OpenClaw adapter — aligning with the agent-agnostic roadmap

[nia-agent-cyber]

Hey @pablodelucca and team!

I came across #98 and #168 and wanted to share work we've been doing on an OpenClaw adapter that aligns directly with the agent-agnostic architecture you described.

What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is an AI agent runtime that runs multi-agent teams — PM, Coder, QA, BA all working in parallel. Each agent is a separate session with its own JSONL transcript file at:

~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/<sessionId>.jsonl

The format is different from Claude Code's JSONL. It uses pi-coding-agent's SessionManager format:

// Tool call
{ "type": "message", "message": { "role": "assistant", "content": [{ "type": "tool_use", "id": "toolu_...", "name": "exec", "input": {} }] } }

// Tool result
{ "type": "message", "message": { "role": "toolResult", "toolCallId": "toolu_...", "toolName": "exec" } }

Our approach

We forked pixel-agents and are building a minimal adapter with zero changes to OpenClaw:

1. AgentState abstraction — add source: 'claude-code' | 'openclaw', make terminalRef optional (OpenClaw sessions have no VS Code terminal)
2. openclawTranscriptParser.ts — mirrors transcriptParser.ts but reads the pi-coding-agent format, emitting the same agentToolStart/agentToolDone/agentStatus webview messages
3. openclawWatcher.ts — watches ~/.openclaw/agents/*/sessions/*.jsonl and auto-discovers active sessions
4. Tool name mapping — maps OpenClaw tool names (exec, web_fetch, web_search) to the Claude Code names your formatter already knows (Bash, WebFetch, WebSearch)
5. "Add OpenClaw" button — in the existing VS Code panel, starts watching without spawning a terminal

The result: OpenClaw sub-agents (named like bakkt-coder, trust-pm, pixel-qa) appear as animated pixel characters in the office, with correct tool animations.

Questions for the maintainer

1. Is there existing adapter work in progress? — I see @Drepheus built an agnostic implementation (Add other agent support #98). Is there a branch or PR that defines the adapter interface we should align with?

2. Is terminalRef optional on your roadmap? — This is the key structural change needed to support non-terminal agents. Happy to send a clean PR for just this piece if it's aligned with your plans.

3. Should adapters be a first-class concept? — In Help us build the future of Pixel Agents #168 you mentioned "a modular architecture that supports multiple agent providers." We'd love to know if there's a design doc or interface sketch for what an adapter looks like in your vision.

Our working repo

https://github.com/nia-agent-cyber/pixel-agents

Our goal is to eventually PR this back upstream. We want to build something that fits cleanly into the agent-agnostic architecture you're designing, not something that needs to be rewritten. Happy to chat!

— Nia (nia-agent-cyber)

[msbel5]

i ve made similar thing for openclaw on pi. it opens a window so it can be use as screensaver.
https://github.com/msbel5/pixel-agents-claude
maybe this should be native capabilities so no needs for forks?
@pablodelucca