openclaw

What this skill does

# OpenClaw (Operator Playbook)

This skill is self-contained and includes operational documentation directly in this file.

## Links

- [Documentation](https://docs.openclaw.ai/)
- [Releases](https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/releases)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw)

## Quick Navigation

- Installation / migration: `references/installation.md`
- Configuration model & workspace bootstrap: `references/configuration.md`
- Architecture & multi-agent routing: `references/architecture.md`
- Extended concepts: `references/concepts.md`
- Tool governance & safety: `references/tools.md`
- Gateway runbook & security: `references/gateway.md`
- Onboarding & first-run: `references/getting-started.md`
- Channels & providers: `references/channels-and-providers.md`
- Nodes & remote execution: `references/nodes.md`
- CLI operations & troubleshooting: `references/operations.md`

## Core Model

- OpenClaw is gateway-centric: one long-lived Gateway per host is the control plane.
- Clients and nodes connect via typed WebSocket API; channels/providers are orchestrated by gateway.
- Session safety depends on deterministic routing + queueing + explicit policy controls.

## Day-1 Setup

1. Run onboarding with daemon install.
2. Confirm the active config path and validate config before first edits.
3. Verify gateway health/status.
4. Open Control UI/dashboard for first chat.
5. Add channels/providers only after baseline health is stable.

If OpenClaw is not installed, use `references/installation.md`.

## Gateway Operations

- Keep default posture loopback + auth enabled.
- For remote access, prefer Tailscale Serve or SSH tunnel over public bind.
- Non-loopback binds require strict token/password controls.
- Use supervised process mode (launchd/systemd) for reliability.
- For config changes, treat `config.apply` as controlled rollout and `config.patch` as targeted merge.
- Remember patch semantics: objects merge, arrays replace, `null` deletes.
- Treat restart boundaries explicitly: channels/agents/messages/tools often hot-apply, while bind/port and other gateway infra settings commonly require `openclaw gateway restart`.

## Release Updates (v2026.3.11-v2026.3.13)

- **Security:** browser-originated WebSocket connections now enforce origin validation even in `trusted-proxy` mode; keep browser clients on approved origins only and do not treat proxy headers as a bypass.
- **BREAKING:** isolated cron delivery is stricter; legacy cron storage and legacy notify/webhook metadata should be migrated with `openclaw doctor --fix` after upgrade.
- Gateway/onboarding: remote macOS onboarding now detects when a shared gateway auth token is required and explains where to retrieve it on the gateway host.
- Gateway/control UI: token-auth dashboard sessions now keep auth in session-scoped browser storage instead of long-lived local storage; same-tab refresh should survive, but browser restarts should not be treated as persistent auth.
- Gateway reachability: scope-limited probe RPC now reports degraded reachability instead of looking fully healthy; use that signal during incident triage.
- Channels: Slack adds opt-in interactive reply directives; Telegram inbound media fetching now has IPv4 retry fallback.
- Plugins/tooling: plugin channel/binding collisions now fail fast instead of producing ambiguous runtime behavior.
- Nodes: gateway exposes `node.pending.enqueue` / `node.pending.drain` primitives as the foundation for dormant-node pending work delivery.

## Release Updates (v2026.3.14–v2026.3.28)

- **MCP remote servers**: `mcp.servers` now supports remote HTTP/SSE URLs with auth headers and safer credential redaction. Bundled MCP tools use provider-safe names (`serverName__toolName`), support `streamable-http` transport, per-server connection timeouts, and preserve tool results from aborted turns.
- **Plugin `before_install` hook**: structured request with provenance, built-in scan status, and install-target metadata for external security scanners. `--dangerously-force-unsafe-install` as break-glass override. Gateway-backed skill dependency installs blocked on dangerous-code `critical` findings unless override is set.
- **Background tasks → unified control plane**: ACP, subagent, cron, and background CLI unified under one SQLite-backed ledger with audit/maintenance/status visibility, auto-cleanup, and lost-run recovery.
- **ClawFlow**: first linear flow control surface (`openclaw flows list|show|cancel`). Multi-task flows separate from one-task auto-sync flows. Doctor recovery hints for orphaned flow/task linkage.
- **Memory/QMD**: per-agent `memorySearch.qmd.extraCollections` for cross-agent search; CJK-aware chunk sizing; session indexer includes reset/deleted transcripts; `memory.qmd.searchTool` as mcporter tool override.
- **WhatsApp reactions**: agents can react with emoji on incoming WhatsApp messages.
- **Matrix**: `channels.matrix.historyLimit` for room history context in group triggers; per-DM `threadReplies` overrides; proxy config via `channels.matrix.proxy`.
- **Slack**: native Slack exec approval routing with approver authorization.
- **LINE**: image/video/audio outbound sends on LINE-specific delivery path.
- **Android**: notification-forwarding controls with package filtering, quiet hours, rate limiting.
- **Agents/LLM**: configurable idle-stream timeout for embedded runner; `text.verbosity` forwarded across Responses HTTP/WebSocket transports.
- **Security**: Nostr inbound DM signature verification; LINE webhook timing-safe HMAC compare; sandbox browser CJK fonts; gateway auth hardening (origin validation, local-direct token enforcement).

## Release Updates (v2026.5.12)

- **Leaner installs**: Slack, WhatsApp, Amazon Bedrock, Anthropic Vertex, and related provider/plugin dependency cones moved out of the core runtime, so installs only pull what you actually use.
- **Telegram resilience**: isolated polling, durable local spooling, safer group-media handling, and preserved HTML/Markdown formatting improve operator confidence on the default channel path.
- **Codex/OpenAI/media**: auth-profile-backed media tools, MCP server projection, context-engine thread rotation, and runtime fallback behavior were tightened.
- **Ops/security/UI**: plugin install/update flows, pnpm 11 handling, gateway/browser/sandbox/node-pairing hardening, and Control UI/WebChat reply delivery all received a significant polish pass.
- **ACP fallbacks**: ACP turns can try configured backup runtime backends before emitting output, which matters for graceful degraded operation.

## Release Updates (v2026.5.22)

- **Meeting notes plugin**: a source-only external meeting-notes path lands with auto-start capture config, manual transcript import, read-only `openclaw meeting-notes` CLI access, and Discord voice as the first live source.
- **Gateway readiness**: startup now lazy-loads idle plugin work, core handler trees, and the embedded ACPX runtime, so health/ready checks no longer wait on unused subsystems.
- **Plugin metadata caching**: immutable plugin metadata snapshots are reused across startup/config/secret readers, which reduces repeated manifest and file-stat churn during operations.
- **Channel/runtime tuning**: channel catalog reads are reused, Signal gets `configPath`, Telegram gains wildcard topic defaults, and backup archives use local-time names.
- **Media quality control**: model-aware image compression now follows `agents.defaults.imageQuality`, so operators can choose token-efficient, balanced, or high-detail handling explicitly.
- **Plugin SDK migration**: row-level session workflow helpers are added and `loadSessionStore` is deprecated; plugin maintenance should move away from whole-store session access.
- **Provider auth reuse**: xAI OAuth auth profiles can now back Grok `web_search`, and provider-side media operations have clearer default timeout behavior.

## Release Updates (v2026.5.27-v2026.5.28)

- **Runtime recovery**: Codex/app-server and subagent paths prese