Quick start

Gateway mode

1. Start the Gateway.

openclaw gateway

2. Open the TUI.

openclaw tui

3. Type a message and press Enter.

Remote Gateway:

openclaw tui --url ws://<host>:<port> --token <gateway-token>

Use --password if your Gateway uses password auth.

Local mode

Run the TUI without a Gateway:

openclaw chat
# or
openclaw tui --local

• openclaw chat and openclaw terminal are aliases for openclaw tui --local.
• --local cannot be combined with --url, --token, or --password.
• Local mode uses the embedded agent runtime directly. Most local tools work, but Gateway-only features are unavailable.
• Bare openclaw (no subcommand) picks a target automatically: an unconfigured install runs inference onboarding; invalid config opens classic doctor guidance; a reachable configured Gateway opens this TUI shell in gateway mode; otherwise a configured local model opens it in local mode.

What you see

• Header: connection URL, current agent, current session.
• Chat log: user messages, assistant replies, system notices, tool cards.
• Status line: connection/run state (connecting, running, streaming, idle, error).
• Footer: agent + session + model + goal state + think/fast/verbose/trace/reasoning + token counts + deliver. When tui.footer.showRemoteHost is enabled, remote Gateway connections also show the connection host.
• Input: text editor with autocomplete.

Mental model: agents + sessions

• Agents are unique slugs (e.g. main, research). The Gateway exposes the list.

• Sessions belong to the current agent.

• Session keys are stored as agent:<agentId>:<sessionKey>.

  • If you type /session main, the TUI expands it to agent:<currentAgent>:main.
  • If you type /session agent:other:main, you switch to that agent session explicitly.

• Session scope:

  • per-sender (default): each agent has many sessions.
  • global: the TUI always uses the global session (the picker may be empty).

• The current agent + session are always visible in the footer.

• To show the Gateway host for non-local URL-backed connections, opt in with:

  openclaw config set tui.footer.showRemoteHost true
  

  Default is false. Loopback and embedded local connections never show a host label.

• If the session has a goal, the footer shows its compact state: Pursuing goal, Goal paused (/goal resume), Goal blocked (/goal resume), or Goal achieved.

• When started without --session, gateway-mode TUI resumes the last selected session for the same gateway, agent, and session scope if that session still exists. Passing --session, /session, /new, or /reset remains explicit.

Sending + delivery

• Messages always go to the Gateway (or embedded runtime in local mode); delivering the assistant's reply back out to a chat provider is a separate, off-by-default step.
• The TUI is an internal source surface like WebChat, not a generic outbound channel. Harnesses that require tools.message for visible replies can satisfy the active TUI turn with a targetless message.send; explicit provider delivery still uses normal configured channels and never falls back to lastChannel.
• Delivery is fixed for the whole TUI session at launch: start with openclaw tui --deliver to turn it on. There is no /deliver slash command or Settings toggle to flip it mid-session; restart the TUI to change it.

Pickers + overlays

• Model picker: list available models and set the session override.
• Agent picker: choose a different agent.
• Session picker: shows up to 50 sessions for the current agent updated in the last 7 days. Use /session <key> to jump to an older known session.
• Settings (/settings): toggle tool output expansion and thinking visibility. This panel does not control delivery.

Keyboard shortcuts

• Enter: send message
• Esc: abort active run
• Ctrl+C: clear input (press twice to exit)
• Ctrl+D: exit
• Ctrl+L: model picker
• Ctrl+G: agent picker
• Ctrl+P: session picker
• Ctrl+O: toggle tool output expansion
• Ctrl+T: toggle thinking visibility (reloads history)

Slash commands

Core:

• /help
• /status (Gateway-forwarded; shows session/model summary)
• /gateway-status (alias /gwstatus; shows Gateway connection status directly)
• /agent <id> (or /agents)
• /session <key> (or /sessions)
• /model <provider/model> (or /models)

Session controls:

• /think <off|minimal|low|medium|high> (higher tiers may add levels like xhigh/max depending on the model)
• /fast <status|auto|on|off>
• /verbose <on|full|off>
• /trace <on|off>
• /reasoning <on|off|stream>
• /usage <off|tokens|full|reset> (reset/inherit/clear/default clears the session override)
• /goal [status] | /goal start <objective> | /goal edit <objective> | /goal pause|resume|complete|block|clear
• /elevated <on|off|ask|full> (alias: /elev)
• /activation <mention|always>

Session lifecycle:

• /new (spawn a fresh, isolated session under a new key; does not affect other TUI clients on the old session)
• /reset (reset the current session key in place)
• /abort (abort the active run)
• /settings
• /exit (or /quit)

Local mode only:

• /auth [provider] opens the provider auth/login flow inside the TUI.

OpenClaw:

• /openclaw [request] returns from the normal agent TUI to the OpenClaw setup/repair chat, optionally forwarding one request.

Other Gateway slash commands (for example, /context) are forwarded to the Gateway and shown as system output. See Slash commands.

Local shell commands

• Prefix a line with ! to run a local shell command on the TUI host.
• The TUI prompts once per session to allow local execution; declining keeps ! disabled for the session.
• Commands run in a fresh, non-interactive shell in the TUI working directory (no persistent cd/env).
• Local shell commands receive OPENCLAW_SHELL=tui-local in their environment.
• A lone ! is sent as a normal message; leading spaces do not trigger local exec.

OpenClaw setup and repair helper

OpenClaw is the ring-zero setup/repair assistant, exposed as openclaw setup after the configured default model passes a live inference check. If inference is unavailable, an interactive invocation returns to inference onboarding and automation fails with repair guidance. It runs inside the same local TUI shell as openclaw tui --local, backed by an AI agent restricted to OpenClaw's typed, approval-gated operations:

openclaw setup                       # start interactively
openclaw setup -m "status"           # run one request and exit
openclaw setup -m "set default model openai/gpt-5.2" --yes   # apply a config write

• Persistent config writes need approval: either confirm interactively or pass --yes.
• --json prints the startup overview as JSON instead of starting the chat.
• From inside OpenClaw, an open-tui request (for example, asking to talk to a normal agent) exits OpenClaw and opens the regular agent TUI; use /openclaw there to come back.

Use local mode when the current config already validates and you want the embedded agent to inspect it on the same machine, compare it against the docs, and help repair drift without depending on a running Gateway.

If openclaw config validate is already failing, start with openclaw configure or openclaw doctor --fix first; openclaw chat still needs a loadable config to start.

Typical loop:

1. Start local mode:

openclaw chat

2. Ask the agent what you want checked, for example:

Compare my gateway auth config with the docs and suggest the smallest fix.

3. Use local shell commands for exact evidence and validation:

!openclaw config file
!openclaw docs gateway auth token secretref
!openclaw config validate
!openclaw doctor

4. Apply narrow changes with openclaw config set or openclaw configure, then rerun !openclaw config validate.
5. If Doctor recommends an automatic migration or repair, review it and run !openclaw doctor --fix.

Tips:

• Prefer openclaw config set or openclaw configure over hand-editing openclaw.json.
• openclaw docs "<query>" searches the live docs index from the same machine.
• openclaw config validate --json is useful when you want structured schema and SecretRef/resolvability errors.

Tool output

• Tool calls show as cards with args + results.
• Ctrl+O toggles between collapsed/expanded views.
• While tools run, partial updates stream into the same card.

Terminal colors

• The TUI keeps assistant body text in your terminal's default foreground so dark and light terminals both stay readable.
• If your terminal uses a light background and auto-detection is wrong, set OPENCLAW_THEME=light before launching openclaw tui.
• To force the original dark palette instead, set OPENCLAW_THEME=dark.

History + streaming

• On connect, the TUI loads the latest history (default 200 messages).
• Streaming responses update in place until finalized.
• The TUI also listens to agent tool events for richer tool cards.

Connection details

• The TUI connects with client id openclaw-tui under the coarse ui client mode (the same mode Control UI and WebChat use for Gateway policy).
• Reconnects show a system message; event gaps are surfaced in the log.

Options

• --local: Run against the local embedded agent runtime
• --url <url>: Gateway WebSocket URL (defaults to gateway.remote.url from config, or ws://127.0.0.1:<port> on loopback)
• --token <token>: Gateway token (if required)
• --password <password>: Gateway password (if required)
• --tls-fingerprint <sha256>: Expected TLS certificate fingerprint for a pinned wss:// Gateway
• --session <key>: Session key (default: main, or global when scope is global)
• --deliver: Deliver assistant replies to the provider (default off)
• --thinking <level>: Override thinking level for sends
• --message <text>: Send an initial message after connecting
• --timeout-ms <ms>: Agent timeout in ms (defaults to agents.defaults.timeoutSeconds)
• --history-limit <n>: History entries to load (default 200)

Troubleshooting

No output after sending a message:

• Run /status in the TUI to confirm the Gateway is connected and idle/busy.
• Check the Gateway logs: openclaw logs --follow.
• Confirm the agent can run: openclaw status and openclaw models status.
• If you expect messages in a chat channel, confirm the TUI was started with --deliver (this cannot be turned on later without restarting).

Connection troubleshooting

• disconnected: ensure the Gateway is running and your --url/--token/--password are correct.
• No agents in picker: check openclaw agents list and your routing config.
• Empty session picker: you might be in global scope or have no sessions yet.

Related

• Control UI — web-based control interface
• Config — inspect, validate, and edit openclaw.json
• Doctor — guided repair and migration checks
• CLI Reference — full CLI command reference

Source: docs/web/tui.md