openclaw/docs/cli/claws.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
Add, inspect, update, and remove experimental Claw agent packages	You want to validate a grouped Claw manifest You want to preview or add one agent from a Claw You need to inspect Claw ownership, drift, or cleanup behavior	Claws

openclaw claws

A Claw is a versioned setup for one new OpenClaw agent. It can describe the agent configuration, workspace files, skills, plugins, MCP servers, and cron jobs that agent needs. A Claw does not replace or modify an existing agent.

Claws are experimental. Their schema, command output, and lifecycle may change. Enable the command surface explicitly:

export OPENCLAW_EXPERIMENTAL_CLAWS=1

The current CLI reads a local package directory or grouped JSON manifest. Publishing, searching, and installing whole Claws through ClawHub are a separate registry track and are not part of this command surface yet.

Create a grouped manifest

Start with a version 1 JSON manifest:

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "agent": {
    "id": "incident-triage",
    "name": "Incident triage",
    "tools": { "deny": ["exec"] }
  },
  "workspace": { "bootstrapFiles": {} },
  "packages": [],
  "mcpServers": {},
  "cronJobs": []
}

Package and workspace paths must remain inside the package root. Manifests are limited to 1 MiB, package metadata to 256 KiB, and workspace sources enforce separate per-file and aggregate limits. Workspace sources also reject symlinked parents.

Workspace files are declared by path and read from package sidecars. Bootstrap files such as SOUL.md use named entries; additional files use package-relative sources and workspace-relative targets:

{
  "workspace": {
    "bootstrapFiles": {
      "SOUL.md": { "source": "workspace/SOUL.md" }
    },
    "files": [
      {
        "source": "workspace/reference/policy.md",
        "path": "reference/policy.md"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Skills and plugins use exact ClawHub versions:

{
  "packages": [
    {
      "kind": "skill",
      "source": "clawhub",
      "ref": "incident-triage",
      "version": "1.0.0"
    },
    {
      "kind": "plugin",
      "source": "clawhub",
      "ref": "@acme/audit-plugin",
      "version": "2.0.0"
    }
  ]
}

The dry run uses the existing skill and plugin preflight paths to resolve the exact artifact, integrity, and any ClawHub trust warning before consent. The warning remains visible in the integrity-bound plan. Apply installs missing artifacts or reuses matching ones and records whether the Claw introduced or referenced each resource. Plugins remain process-wide OpenClaw capabilities rather than per-agent installations.

Cron jobs declare scheduled work for the new agent:

{
  "cronJobs": [
    {
      "id": "daily-summary",
      "name": "Daily incident summary",
      "schedule": { "cron": "0 9 * * *", "timezone": "UTC" },
      "session": "isolated",
      "message": "Summarize active incidents."
    }
  ]
}

Claws use the existing Gateway scheduler and bind created jobs to the new agent. Preview, provenance, status, and removal cover those jobs without changing the behavior of ordinary cron commands. Removal rereads the live job through the Gateway and preserves it when its owned definition changed after planning.

MCP declarations use the existing mcp.servers configuration model:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "statuspage": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["--yes", "@acme/statuspage-mcp@1.0.0"],
      "env": { "STATUSPAGE_TOKEN": "${STATUSPAGE_TOKEN}" }
    }
  }
}

Environment references remain references; Claws do not embed resolved secret values. A collision-free declaration becomes managed, while an exact existing or shared declaration is referenced. Preview, provenance, status, export, and removal follow the same ownership policy as other Claw resources.

Inspect and preview

Validate the source without planning local changes:

openclaw claws inspect ./incident-triage.claw.json

Preview all proposed lifecycle actions:

openclaw claws add ./incident-triage.claw.json --dry-run --json

The plan reports the derived agent and workspace, every proposed action, prerequisites, blockers, distinct capability escalations, and a planIntegrity digest. Capability records show the exact package, MCP, scheduled-work, sandbox, tool, or heartbeat effect. Review the plan before creating the agent:

openclaw claws add ./incident-triage.claw.json \
  --yes \
  --plan-integrity <SHA256_FROM_DRY_RUN>

--yes alone is insufficient. OpenClaw rebuilds the plan and rejects consent when the source, destination, or live configuration changed after preview. Use --agent-id or --workspace during both preview and apply when package defaults collide with local state.

Adding a Claw creates the new agent and workspace configuration, writes declared workspace files, installs or reuses declared skill and plugin artifacts, and records provenance. Existing files are not overwritten, and retries fail closed when owned content drifted. Later Claws stages add other declared resources.

Inspect installed state

openclaw claws status
openclaw claws status incident-triage --json
openclaw doctor

status compares the installed agent and its recorded workspace, package, MCP, and cron provenance with current state. It reports incomplete installs, missing resources, and drift without changing local state. openclaw doctor adds Claw-specific diagnostics for incomplete ownership records, unsafe managed files, and cron jobs that cannot be corroborated with live Gateway inventory.

Claw provenance distinguishes two relationships:

• Managed: the Claw introduced and currently manages the resource. It is a cleanup candidate when unchanged and no conflicting owner remains.
• Referenced: the resource existed independently or is shared. Removal releases this Claw's reference and retains the resource by default.

This is not a reference count. Ordinary plugin, skill, and agent commands keep their existing behavior; Claws add provenance and guarded lifecycle operations on top.

Update an installed Claw

By default, update uses the source recorded when the Claw was added. Use --from when that source moved or when testing another package directory:

openclaw claws update incident-triage --dry-run --json
openclaw claws update incident-triage \
  --from ./incident-triage-next \
  --dry-run --json

The plan compares current provenance and live state with the target manifest. It reports agent, workspace, package, MCP, cron, and ownership changes, including capability escalations and blockers. Capability escalations have separate machine-readable records and ! lines with exact redacted effects in human output. Resolved package integrity, install identity, and any trust warning are included. Removing a package declaration releases this Claw's edge without uninstalling the artifact during update. The eventual exact planIntegrity confirmation binds that disclosed set as well as ordinary content changes. Hosts may use the same records for a separate dialog or an aggregate multi-agent review. Apply the exact reviewed plan with explicit consent:

openclaw claws update incident-triage \
  --yes \
  --plan-integrity <SHA256_FROM_DRY_RUN>

OpenClaw rebuilds the plan and compare-and-swaps owned state before each mutation. Removed package declarations release dependency edges without uninstalling artifacts. Cron changes reread the live scheduler definition and stop on operator drift. Package installers, source-config writers, and the Gateway scheduler are not one transaction. If compensation cannot be proven after an external mutation, OpenClaw reports error code update_partial with structured status: partial, preserves uncertain provenance, and stops. Inspect claws status, the affected resource, and openclaw doctor; then preview again before retrying or removing anything.

Remove an installed Claw

Preview removal before selecting cleanup:

openclaw claws remove incident-triage --dry-run --json
openclaw claws remove incident-triage \
  --yes \
  --plan-integrity <SHA256_FROM_DRY_RUN>

The default removes eligible managed state and releases referenced state. Modified files and resources with another current owner are retained or blocked. Cleanup choices are part of the plan digest; --yes never broadens them. Globally installed plugins are retained while this Claw's reference is released; use the ordinary plugin lifecycle separately when you intend to uninstall a process-wide plugin.

To remove unchanged Claw-introduced references that have no other current owner, include --remove-unused in both preview and apply. To select exact referenced resources instead, repeat --remove-referenced:

openclaw claws remove incident-triage \
  --dry-run \
  --remove-referenced 'plugin:@acme/audit-plugin@2.0.0'

Use --force-referenced only after reviewing the displayed dependents, independent owners, and pre-existing origin. It allows selected cleanup despite those conflicts; it does not skip plan-integrity consent.

Export an installed agent

Export creates a new package directory and fails if the destination exists or managed state has drifted:

openclaw claws export incident-triage --out ./incident-triage-export --json

The result contains package.json, openclaw.claw.json, and managed workspace sidecars. It is a portable Claw package, not a whole-instance backup: unrelated agents, credentials, sessions, and unowned local state are excluded.

Command reference

Command	Purpose
claws inspect <source>	Validate a package directory or JSON manifest.
claws add <source>	Preview or create one new agent and workspace.
claws status [claw-or-agent]	Report installed state, ownership, and drift.
claws update <claw-or-agent>	Preview or apply changes from the selected source.
claws remove <claw-or-agent>	Preview or remove the agent and eligible resources.
claws export <agent> --out <path>	Create a portable package from an installed agent.

Use --json for experimental machine-readable output.

See also

• Agents
• Skills
• Plugins
• Cron jobs
• MCP configuration