README

OpenClaw 🦞 — Your assistant, on your devices, in your chats


  
    
    
  



  
  
  
  
  


OpenClaw is an open-source AI assistant that runs on your own computer and meets you in the channels you already use: Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, and 20+ more, plus native apps for macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux. One Gateway runs it as a personal claw on a laptop or as a shared multiplayer claw; configuration is the only difference.

Yours, with no catch. State, memory, and credentials live on your hardware. Models and agent harnesses (Claude, Codex, local models) are plugins you can swap without changing anything else. Your prompts go to the model provider and chat platforms you configure, plus any diagnostics export you enable yourself; by default OpenClaw itself phones home for nothing but a daily version check, anonymous feature statistics are opt-in, and update.checkOnStart: false disables both (what OpenClaw sends). OpenClaw is stewarded by the OpenClaw Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3), and has no paid tier, hosted service, or token. The architecture case — trusted gateway, untrusted execution, policy enforced by code — is in Why OpenClaw.

Website · Docs · Getting started · Why OpenClaw · FAQ · Vision · DeepWiki

 Install

The installer supports macOS, Linux, and Windows. It provisions a supported Node.js runtime when needed.

bash
 macOS / Linux / WSL2
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash


powershell
 Windows PowerShell
iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex


Already manage Node.js? Install the published package instead (Node 24.16.0+ on 24.x or 26.1.0+; 24.22.1+/26.12.1+ strongly recommended for security):

bash
npm install -g openclaw@latest --allow-scripts=openclaw


That command is for npm 12 or npm 11.16+. On npm 11.15 and earlier, omit
--allow-scripts=openclaw. See the
installation guide for the lifecycle script
contract, Docker, Nix, and other deployment paths.

 Quick start

On a fresh install, the installer scripts start onboarding automatically.
Complete the wizard they open. If you installed the package directly with npm,
pnpm, or Bun, run:

bash
openclaw onboard --install-daemon


After onboarding:

bash
openclaw gateway status
openclaw dashboard


Onboarding verifies model access, creates the workspace, and configures the Gateway. The last command opens the Control UI; send a message there to confirm the assistant is working. See the getting started guide for channel setup and troubleshooting.

 How it fits together

- The Gateway is the local control plane for sessions, tools, events, and channel connections.
- The Control UI, CLI, and TUI connect to the Gateway.
- Channels bring the assistant to WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, and other messaging services.
- Companion apps and nodes add voice, Canvas, camera, screen, and device-local actions on supported platforms.

OpenClaw works with hosted and local model providers. Its tools, ski

Top issues

Latest release

2026.11.2

 Highlights

- Privacy and trust boundaries: Keep configuration secrets, conversation content, tool errors, and channel payloads out of diagnostic logs, enforce the selected provider and navigation trust boundaries, and release MCP grants after warm CLI turns. (191318) (174998) (174544) (172963) (174526) (173422) (191748) (191271) (193438) (191102) (191980) Authored by @steipete. Thanks @RomneyDa, @wangmiao0668000666, @Finn763, @pgondhi987, @SebTardif, and @vincentkoc.
- Account-safe delivery: Preserve sender and account identity across durable retries and scheduled delivery, recove