps
• Developer onboarding - Bridge from C/C++/Java backgrounds to modern TypeScript
• No technical debt - Future developers can onboard without external help

Quick Links

I want to...	Start here
Get started quickly	QUICKSTART.md
Learn as a non-technical user	USER_GUIDE.md
Develop/contribute	DEVELOPER_GUIDE.md
Follow structured tutorials	tutorials/README.md
Deep dive into internals	advanced-tutorials/README.md

---

OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant you run on your own devices. It answers you on the channels you already use (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, WebChat), plus extension channels like BlueBubbles, Matrix, Zalo, and Zalo Personal. 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.

Website · Docs · DeepWiki · Getting Started · Updating · Showcase · FAQ · Wizard · Nix · Docker · Discord

Preferred setup: run the onboarding wizard (openclaw onboard). It walks through gateway, workspace, channels, and skills. The CLI wizard is the recommended path and works on macOS, Linux, and Windows (via WSL2; strongly recommended). Works with npm, pnpm, or bun. New install? Start here: Getting started

Subscriptions (OAuth):

• Anthropic (Claude Pro/Max)
• OpenAI (ChatGPT/Codex)

Model note: while any model is supported, I strongly recommend Anthropic Pro/Max (100/200) + Opus 4.5 for long‑context strength and better prompt‑injection resistance. See Onboarding.

Models (selection + auth)

• Models config + CLI: Models
• Auth profile rotation (OAuth vs API keys) + fallbacks: Model failover

Install (recommended)

Runtime: Node ≥22.

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

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

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

Quick start (TL;DR)

Runtime: Node ≥22.

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/Microsoft Teams/Matrix/Zalo/Zalo Personal/WebChat)
openclaw agent --message "Ship checklist" --thinking high

Upgrading? Updating guide (and run openclaw doctor).

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.

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 TS changes)
pnpm gateway:watch

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

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.dm.policy="pairing" / channels.slack.dm.policy="pairing"): 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.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, BlueBubbles, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, Zalo, Zalo Personal, WebChat, macOS, iOS/Android.
• Multi-agent routing — route inbound channels/accounts/peers to isolated agents (workspaces + per-agent sessions).
• Voice Wake + Talk Mode — always-on speech for macOS/iOS/Android with ElevenLabs.
• 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 — wizard-driven setup with bundled/managed/workspace skills.

Star History

Everything we built so far

Core platform

• Gateway WS control plane with sessions, presence, config, cron, webhooks, Control UI, and Canvas host.
• CLI surface: gateway, agent, send, wizard, and doctor.
• Pi agent runtime in RPC mode with tool streaming and block streaming.
• Session model: main for direct chats, group isolation, activation modes, queue modes, reply-back. Group rules: Groups.
• Media pipeline: images/audio/video, transcription hooks, size caps, temp file lifecycle. Audio details: Audio.

Channels

• Channels: WhatsApp (Baileys), Telegram (grammY), Slack (Bolt), Discord (discord.js), Google Chat (Chat API), Signal (signal-cli), iMessage (imsg), BlueBubbles (extension), Microsoft Teams (extension), Matrix (extension), Zalo (extension), Zalo Personal (extension), WebChat.
• Group routing: mention gating, reply tags, per-channel chunking and routing. Channel rules: Channels.

Apps + nodes

• macOS app: menu bar control plane, Voice Wake/PTT, Talk Mode overlay, WebChat, debug tools, remote gateway control.
• iOS node: Canvas, Voice Wake, Talk Mode, camera, screen recording, Bonjour pairing.
• Android node: Canvas, Talk Mode, camera, screen recording, optional SMS.
• macOS node mode: system.run/notify + canvas/camera exposure.

Tools + automation

• Browser control: dedicated openclaw Chrome/Chromium, snapshots, actions, uploads, profiles.
• Canvas: A2UI push/reset, eval, snapshot.
• Nodes: camera snap/clip, screen record, location.get, notifications.
• Cron + wakeups; webhooks; Gmail Pub/Sub.
• Skills platform: bundled, managed, and workspace skills with install gating + UI.

Runtime + safety

• Channel routing, retry policy, and streaming/chunking.
• Presence, typing indicators, and usage tracking.
• Models, model failover, and session pruning.
• Security and troubleshooting.

Ops + packaging

• Control UI + WebChat served directly from the Gateway.
• Tailscale Serve/Funnel or SSH tunnels with token/password auth.
• Nix mode for declarative config; Docker-based installs.
• Doctor migrations, logging.

How it works (short)

WhatsApp / Telegram / Slack / Discord / Google Chat / Signal / iMessage / BlueBubbles / Microsoft Teams / Matrix / Zalo / Zalo Personal / WebChat
               │
               ▼
┌───────────────────────────────┐
│            Gateway            │
│       (control plane)         │
│     ws://127.0.0.1:18789      │
└──────────────┬────────────────┘
               │
               ├─ Pi agent (RPC)
               ├─ CLI (openclaw …)
               ├─ WebChat UI
               ├─ macOS app
               └─ iOS / Android nodes

Key subsystems

• Gateway WebSocket network — single WS control plane for clients, tools, and events (plus ops: Gateway runbook).
• Tailscale exposure — Serve/Funnel for the Gateway dashboard + WS (remote access: Remote).
• Browser control — openclaw‑managed Chrome/Chromium with CDP control.
• Canvas + A2UI — agent‑driven visual workspace (A2UI host: Canvas/A2UI).
• Voice Wake + Talk Mode — always‑on speech and continuous conversation.
• Nodes — Canvas, camera snap/clip, screen record, location.get, notifications, plus macOS‑only system.run/system.notify.

Tailscale access (Gateway dashboard)

OpenClaw can auto-configure Tailscale Serve (tailnet-only) or Funnel (public) while the Gateway stays bound to loopback. Configure gateway.tailscale.mode:

• off: no Tailscale automation (default).
• serve: tailnet-only HTTPS via tailscale serve (uses Tailscale identity headers by default).
• funnel: public HTTPS via tailscale funnel (requires shared password auth).

Notes:

• gateway.bind must stay loopback when Serve/Funnel is enabled (OpenClaw enforces this).
• Serve can be forced to require a password by setting gateway.auth.mode: "password" or gateway.auth.allowTailscale: false.
• Funnel refuses to start unless gateway.auth.mode: "password" is set.
• Optional: gateway.tailscale.resetOnExit to undo Serve/Funnel on shutdown.

Details: Tailscale guide · Web surfaces

Remote Gateway (Linux is great)

It’s perfectly fine to run the Gateway on a small Linux instance. Clients (macOS app, CLI, WebChat) can connect over Tailscale Serve/Funnel or SSH tunnels, and you can still pair device nodes (macOS/iOS/Android) to execute device‑local actions when needed.

• Gateway host runs the exec tool and channel connections by default.
• Device nodes run device‑local actions (system.run, camera, screen recording, notifications) via node.invoke. In short: exec runs where the Gateway lives; device actions run where the device lives.

Details: Remote access · Nodes · Security

macOS permissions via the Gateway protocol

The macOS app can run in node mode and advertises its capabilities + permission map over the Gateway WebSocket (node.list / node.describe). Clients can then execute local actions via node.invoke:

• system.run runs a local command and returns stdout/stderr/exit code; set needsScreenRecording: true to require screen-recording permission (otherwise you’ll get PERMISSION_MISSING).
• system.notify posts a user notification and fails if notifications are denied.
• canvas.*, camera.*, screen.record, and location.get are also routed via node.invoke and follow TCC permission status.

Elevated bash (host permissions) is separate from macOS TCC:

• Use /elevated on|off to toggle per‑session elevated access when enabled + allowlisted.
• Gateway persists the per‑session toggle via sessions.patch (WS method) alongside thinkingLevel, verboseLevel, model, sendPolicy, and groupActivation.

Details: Nodes · macOS app · Gateway protocol

Agent to Agent (sessions_* tools)

• Use these to coordinate work across sessions without jumping between chat surfaces.
• sessions_list — discover active sessions (agents) and their metadata.
• sessions_history — fetch transcript logs for a session.
• sessions_send — message another session; optional reply‑back ping‑pong + announce step (REPLY_SKIP, ANNOUNCE_SKIP).

Details: Session tools

Skills registry (ClawHub)

ClawHub is a minimal skill registry. With ClawHub enabled, the agent can search for skills automatically and pull in new ones as needed.

ClawHub

Chat commands

Send these in WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/Google Chat/Microsoft Teams/WebChat (group commands are owner-only):

• /status — compact session status (model + tokens, cost when available)
• /new or /reset — reset the session
• /compact — compact session context (summary)
• /think <level> — off|minimal|low|medium|high|xhigh (GPT-5.2 + Codex models only)
• /verbose on|off
• /usage off|tokens|full — per-response usage footer
• /restart — restart the gateway (owner-only in groups)
• /activation mention|always — group activation toggle (groups only)

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 docs/mac/permissions.md).

iOS node (optional)

• Pairs as a node via the Bridge.
• Voice trigger forwarding + Canvas surface.
• Controlled via openclaw nodes ….

Runbook: iOS connect.

Android node (optional)

• Pairs via the same Bridge + pairing flow as iOS.
• Exposes Canvas, Camera, and Screen capture commands.
• Runbook: Android connect.

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: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5",
  },
}

Full configuration reference (all keys + examples).

Security model (important)

• Default: tools run on the host for the main session, so the agent has full access when it’s just you.
• Group/channel safety: set agents.defaults.sandbox.mode: "non-main" to run non‑main sessions (groups/channels) inside per‑session Docker sandboxes; bash then runs in Docker for those sessions.
• Sandbox defaults: allowlist bash, process, read, write, edit, sessions_list, sessions_history, sessions_send, sessions_spawn; denylist browser, canvas, nodes, cron, discord, gateway.

Details: Security guide · Docker + sandboxing · Sandbox config

WhatsApp

• Link the device: pnpm openclaw channels login (stores creds in ~/.openclaw/credentials).
• Allowlist who can talk to the assistant via channels.whatsapp.allowFrom.
• If channels.whatsapp.groups is set, it becomes a group allowlist; include "*" to allow all.

Telegram

• Set TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN or channels.telegram.botToken (env wins).
• Optional: set channels.telegram.groups (with channels.telegram.groups."*".requireMention); when set, it is a group allowlist (include "*" to allow all). Also channels.telegram.allowFrom or channels.telegram.webhookUrl as needed.

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      botToken: "123456:ABCDEF",
    },
  },
}

Slack

• Set SLACK_BOT_TOKEN + SLACK_APP_TOKEN (or channels.slack.botToken + channels.slack.appToken).

Discord

• Set DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN or channels.discord.token (env wins).
• Optional: set commands.native, commands.text, or commands.useAccessGroups, plus channels.discord.dm.allowFrom, channels.discord.guilds, or channels.discord.mediaMaxMb as needed.

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      token: "1234abcd",
    },
  },
}

Signal

• Requires signal-cli and a channels.signal config section.

iMessage

• macOS only; Messages must be signed in.
• If channels.imessage.groups is set, it becomes a group allowlist; include "*" to allow all.

Microsoft Teams

• Configure a Teams app + Bot Framework, then add a msteams config section.
• Allowlist who can talk via msteams.allowFrom; group access via msteams.groupAllowFrom or msteams.groupPolicy: "open".

WebChat

• Uses the Gateway WebSocket; no separate WebChat port/config.

Browser control (optional):

{
  browser: {
    enabled: true,
    color: "#FF4500",
  },
}

Docs

Use these when you’re past the onboarding flow and want the deeper reference.

• Start with the docs index for navigation and “what’s where.”
• Read the architecture overview for the gateway + protocol model.
• Use the full configuration reference when you need every key and example.
• Run the Gateway by the book with the operational runbook.
• Learn how the Control UI/Web surfaces work and how to expose them safely.
• Understand remote access over SSH tunnels or tailnets.
• Follow the onboarding wizard flow for a guided setup.
• Wire external triggers via the webhook surface.
• Set up Gmail Pub/Sub triggers.
• Learn the macOS menu bar companion details.
• Platform guides: Windows (WSL2), Linux, macOS, iOS, Android
• Debug common failures with the troubleshooting guide.
• Review security guidance before exposing anything.

Advanced docs (discovery + control)

• Discovery + transports
• Bonjour/mDNS
• Gateway pairing
• Remote gateway README
• Control UI
• Dashboard

Operations & troubleshooting

• Health checks
• Gateway lock
• Background process
• Browser troubleshooting (Linux)
• Logging

Deep dives

• Agent loop
• Presence
• TypeBox schemas
• RPC adapters
• Queue

Workspace & skills

• Skills config
• Default AGENTS
• Templates: AGENTS
• Templates: BOOTSTRAP
• Templates: IDENTITY
• Templates: SOUL
• Templates: TOOLS
• Templates: USER

Platform internals

• macOS dev setup
• macOS menu bar
• macOS voice wake
• iOS node
• Android node
• Windows (WSL2)
• Linux app

Email hooks (Gmail)

• docs.openclaw.ai/gmail-pubsub

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 lobster.bot.

Thanks to all clawtributors: