Overview

OpenClaw

OpenClaw 🦞

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

Any OS gateway for AI agents across Discord, Google Chat, iMessage, Matrix, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Zalo, and more.

Send a message, get an agent response from your pocket. Run one Gateway across built-in channels, bundled channel plugins, WebChat, and mobile nodes.

Get Started

Install OpenClaw and bring up the Gateway in minutes.

Run Onboarding

Guided setup with openclaw onboard and pairing flows.

Open the Control UI

Launch the browser dashboard for chat, config, and sessions.

What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is a self-hosted gateway that connects your favorite chat apps and channel surfaces — built-in channels plus bundled or external channel plugins such as Discord, Google Chat, iMessage, Matrix, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, Zalo, and more — to AI coding agents like Pi. 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 built-in channels plus bundled or external channel plugins 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 (recommended), or Node 22 LTS (22.14+) for compatibility, 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["Pi 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

Multi-channel gateway

Discord, iMessage, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, WebChat, and more with a single Gateway process.

Plugin channels

Bundled plugins add Matrix, Nostr, Twitch, Zalo, and more in normal current releases.

Multi-agent routing

Isolated sessions per agent, workspace, or sender.

Media support

Send and receive images, audio, and documents.

Web Control UI

Browser dashboard for chat, config, sessions, and nodes.

Mobile nodes

Pair iOS and Android nodes for Canvas, camera, and voice-enabled workflows.

Quick start

Install OpenClaw

npm install -g openclaw@latest

Onboard and install the service

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

Chat

Open the Control UI in your browser and send a message:

openclaw dashboard

Or connect a channel (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 Pi binary in RPC mode with per-sender sessions.
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"] } },
}