🦞 OpenClaw — Personal AI Assistant

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OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant you run on your own devices. It answers you on the channels you already use (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, BlueBubbles, IRC, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, Feishu, LINE, Mattermost, Nextcloud Talk, Nostr, Synology Chat, Tlon, Twitch, Zalo, Zalo Personal, WebChat). It can speak and listen on macOS/iOS/Android, and can render a live Canvas you control. The Gateway is just the control plane — the product is the assistant.

If you want a personal, single-user assistant that feels local, fast, and always-on, this is it.

Website · Docs · Vision · DeepWiki · Getting Started · Updating · Showcase · FAQ · Onboarding · Nix · Docker · Discord

Preferred setup: run openclaw onboard in your terminal. OpenClaw Onboard guides you step by step through setting up the gateway, workspace, channels, and skills. It is the recommended CLI setup path and works on macOS, Linux, and Windows (via WSL2; strongly recommended). Works with npm, pnpm, or bun. New install? Start here: Getting started

Sponsors

| OpenAI | Vercel | Blacksmith | Convex | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | |

Subscriptions (OAuth):

• OpenAI (ChatGPT/Codex)

Model note: while many providers/models are supported, for the best experience and lower prompt-injection risk use the strongest latest-generation model available to you. See Onboarding.

Models (selection + auth)

• Models config + CLI: Models
• Auth profile rotation (OAuth vs API keys) + fallbacks: Model failover

Install (recommended)

Runtime: Node 24 (recommended) or Node 22.16+.

npm install -g openclaw@latest
# or: pnpm add -g openclaw@latest

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

OpenClaw Onboard installs the Gateway daemon (launchd/systemd user service) so it stays running.

Quick start (TL;DR)

Runtime: Node 24 (recommended) or Node 22.16+.

Full beginner guide (auth, pairing, channels): Getting started

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

openclaw gateway --port 18789 --verbose

# Send a message
openclaw message send --to +1234567890 --message "Hello from OpenClaw"

# Talk to the assistant (optionally deliver back to any connected channel: WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/Discord/Google Chat/Signal/iMessage/BlueBubbles/IRC/Microsoft Teams/Matrix/Feishu/LINE/Mattermost/Nextcloud Talk/Nostr/Synology Chat/Tlon/Twitch/Zalo/Zalo Personal/WebChat)
openclaw agent --message "Ship checklist" --thinking high

Upgrading? Updating guide (and run openclaw doctor).

Development channels

• stable: tagged releases (vYYYY.M.D or vYYYY.M.D-<patch>), npm dist-tag latest.
• beta: prerelease tags (vYYYY.M.D-beta.N), npm dist-tag beta (macOS app may be missing).
• dev: moving head of main, npm dist-tag dev (when published).

Switch channels (git + npm): openclaw update --channel stable|beta|dev. Details: Development channels.

From source (development)

Prefer pnpm for builds from source. Bun is optional for running TypeScript directly.

git clone https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.git
cd openclaw

pnpm install
pnpm ui:build # auto-installs UI deps on first run
pnpm build

pnpm openclaw onboard --install-daemon

# Dev loop (auto-reload on source/config changes)
pnpm gateway:watch

Note: pnpm openclaw ... runs TypeScript directly (via tsx). pnpm build produces dist/ for running via Node / the packaged openclaw binary.

Security defaults (DM access)

OpenClaw connects to real messaging surfaces. Treat inbound DMs as untrusted input.

Full security guide: Security

Default behavior on Telegram/WhatsApp/Signal/iMessage/Microsoft Teams/Discord/Google Chat/Slack:

• DM pairing (dmPolicy="pairing" / channels.discord.dmPolicy="pairing" / channels.slack.dmPolicy="pairing"; legacy: channels.discord.dm.policy, channels.slack.dm.policy): unknown senders receive a short pairing code and the bot does not process their message.
• Approve with: openclaw pairing approve <channel> <code> (then the sender is added to a local allowlist store).
• Public inbound DMs require an explicit opt-in: set dmPolicy="open" and include "*" in the channel allowlist (allowFrom / channels.discord.allowFrom / channels.slack.allowFrom; legacy: channels.discord.dm.allowFrom, channels.slack.dm.allowFrom).

Run openclaw doctor to surface risky/misconfigured DM policies.

Highlights

• Local-first Gateway — single control plane for sessions, channels, tools, and events.
• Multi-channel inbox — WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, BlueBubbles (iMessage), iMessage (legacy), IRC, Microsoft Teams, Matrix, Feishu, LINE, Mattermost, Nextcloud Talk, Nostr, Synology Chat, Tlon, Twitch, Zalo, Zalo Personal, WebChat, macOS, iOS/Android.
• Multi-agent routing — route inbound channels/accounts/peers to isolated agents (workspaces + per-agent sessions).
• Voice Wake + Talk Mode — wake words on macOS/iOS and continuous voice on Android (ElevenLabs + system TTS fallback).
• Live Canvas — agent-driven visual workspace with A2UI.
• First-class tools — browser, canvas, nodes, cron, sessions, and Discord/Slack actions.
• Companion apps — macOS menu bar app + iOS/Android nodes.
• Onboarding + skills — onboarding-driven setup with bundled/managed/workspace skills.

Star History

Everything we built so far

Core platform

• Gateway WS control plane with sessions, presence, config, cron, webhooks, Control UI, and Canvas host.
• CLI surface: gateway, agent, send, onboarding, and doctor.
• Pi agent runtime in RPC mode with tool streaming and block streaming.
• Session model: main for direct chats, group isolation, activation modes, queue modes, reply-back. Group rules: Groups.
• Media pipeline: images/audio/video, transcription hooks, size caps, temp file lifecycle. Audio details: Audio.

Channels

• Channels: [Wh