Openclaw Genie

Use when the user asks about OpenClaw — installation, configuration, agents, channels, memory, tools, hooks, skills, deployment, Docker, multi-agent, OAuth,...

Security Scan

This is an instruction-only documentation skill about OpenClaw whose files and runtime instructions align with its stated purpose and do not request extra credentials or install code.

Purpose & Capability

Name/description match the content: the skill is a large reference and quick-start for OpenClaw (installation, config, channels, memory, tools, deployment, etc.). It does not declare unrelated env vars, binaries, or install steps beyond documenting how to install OpenClaw itself, which is coherent with the skill's purpose.

Instruction Scope

SKILL.md is documentation and contains many example CLI commands, file paths (e.g., ~/.openclaw/*), and config snippets. The document does not itself instruct the agent to read or exfiltrate host secrets, but it does reference secrets and config locations (env files, token storage). Because skills are injected into prompts, an agent using this skill could legitimately suggest running commands or reading local files as part of troubleshooting — this is consistent with the purpose but worth noting for privacy/security.

Install Mechanism

No install spec and no code files to execute; the skill is instruction-only (Markdown). There is no third-party download or extraction step performed by the skill itself.

Credentials

The skill documents many OpenClaw-related environment variables and secret handling patterns (e.g., API keys, OPENCLAW_HOME), but the skill does not require or request any environment variables or credentials to be provided to the platform. The referenced secrets are appropriate for an OpenClaw guide.

Persistence & Privilege

Flags are default: always:false, user-invocable:true, disable-model-invocation:false. There is no indication the skill will persist configuration or modify other skills; it's a read-only documentation skill and thus does not request elevated persistence privileges.

Assessment

This skill is a documentation/reference pack for OpenClaw and appears coherent with that purpose. It does contain example install commands (e.g., curl | bash) and references to local config paths and secret handling. Before installing or enabling it for autonomous use, consider: (1) only enable it if you want an agent that may recommend running local commands or reading OpenClaw config files; (2) if you are cautious about agents accessing local files or secrets, keep autonomous invocation disabled or restrict the agent's tool permissions; (3) verify any commands it suggests (especially one-liner installers) before running them on your machine.

OpenClaw is a self-hosted personal AI agent gateway (MIT license, open source). It connects LLM agents to 22+ messaging platforms natively (WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Signal, iMessage, MS Teams, Matrix, and more) with 50+ integrations (Gmail, GitHub, Obsidian, Spotify, and more) through a single Gateway process. All data stays local.

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Quick Start

# One-liner install (macOS/Linux, requires Node 22+)
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

# Or via npm
npm install -g openclaw@latest

# Interactive setup — gateway, workspace, channels, skills
openclaw onboard --install-daemon

# Verify
openclaw status
openclaw gateway status

Web Control UI: http://127.0.0.1:18789/

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Core Architecture

Channels (WhatsApp, Discord, Telegram, Slack, Signal, …)
        ↓
    Gateway  ← WebSocket control plane (port 18789), single source of truth
        ↓
    Agents   ← isolated workspaces, sessions, memory, tools
        ↓
    Tools    ← exec, browser, skills, hooks, messaging, sub-agents
        ↓
    Nodes    ← companion devices (macOS/iOS/Android): camera, canvas, screen

• Gateway: Multiplexed port (WebSocket + HTTP + Control UI). Hot-reloads config.
• Agents: Fully isolated — own workspace, session store, memory, auth profiles, sandbox.
• Channels: 22+ native adapters run simultaneously. Deterministic routing: replies return to origin.
• Nodes: Paired companion devices that expose canvas.*, camera.*, screen.*, device.*, notifications.* via node.invoke.
• Sessions: Key format agent:<agentId>:<channel>:<scope>:<chatId>. DM scopes: main, per-peer, per-channel-peer, per-account-channel-peer.

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Agent Configuration

Workspace files in ~/.openclaw/workspace/ (default agent) or ~/.openclaw/workspace-<agentId>/:

File	Purpose
SOUL.md	Agent personality and system prompt
IDENTITY.md	Name, emoji, avatar
USER.md	User profile information
MEMORY.md	Curated long-term memory
memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md	Daily append-only session logs
TOOLS.md	Tool usage guidance
BOOTSTRAP.md	One-time init tasks (deleted after first run)
HEARTBEAT.md	Periodic check-in instructions

Bootstrap injection: IDENTITY → SOUL → USER → MEMORY → daily log → skills → session. Limits: 20,000 chars/file, 150,000 chars total (configurable).

Multi-agent config uses agents.list[] and bindings[] in openclaw.json (see references/multi-agent.md).

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Configuration — openclaw.json

Location: ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json (JSON5 — comments and trailing commas OK).

{
  "models": {           // primary, fallbacks, aliases, image model
    "primary": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5",
    "fallbacks": ["openai/gpt-4o"]
  },
  "channels": { },      // discord, telegram, whatsapp, slack, signal, …
  "agents": { },        // list, defaults, bindings, broadcast, subagents
  "tools": { },         // profiles, allow/deny, loop detection, exec config
  "skills": { },        // entries, load dirs, install manager
  "browser": { },       // profiles, SSRF policy, executable path
  "sandbox": { },       // mode (off/non-main/all), scope, Docker hardening
  "gateway": { },       // port, auth, discovery, binding
  "automation": { },    // cron, webhooks, heartbeat
  "hooks": { },         // internal hooks config
  "session": { },       // dmScope, resets, sendPolicy, maintenance
  "auth": { }           // OAuth profiles, key rotation, order
}

• Env vars: ~/.openclaw/.env, ${VAR} substitution in config strings.
• $include: Nested file inclusion (up to 10 levels).
• Hot reload: hybrid mode (default) — safe changes hot-apply, critical ones auto-restart. Debounce 300ms.
• Strict validation: Unknown keys prevent Gateway startup.

For full reference, read references/configuration.md.

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Channels Quick Reference

Channel	Setup	Notes
Discord	openclaw channels add discord	Bot API + Gateway; servers, DMs, threads, slash commands, voice
Telegram	openclaw channels add telegram	grammY; groups, forums, inline buttons, webhook mode
WhatsApp	openclaw channels add whatsapp	Baileys; QR pairing, media, polls
Slack	openclaw channels add slack	Bolt SDK; socket or HTTP mode, native streaming
Signal	openclaw channels add signal	signal-cli; privacy-focused, auto-daemon
iMessage	openclaw channels add bluebubbles	BlueBubbles; reactions, edits, groups
Google Chat	openclaw channels add googlechat	HTTP webhook app
IRC	openclaw channels add irc	NickServ, channels + DMs
MS Teams	openclaw plugins install @openclaw/msteams	Adaptive Cards, polls
Matrix	openclaw plugins install @openclaw/matrix	E2EE, threads, rooms
Mattermost	openclaw plugins install @openclaw/mattermost	Self-hosted
Nextcloud Talk	openclaw plugins install @openclaw/nextcloud-talk	Self-hosted
WebChat	Built-in web UI	Browser-based access at gateway URL

Access control: DM policy (pairing/allowlist/open/disabled), group policy, mention gating. Multi-account per channel supported.

For per-channel details, read references/channels.md.

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Memory System

• Daily logs: memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md — today + yesterday loaded at session start
• Long-term: MEMORY.md — curated facts, decisions, preferences (private sessions only)
• Tools: memory_search (vector recall, ~400-token chunks) and memory_get (file reads)
• Hybrid search: BM25 (exact tokens) + vector (semantic) with configurable weights
• Post-processing: MMR deduplication (lambda 0.7) + temporal decay (30-day half-life)
• Providers: auto-selects local → OpenAI → Gemini → Voyage → Mistral
• QMD backend: Optional local-first sidecar (BM25 + vectors + reranking)
• Auto flush: Silent agentic turn before context compaction preserves important memories

For full memory config, read references/memory.md.

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Tools Overview

Tool	Purpose
exec	Shell commands (sandbox/gateway/node hosts)
process	Background process management
browser	Chromium automation (navigate, click, type, screenshot)
web_search	Brave Search API queries
web_fetch	URL → markdown extraction
memory_search	Semantic vector search over memory
memory_get	Direct memory file reads
message	Cross-channel messaging (send, react, thread, pin, poll)
sessions_spawn	Sub-agent runs (one-shot or persistent, up to depth 5)
canvas	Node Canvas UI (HTML display on connected devices)
nodes	Paired device control: camera snap/clip, screen record, notifications, canvas A2UI
pdf	Native PDF analysis (up to 10 PDFs, Anthropic/Google native mode, extraction fallback)

Access control: Profiles (minimal, coding, messaging, full), allow/deny lists, tool groups (group:fs, group:runtime, group:sessions, group:web, group:ui, group:automation). Default profile (since v2026.3.2): onboarding defaults to messaging (not coding).

For full tools, skills, and hooks reference, read references/tools.md.

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Hooks & Automation

Hooks — event-driven TypeScript handlers in <workspace>/hooks/:

Event	Trigger
command:new/reset/stop	Session lifecycle
agent:bootstrap	Pre-injection (can mutate bootstrap files)
gateway:startup	After channels load
message:received/sent	Message lifecycle
tool_result_persist	Synchronous tool result transform

Automation — built into Gateway:

• Cron: Scheduled jobs (cron expressions, intervals, one-shot). Isolated or main-session.
• Webhooks: /hooks/wake (system events), /hooks/agent (isolated turns), custom mapped endpoints.
• Heartbeat: Periodic check-ins (default 30min), batches multiple checks per turn.

Voice — macOS/iOS wake word + talk mode overlay; continuous voice on Android with ElevenLabs or system TTS; OpenAI-compatible STT endpoint (messages.tts.openai.baseUrl).

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Deployment Options

# Local service (default)
openclaw gateway install && openclaw gateway start

# One-liner Docker
./docker-setup.sh

# Manual Docker
docker build -t openclaw:local -f Dockerfile .
docker compose up -d openclaw-gateway

Cloud: Fly.io, Railway, Render, GCP, Hetzner, Cloudflare Workers, Ansible. Sandbox: Docker isolation for untrusted sessions. Modes: off, non-main, all. Scopes: session, agent, shared. Remote access: Tailscale/VPN preferred, SSH tunnel fallback.

For full deployment guide, read references/deployment.md.

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CLI Essentials

Command	Purpose
openclaw onboard	Interactive first-time setup
openclaw gateway start/stop/status	Service management
openclaw channels add/list/status/login	Channel management
openclaw models list/set/auth/scan	Model config + auth
openclaw skills list/info/check	Skill management
openclaw hooks list/enable/disable/install	Hook management
openclaw agent --message "..."	Single agent turn
openclaw agents list/add/delete	Multi-agent management
openclaw sessions	List/manage sessions
openclaw browser	Browser control (50+ subcommands)
openclaw cron list/add/run	Scheduled jobs
openclaw nodes status	List paired companion nodes
openclaw devices list/approve	Manage device pairing requests
openclaw config get/set/unset/validate	Config helpers (validate checks file before startup)
openclaw doctor [--fix]	Health checks + auto-repair
openclaw security audit [--deep]	Security audit
openclaw logs [--follow]	Tail gateway logs
openclaw memory search "query"	Vector search
openclaw dns setup	CoreDNS + Tailscale discovery
openclaw tui	Terminal UI

Global flags: --dev, --profile <name>, --json, --no-color

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When to Read Reference Files

If you need…	Read
Full openclaw.json, model providers, env vars, auth, OAuth	references/configuration.md
Per-channel setup, routing, access control, streaming, multi-account	references/channels.md
Memory files, vector search, QMD, embeddings, hybrid search	references/memory.md
Exec, browser, skills, hooks, tool access, sub-agents, nodes	references/tools.md
Docker, cloud deploy, sandboxing, native install, security	references/deployment.md
Multi-agent config, bindings, broadcast, sub-agents, workspaces	references/multi-agent.md