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 your server with MCP_CLIENT_ID=openclaw and your MCP_CLIENT_SECRET.

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 sse --port 3000

Important: When running behind a reverse proxy (Caddy, nginx, etc.), you must set MCP_ISSUER_URL (or --issuer-url) to your public HTTPS URL. Without this, OAuth metadata will advertise http://localhost:3000 and clients will fail to authenticate.

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

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | openclaw_chat | Send messages to OpenClaw and get responses | | openclaw_status | Check OpenClaw gateway health | | openclaw_instances | List all configured OpenClaw instances |

Async Tools (for long-running operations)

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | openclaw_chat_async | Queue a message, get task_id immediately | | openclaw_task_status | Check task progress and get results | | openclaw_task_list | List all tasks with filtering | | openclaw_task_cancel | Cancel a pending task |

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 authentication in production!

# Generate secure client secret
export MCP_CLIENT_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)

# Run with auth enabled
AUTH_ENABLED=true MCP_CLIENT_ID=openclaw MCP_CLIENT_SECRET=$MCP_CLIENT_SECRET \
  openclaw-mcp --transport sse

Configure CORS to restrict access:

CORS_ORIGINS=https://claude.ai,https://your-app.com

See Configuration for all security options.

Requirements