OpenClaw MCP Server

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:

• "127.0.0.1:3000:3000" # loopback only, reached through your reverse proxy environment:
• OPENCLAW_URL=http://host.docker.internal:18789
• OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN=${OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN}
• OPENCLAW_AGENT_ID=${OPENCLAW_AGENT_ID:-}
• OPENCLAW_MODEL=openclaw
• MCP_CLIENT_ID=openclaw
• MCP_CLIENT_SECRET=${MCP_CLIENT_SECRET}
• MCP_ISSUER_URL=${MCP_ISSUER_URL:-}
• MCP_REDIRECT_URIS=https://claude.ai/api/mcp/auth_callback,https://claude.com/api/mcp/auth_callback
• TRUST_PROXY=1
• CORS_ORIGINS=https://claude.ai extra_hosts:
• "host.docker.internal:host-gateway" read_only: true cap_drop:
• ALL security_opt:
• no-new-privileges

The port is published on 127.0.0.1 only: the bridge speaks plain HTTP and is meant to sit behind a TLS-terminating reverse proxy on the same host (see Deployment).

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:1.8.1

Use a least-privilege agent. Set OPENCLAW_AGENT_ID to a dedicated OpenClaw agent that only has the tools you want Claude to reach — not your main agent with shell access. See Security.

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_AGENT_ID": "main", "OPENCLAW_MODEL": "openclaw", "OPENCLAW_TIMEOUT_MS": "300000" } } } }

Remote (Claude.ai) without Docker

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.

Recommended: Set MCP_REDIRECT_URIS=https://claude.ai/api/mcp/auth_callback,https://claude.com/api/mcp/auth_callback so authorization codes can only be delivered to Claude's callbacks. Note the exact /api/mcp/auth_callback path — matching is exact, and getting it wrong fails OAuth with Unregistered redirect_uri (see Troubleshooting).

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)

Tasks belong to whoever created them. In HTTP mode that is the authenticated OAuth client, so a client can poll its tasks from a new MCP session, and another client's task_id reads as "not found" even if it is known. Without an authenticated client (stdio) tasks are scoped to the connection.

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

MCP_CLIENT_ID=openclaw MCP_CLIENT_SECRET=$MCP_CLIENT_SECRET \ openclaw-mcp --transport http

CORS is disabled unless you opt in. Set CORS_ORIGINS only when a browser client needs to reach the server directly:

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

See Configuration for all security options.

Give the bridge a least-privilege agent

The bridge passes text to an OpenClaw agent and cannot judge what that text makes