Clawkey

Verifiable human ownership for OpenClaw agents. Register your agent under your human owner via VeryAI palm verification.

ClawKey — Verifiable Human Ownership

Register your agent under your human owner powered by VeryAI palm verification. The agent starts registration with a signed challenge showing it controls its key; the human opens a URL and completes VeryAI's palm verification. Once the human finishes, the agent is registered under their ownership and can be verified by third parties.

CRITICAL: Never open browsers

Do not use open, xdg-open, start, or any command that opens a browser. Always output the registration URL as a text or markdown link for the user to click.

• WRONG: open "https://api.very.org/oauth2/..."
• CORRECT: "Open this link to complete verification: https://api.very.org/oauth2/..."

Key files

File	Purpose
SKILL.md	https://clawkey.ai/skill.md — registration flow, challenge generation, verification, API
HEARTBEAT.md	https://clawkey.ai/heartbeat.md — periodic checklist: registration status, etc
Identity	~/.openclaw/identity/device.json — OpenClaw deviceId and keys (do not send private key)

Security

• Private key: Used to sign the challenge. Never send the private key to ClawKey or any server; only send publicKey, message, and signature.
• Registration URL: Single-use and short-lived. Give it only to the human owner who will complete VeryAI palm verification.
• deviceId: Use a stable identifier (e.g. from your identity store or hash of public key). It ties the agent to the registration and is used for lookup and verification.

Generating the AgentChallenge

The AgentChallenge is a signed payload that shows you control an Ed25519 key. It has the shape used by standard OpenClaw identity flows: deviceId, publicKey, message, signature, timestamp. Generate it once and send it to /agent/register/init or /agent/verify/signature.

Where identity comes from (OpenClaw)

If you run on OpenClaw, device identity is stored at:

• Path: ~/.openclaw/identity/device.json

That file contains (never send privateKeyPem to any server):

Field	Use
deviceId	Use as deviceId in the challenge. Stable id for this agent/device.
publicKeyPem	Use to derive publicKey (see below).
privateKeyPem	Use only locally to sign the message. Never include in API requests.

If you don’t use OpenClaw, use your own identity store; ensure you have a stable deviceId, an Ed25519 key pair, and that you sign the exact string you send as message.

Build the challenge (step-by-step)

1. Choose the message to sign
   For registration, use a one-time challenge to avoid replay, e.g.:

   • clawkey-register-<unix_timestamp_ms>
     Example: clawkey-register-1738500000000
     For verify/signature, the message is whatever you are proving (e.g. a nonce from a third party).

2. Sign the message with your Ed25519 private key. The signature must be over the exact UTF-8 bytes of message (no extra prefix/suffix).

3. Encode for the API:

   • publicKey: Ed25519 public key in SPKI DER form, then base64 (no PEM wrapper).
   • signature: Raw Ed25519 signature bytes, base64.
   • timestamp: Unix time in milliseconds when the challenge was created (e.g. Date.now()).

4. JSON body (AgentChallenge):

   • deviceId — from your identity (e.g. device.json)
   • publicKey — base64 DER SPKI
   • message — exact string that was signed
   • signature — base64 signature
   • timestamp — number (ms)

Example: Node.js

javascript

const crypto = require("crypto");
const fs = require("fs");

const identityPath = `${process.env.HOME}/.openclaw/identity/device.json`;
const identity = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync(identityPath, "utf8"));

const message = `clawkey-register-${Date.now()}`;
const privateKey = crypto.createPrivateKey(identity.privateKeyPem);
const signature = crypto.sign(null, Buffer.from(message, "utf8"), privateKey);

const publicKeyDer = crypto
  .createPublicKey(identity.publicKeyPem)
  .export({ type: "spki", format: "der" });

const challenge = {
  deviceId: identity.deviceId,
  publicKey: publicKeyDer.toString("base64"),
  message,
  signature: signature.toString("base64"),
  timestamp: Date.now(),
};
// POST challenge to https://api.clawkey.ai/v1/agent/register/init

Using a script

If you have a script that already produces an AgentChallenge (e.g. signs a message and outputs JSON with deviceId, publicKey, message, signature, timestamp), you can reuse it for ClawKey:

1. Generate a challenge string, e.g. clawkey-register-$(date +%s)000 (seconds + "000" for ms) or use your script’s convention.
2. Run the script to sign that message and get the challenge JSON.
3. POST that JSON to https://api.clawkey.ai/v1/agent/register/init.

Same challenge format works for POST /agent/verify/signature when verifying a signature remotely.

Quick start

1. Start registration (agent-initiated)

Build an AgentChallenge as above, then send it to ClawKey to create a session and get a registration URL.

bash

curl -X POST https://api.clawkey.ai/v1/agent/register/init \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "deviceId": "my-agent-device-id",
    "publicKey": "<base64-DER-SPKI-Ed25519>",
    "message": "clawkey-register-1738500000000",
    "signature": "<base64-Ed25519-signature>",
    "timestamp": 1738500000000
  }'

Response (201):

• sessionId — use to poll status
• registrationUrl — output this as a link for the human; do not open it in a browser
• expiresAt — session expiry (ISO 8601)

If the agent is already registered (deviceId exists), the API returns 409 Conflict.

2. Human completes verification

Tell the human owner to open the registrationUrl in their browser. They will go through VeryAI's palm verification via OAuth. When they finish, the agent is registered under their ownership.

3. Poll registration status

Poll until the human has completed or the session has expired:

bash

curl "https://api.clawkey.ai/v1/agent/register/SESSION_ID/status"

Response: status is one of pending | completed | expired | failed. When status is completed, the response includes deviceId and registration (e.g. publicKey, registeredAt).

4. Verify signatures or look up an agent

• Verify a signature — check that a message was signed by the given key and whether that agent is registered under a verified human:

bash

curl -X POST https://api.clawkey.ai/v1/agent/verify/signature \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "deviceId": "...",
    "publicKey": "...",
    "message": "...",
    "signature": "...",
    "timestamp": 1738500000000
  }'

Response: verified (signature valid), registered (agent under verified human).

• Look up an agent by device id — get registration and verification status:

bash

curl "https://api.clawkey.ai/v1/agent/verify/device/DEVICE_ID"

Response: registered, verified, and optionally registeredAt.

API reference

Base URL: https://api.clawkey.ai/v1
Local: http://localhost:3000/v1

Endpoints

Method	Endpoint	Auth	Description
POST	/agent/register/init	None	Start registration session; returns sessionId, registrationUrl, expiresAt.
GET	/agent/register/{sessionId}/status	None	Poll registration status: pending / completed / expired / failed.
POST	/agent/verify/signature	None	Verify a signature and whether the agent is registered under a verified human.
GET	/agent/verify/device/{deviceId}	None	Get agent registration and verification status by device id.

Request/response schemas

AgentChallenge (used in register/init and verify/signature):

Field	Type	Required	Description
deviceId	string	yes	Key/device id (e.g. public key hash or app id).
publicKey	string	yes	Ed25519 public key, base64 DER SPKI.
message	string	yes	Exact message that was signed (e.g. challenge or nonce).
signature	string	yes	Ed25519 signature over message, base64.
timestamp	int64	yes	Unix timestamp (ms) when the challenge was created.

Register init response (201):

json

{
  "sessionId": "uuid",
  "registrationUrl": "https://clawkey.ai/register/...",
  "expiresAt": "2026-02-02T12:00:00Z"
}

Register status response (200):

json

{
  "status": "completed",
  "deviceId": "my-agent-device-id",
  "registration": {
    "publicKey": "...",
    "registeredAt": "2026-02-02T12:00:00Z"
  }
}

Verify signature response (200):

json

{
  "verified": true,
  "registered": true
}

Device status response (200):

json

{
  "registered": true,
  "verified": true,
  "registeredAt": "2026-02-02T12:00:00Z"
}

Error (4xx/5xx):

json

{
  "error": "Human-readable message",
  "code": "optional_code",
  "details": {}
}

Error codes

Code	Meaning
400	Bad request (invalid or missing fields).
404	Session or device not found.
409	Agent already registered (device_id already exists).
500	Server error.

What this proves

After registration and VeryAI verification:

• Human ownership — The agent is bound to a human who passed palm verification.
• Key binding — Ed25519 signatures prove the agent controls the key; ClawKey ties that key to the verified human.
• Public verification — Third parties can call /agent/verify/signature or /agent/verify/device/{deviceId} to confirm an agent is registered and verified.

When to use this skill

• Registering an OpenClaw (or other) agent under a human owner.
• Proving to a third party that an agent is owned by a verified human (e.g. before granting access or privileges).
• Checking whether a given key or device is registered and verified.

Need help?

• API base: https://api.clawkey.ai/v1
• Homepage: https://clawkey.ai