OpenClaw MCP Server

🦞 Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for OpenClaw AI assistant integration.

Demo

Why I Built This

Hey! I created this MCP server because I didn't want to rely solely on messaging channels to communicate with OpenClaw. What really excites me is the ability to connect OpenClaw to the Claude web UI. Essentially, my chat can delegate tasks to my Claw bot, which then handles everything else — like spinning up Claude Code to fix issues for me.

Think of it as an AI assistant orchestrating another AI assistant. Pretty cool, right?

Quick Start

Docker (Recommended)

Pre-built images are published to GitHub Container Registry on every release.

docker pull ghcr.io/freema/openclaw-mcp:latest

Create a docker-compose.yml:

services:
  mcp-bridge:
    image: ghcr.io/freema/openclaw-mcp:latest
    container_name: openclaw-mcp
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - OPENCLAW_URL=http://host.docker.internal:18789
      - OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN=${OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN}
      - OPENCLAW_MODEL=openclaw
      - AUTH_ENABLED=true
      - MCP_CLIENT_ID=openclaw
      - MCP_CLIENT_SECRET=${MCP_CLIENT_SECRET}
      - MCP_ISSUER_URL=${MCP_ISSUER_URL:-}
      - TRUST_PROXY=1
      - CORS_ORIGINS=https://claude.ai
    extra_hosts:
      - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"
    read_only: true
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges

Generate secrets and start:

export MCP_CLIENT_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
export OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN=your-gateway-token
docker compose up -d

Then in Claude.ai add a custom MCP connector pointing to https://your-domain.com/mcp with MCP_CLIENT_ID=openclaw and your MCP_CLIENT_SECRET.

Important: The connector URL must end with /mcp — that's the Streamable HTTP endpoint. A bare domain (https://your-domain.com) hits the server root and returns 404 after OAuth completes.

Tip: Pin a specific version instead of latest for production: ghcr.io/freema/openclaw-mcp:1.1.0

Local (Claude Desktop)

npx openclaw-mcp

Add to your Claude Desktop config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openclaw": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["openclaw-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OPENCLAW_URL": "http://127.0.0.1:18789",
        "OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN": "your-gateway-token",
        "OPENCLAW_MODEL": "openclaw",
        "OPENCLAW_TIMEOUT_MS": "300000"
      }
    }
  }
}

Remote (Claude.ai) without Docker

AUTH_ENABLED=true MCP_CLIENT_ID=openclaw MCP_CLIENT_SECRET=your-secret \
  MCP_ISSUER_URL=https://mcp.your-domain.com \
  CORS_ORIGINS=https://claude.ai OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN=your-gateway-token \
  npx openclaw-mcp --transport http --port 3000

Important: When running behind a reverse proxy (Caddy, nginx, Traefik, Cloudflare Tunnel, etc.) you must set:

• MCP_ISSUER_URL (or --issuer-url) to your public HTTPS URL — otherwise OAuth metadata advertises http://localhost:3000 and clients fail to authenticate.
• TRUST_PROXY=1 (or --trust-proxy 1) — otherwise express-rate-limit rejects the proxy's X-Forwarded-For header and /token crashes with ERR_ERL_UNEXPECTED_X_FORWARDED_FOR.

See Installation Guide for details.

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         Your Server                             │
│                                                                 │
│  ┌─────────────────┐      ┌─────────────────────────┐          │
│  │   OpenClaw      │      │    OpenClaw MCP         │          │
│  │   Gateway       │◄────►│    Bridge Server        │          │
│  │   :18789        │      │    :3000                │          │
│  │                 │      │                         │          │
│  │  OpenAI-compat  │      │  - OAuth 2.1 auth       │          │
│  │  /v1/chat/...   │      │  - CORS protection      │          │
│  └─────────────────┘      │  - Input validation     │          │
│                           └──────────┬──────────────┘          │
│                                      │                          │
└──────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┘
                                       │ HTTPS + OAuth 2.1
                                       ▼
                              ┌─────────────────┐
                              │   Claude.ai     │
                              │   (MCP Client)  │
                              └─────────────────┘

Available Tools

Sync Tools

Async Tools (for long-running operations)

Multi-Instance Mode

Orchestrate multiple OpenClaw gateways from a single MCP server. One bridge, many claws — route requests to prod, staging, dev, or whatever you name them (lobster-supreme and the-claw-abides are perfectly valid names).

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        Claude.ai / Claude Desktop                    │
│                              (MCP Client)                            │
└──────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                       │
                       ▼
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                     OpenClaw MCP Bridge Server                        │
│                                                                      │
│  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐               │
│  │  Instance     │  │  Instance     │  │  Instance     │              │
│  │  Registry     │  │  Resolver     │  │  Validator    │              │
│  └──────┬───────┘  └──────┬───────┘  └──────┬───────┘               │
│         │                 │                  │                        │
│  ┌──────┴─────────────────┴──────────────────┴───────┐               │
│  │              Per-Instance OpenClaw Clients          │              │
│  │     (separate auth, timeout, URL per instance)     │              │
│  └────────┬──────────────┬──────────────┬────────────┘               │
└───────────┼──────────────┼──────────────┼────────────────────────────┘
            │              │              │
            ▼              ▼              ▼
   ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌──────────────┐
   │  🦞 prod     │ │  🦞 staging  │ │  🦞 dev      │
   │  (default)   │ │              │ │              │
   │  :18789      │ │  :18789      │ │  :18789      │
   │  OpenClaw GW │ │  OpenClaw GW │ │  OpenClaw GW │
   └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘ └──────────────┘

Setup

OPENCLAW_INSTANCES='[
  {"name": "prod", "url": "http://prod:18789", "token": "tok1", "default": true},
  {"name": "staging", "url": "http://staging:18789", "token": "tok2"},
  {"name": "dev", "url": "http://dev:18789", "token": "tok3"}
]'

Usage

All tools accept an optional instance parameter to target a specific gateway:

# Chat with staging instance
openclaw_chat message="Deploy status?" instance="staging"

# Check health of prod
openclaw_status instance="prod"

# List all configured instances
openclaw_instances

# Async task targeting dev
openclaw_chat_async message="Run tests" instance="dev"

When instance is omitted, the default instance is used. Each instance has its own auth token, timeout, and URL — fully isolated.

Key Features

• Zero-migration upgrade — existing single-instance deployments work without any config change
• Per-instance isolation — separate auth tokens, timeouts, and URLs
• Dynamic routing — Claude picks the right instance per request
• Task tracking — async tasks remember which instance they target
• Security — tokens are never exposed via openclaw_instances

See Configuration — Multi-Instance Mode for the full reference.

Documentation

• Installation — Setup for Claude Desktop & Claude.ai
• Configuration — Environment variables & options
• Deployment — Docker & production setup
• Threat Model — What Claude can/can't trigger, trust boundaries & attack surfaces
• Logging — What gets logged, where, and what is never logged
• Development — Contributing & adding tools
• Security — Security policy & best practices

Security

⚠️ **Always enable authe