| --- |
| summary: "OpenClaw is an open-source AI assistant that runs on your own hardware and meets you in every chat app you already use." |
| read_when: |
| - Introducing OpenClaw to newcomers |
| title: "OpenClaw" |
| --- |
| |
| # OpenClaw 🦞 |
|
|
| <p align="center"> |
| <img |
| src="/assets/openclaw-hero-light.png" |
| alt="OpenClaw" |
| width="500" |
| class="dark:hidden" |
| /> |
| <img |
| src="/assets/openclaw-hero-dark.png" |
| alt="OpenClaw" |
| width="500" |
| class="hidden dark:block" |
| /> |
| </p> |
| |
| > _"EXFOLIATE! EXFOLIATE!"_ — A space lobster, probably |
|
|
| <p align="center"> |
| <strong>Your AI assistant, on your own hardware, in every chat app you already use.</strong><br /> |
| One Gateway. Any model. Any device. No hosted service in the middle.<br /> |
| Developed in the open by the <a href="https://openclaw.org">OpenClaw Foundation</a>, an independent 501(c)(3). No paid tier, no telemetry by default beyond a <a href="/gateway/telemetry">version check</a> you can turn off, no lab owns it. |
| </p> |
|
|
| <Columns> |
| <Card title="Get Started" href="/start/getting-started" icon="rocket"> |
| Install OpenClaw and bring up the Gateway in minutes. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Run Onboarding" href="/start/wizard" icon="list-checks"> |
| Guided setup with `openclaw onboard` and pairing flows. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Connect a Channel" href="/channels" icon="message-circle"> |
| Link Discord, Signal, Telegram, WhatsApp, and more to chat from anywhere. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Open the Control UI" href="/web/control-ui" icon="layout-dashboard"> |
| Launch the browser dashboard for chat, config, and sessions. |
| </Card> |
| </Columns> |
| |
| ## Browse docs |
|
|
| Mobile browsers may show the section menu without the full desktop tab bar. Use |
| these hub links to reach the same top-level docs areas from the page body. |
|
|
| <Columns> |
| <Card title="Get started" href="/start/getting-started" icon="rocket"> |
| Overview, showcase, first steps, and setup guides. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Install" href="/install" icon="download"> |
| Install paths, updates, containers, hosting, and advanced setup. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Channels" href="/channels" icon="messages-square"> |
| Messaging channels, pairing, routing, access groups, and channel QA. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Agents" href="/concepts/architecture" icon="bot"> |
| Architecture, sessions, context, memory, and multi-agent routing. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Capabilities" href="/tools" icon="wand-sparkles"> |
| Tools, skills, cron, webhooks, and automation capabilities. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="ClawHub" href="/clawhub" icon="store"> |
| Plugin marketplace, publishing, curation, and trust guidance. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Models" href="/providers" icon="brain"> |
| Providers, model configuration, failover, and local model services. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Platforms" href="/platforms" icon="monitor-smartphone"> |
| macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, nodes, and web surfaces. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Gateway & Ops" href="/gateway" icon="server"> |
| Gateway configuration, security, diagnostics, and operations. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Reference" href="/cli" icon="terminal"> |
| CLI reference, schemas, RPC, and templates. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Releases" href="/releases" icon="tag"> |
| Release notes for each version, with highlights and source links. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Help" href="/help" icon="life-buoy"> |
| Troubleshooting, FAQs, testing, diagnostics, and environment checks. |
| </Card> |
| </Columns> |
| |
| ## 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, power users, and teams who want an AI assistant they can message from anywhere — without giving up control of their data or relying on a hosted service. The same gateway runs as a personal assistant on one laptop or as a shared [team deployment](/start/teams); configuration is the only difference. |
|
|
| **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 |
|
|
| The full architecture case — a trusted gateway, untrusted execution, deterministic policy, and how one product spans personal and team use — is in [Why OpenClaw](/start/why-openclaw). |
|
|
| **What do you need?** Node 26 (recommended), or another supported release: Node 24.16+ or Node 26.1+. You also need 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 |
|
|
| ```mermaid |
| 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 |
|
|
| <Columns> |
| <Card title="Multi-channel gateway" icon="network" href="/channels"> |
| Discord, iMessage, Signal, Slack, Telegram, WhatsApp, WebChat, and more with a single Gateway process. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Plugin channels" icon="plug" href="/tools/plugin"> |
| Channel plugins add Matrix, Nostr, Twitch, Zalo, and more; official plugins install on demand. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Multi-agent routing" icon="route" href="/concepts/multi-agent"> |
| Isolated sessions per agent, workspace, or sender. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Media support" icon="image" href="/nodes/images"> |
| Send and receive images, audio, and documents. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Web Control UI" icon="monitor" href="/web/control-ui"> |
| Browser dashboard for chat, config, sessions, and nodes. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Mobile nodes" icon="smartphone" href="/nodes"> |
| Pair iOS and Android nodes for camera, screen, and voice-enabled workflows. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Skills" icon="graduation-cap" href="/tools/skills"> |
| Teach the agent repeatable procedures it loads on demand. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Automation" icon="clock" href="/automation"> |
| Run work on a schedule with cron jobs, hooks, and webhooks. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Build plugins" icon="hammer" href="/plugins/building-plugins"> |
| Write your own channel, provider, and tool plugins against the plugin SDK. |
| </Card> |
| </Columns> |
| |
| ## Quick start |
|
|
| <Steps> |
| <Step title="Install OpenClaw"> |
| <Tabs> |
| <Tab title="macOS / Linux / WSL2"> |
| ```bash |
| curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash |
| ``` |
| </Tab> |
| <Tab title="Windows (PowerShell)"> |
| ```powershell |
| iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex |
| ``` |
| </Tab> |
| </Tabs> |
| |
| The installer detects your OS, installs Node if needed, installs OpenClaw, |
| and then starts onboarding. Other install methods (npm, pnpm, bun, Docker, |
| Nix, from source) are on the [Install](/install) page. |
| |
| </Step> |
| <Step title="Complete onboarding"> |
| Onboarding offers **Quick start** and **Custom setup**. Quick start reuses |
| detected AI access, verifies it with a real completion, and opens the web |
| dashboard with a Gateway in the foreground. Custom setup walks the full |
| guided flow. `openclaw onboard --classic` opens the classic step-by-step |
| wizard instead. |
| |
| </Step> |
| <Step title="Install the Gateway service"> |
| Quick start leaves the Gateway in the foreground. Press **Ctrl+C**, then |
| install the background service: |
| |
| ```bash |
| openclaw gateway install |
| ``` |
| |
| </Step> |
| <Step title="Chat"> |
| Open the Control UI in your browser and send a message: |
| |
| ```bash |
| openclaw dashboard |
| ``` |
| |
| Or connect a channel ([Telegram](/channels/telegram) is fastest) and chat from your phone. |
| |
| </Step> |
| </Steps> |
|
|
| Need the full install and dev setup? See [Getting Started](/start/getting-started). |
|
|
| ## Dashboard |
|
|
| Open the browser Control UI after the Gateway starts. |
|
|
| - Local default: [http://127.0.0.1:18789/](http://127.0.0.1:18789/) |
| - Remote access: [Web surfaces](/web) and [Tailscale](/gateway/tailscale) |
|
|
| <p align="center"> |
| <img src="/whatsapp-openclaw.jpg" alt="OpenClaw" width="420" /> |
| </p> |
|
|
| ## 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: |
|
|
| ```json5 |
| { |
| channels: { |
| whatsapp: { |
| allowFrom: ["+15555550123"], |
| groups: { "*": { requireMention: true } }, |
| }, |
| }, |
| messages: { groupChat: { mentionPatterns: ["@openclaw"] } }, |
| } |
| ``` |
|
|
| ## Start here |
|
|
| <Columns> |
| <Card title="Docs hubs" href="/start/hubs" icon="book-open"> |
| All docs and guides, organized by use case. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Configuration" href="/gateway/configuration" icon="settings"> |
| Core Gateway settings, tokens, and provider config. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Remote access" href="/gateway/remote" icon="globe"> |
| SSH and tailnet access patterns. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Channels" href="/channels" icon="message-square"> |
| Channel-specific setup for Discord, Feishu, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, and more. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Nodes" href="/nodes" icon="smartphone"> |
| iOS and Android nodes with pairing, camera, screen, and device actions. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Help" href="/help" icon="life-buoy"> |
| Common fixes and troubleshooting entry point. |
| </Card> |
| </Columns> |
| |
| ## Learn more |
|
|
| <Columns> |
| <Card title="Full feature list" href="/concepts/features" icon="list"> |
| Complete channel, routing, and media capabilities. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Multi-agent routing" href="/concepts/multi-agent" icon="route"> |
| Workspace isolation and per-agent sessions. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Security" href="/gateway/security" icon="shield"> |
| Tokens, allowlists, and safety controls. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="Troubleshooting" href="/gateway/troubleshooting" icon="wrench"> |
| Gateway diagnostics and common errors. |
| </Card> |
| <Card title="About and credits" href="/reference/credits" icon="info"> |
| Project origins, contributors, and license. |
| </Card> |
| </Columns> |
| |
