OpenClaw 🦞

"EXFOLIATE! EXFOLIATE!" — A space lobster, probably

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What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is a self-hosted gateway that connects your favorite chat apps — Discord, Google Chat, iMessage, Matrix, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Zalo, and more via channel plugins — to AI coding agents. You run a single Gateway process on your own machine (or a server), and it becomes the bridge between your messaging apps and an always-available AI assistant.

Who is it for? Developers and power users who want a personal AI assistant they can message from anywhere — without giving up control of their data or relying on a hosted service.

What makes it different?

Self-hosted: runs on your hardware, your rules
Multi-channel: one Gateway serves every configured channel plugin simultaneously
Agent-native: built for coding agents with tool use, sessions, memory, and multi-agent routing
Open source: MIT licensed, community-driven

What do you need? Node 24.15+ (recommended), Node 22 LTS (22.22.3+) for compatibility, or Node 25.9+, an API key from your chosen provider, and 5 minutes. For best quality and security, use the strongest latest-generation model available.

How it works

flowchart LR
  A["Chat apps + plugins"] --> B["Gateway"]
  B --> C["OpenClaw agent"]
  B --> D["CLI"]
  B --> E["Web Control UI"]
  B --> F["macOS app"]
  B --> G["iOS and Android nodes"]

The Gateway is the single source of truth for sessions, routing, and channel connections.

Key capabilities

Quick start

```bash
openclaw dashboard
```

Or connect a channel ([Telegram](/channels/telegram) is fastest) and chat from your phone.

Need the full install and dev setup? See Getting Started.

Dashboard

Open the browser Control UI after the Gateway starts.

Local default: http://127.0.0.1:18789/
Remote access: Web surfaces and Tailscale

Configuration (optional)

Config lives at ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.

If you do nothing, OpenClaw uses the bundled OpenClaw agent runtime; DMs share the agent's main session, and each group chat gets its own session.
If you want to lock it down, start with channels.whatsapp.allowFrom and (for groups) mention rules.

Example:

{
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      allowFrom: ["+15555550123"],
      groups: { "*": { requireMention: true } },
    },
  },
  messages: { groupChat: { mentionPatterns: ["@openclaw"] } },
}

Start here

Learn more

Source: docs/index.md