openclaw/docs/start/wizard-cli-automation.md

summary, read_when, title, sidebarTitle

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Scripted onboarding and agent setup for the OpenClaw CLI	You are automating onboarding in scripts or CI You need non-interactive examples for specific providers	CLI automation	CLI automation

Use openclaw onboard --non-interactive to script setup. It requires --accept-risk: non-interactive setup can write credentials and daemon config without a confirmation prompt, so the flag is the explicit risk acknowledgement.

`--json` does not imply non-interactive mode. Pass `--non-interactive --accept-risk` explicitly for scripts.

Baseline non-interactive example

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice apiKey \
  --anthropic-api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  --secret-input-mode plaintext \
  --gateway-bind loopback \
  --install-daemon \
  --daemon-runtime node \
  --skip-bootstrap \
  --skip-skills

Add --json for a machine-readable summary.

• --gateway-port defaults to 18789; only pass it to override.
• --skip-bootstrap skips creating default workspace files, for automation that pre-seeds its own workspace.
• --secret-input-mode ref stores an env-backed reference ({ source: "env", provider: "default", id: "<ENV_VAR>" }) in the auth profile instead of the plaintext key. In non-interactive ref mode, the provider env var must already be set in the process environment: passing an inline key flag without its matching env var fails fast.

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice openai-api-key \
  --secret-input-mode ref

Provider-specific examples

```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \ --mode local \ --auth-choice apiKey \ --anthropic-api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \ --gateway-bind loopback ``` ```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \ --mode local \ --auth-choice cloudflare-ai-gateway-api-key \ --cloudflare-ai-gateway-account-id "your-account-id" \ --cloudflare-ai-gateway-gateway-id "your-gateway-id" \ --cloudflare-ai-gateway-api-key "$CLOUDFLARE_AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY" \ --gateway-bind loopback ``` ```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \ --mode local \ --auth-choice gemini-api-key \ --gemini-api-key "$GEMINI_API_KEY" \ --gateway-bind loopback ``` ```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \ --mode local \ --auth-choice mistral-api-key \ --mistral-api-key "$MISTRAL_API_KEY" \ --gateway-bind loopback ``` ```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \ --mode local \ --auth-choice moonshot-api-key \ --moonshot-api-key "$MOONSHOT_API_KEY" \ --gateway-bind loopback ``` ```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \ --mode local \ --auth-choice ollama \ --custom-model-id "qwen3.5:27b" \ --gateway-bind loopback ``` ```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \ --mode local \ --auth-choice opencode-zen \ --opencode-zen-api-key "$OPENCODE_API_KEY" \ --gateway-bind loopback ``` Swap to `--auth-choice opencode-go --opencode-go-api-key "$OPENCODE_API_KEY"` for the Go catalog. ```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \ --mode local \ --auth-choice synthetic-api-key \ --synthetic-api-key "$SYNTHETIC_API_KEY" \ --gateway-bind loopback ``` ```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \ --mode local \ --auth-choice ai-gateway-api-key \ --ai-gateway-api-key "$AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY" \ --gateway-bind loopback ``` ```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \ --mode local \ --auth-choice zai-api-key \ --zai-api-key "$ZAI_API_KEY" \ --gateway-bind loopback ``` ```bash openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \ --mode local \ --auth-choice custom-api-key \ --custom-base-url "https://llm.example.com/v1" \ --custom-model-id "foo-large" \ --custom-api-key "$CUSTOM_API_KEY" \ --custom-provider-id "my-custom" \ --custom-compatibility anthropic \ --custom-image-input \ --gateway-bind loopback ```

`--custom-api-key` is optional; some endpoints do not require auth. If omitted, onboarding checks `CUSTOM_API_KEY` in env. `--custom-provider-id` is optional and auto-derived from the base URL when omitted. `--custom-compatibility` defaults to `openai` (other values: `openai-responses`, `anthropic`).

OpenClaw infers image-input support from known vision model-id patterns (`gpt-4o`, `claude-3/4`, `gemini`, `-vl`/`vision` suffixes, and similar). Add `--custom-image-input` to force it on for an unrecognized vision model, or `--custom-text-input` to force text-only.

Ref-mode variant, storing `apiKey` as `{ source: "env", provider: "default", id: "CUSTOM_API_KEY" }`:

```bash
export CUSTOM_API_KEY="your-key"
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice custom-api-key \
  --custom-base-url "https://llm.example.com/v1" \
  --custom-model-id "foo-large" \
  --secret-input-mode ref \
  --custom-provider-id "my-custom" \
  --custom-compatibility anthropic \
  --custom-image-input \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```

Anthropic setup-token auth remains supported, but OpenClaw prefers Claude CLI reuse when a local Claude CLI login is available. For production, prefer an Anthropic API key.

Add another agent

openclaw agents add <name> creates a separate agent with its own workspace, sessions, and auth profiles. Running it without --workspace (and no other flags) launches the interactive wizard; passing any of --workspace, --model, --agent-dir, --bind, or --non-interactive runs it non-interactively and then requires --workspace.

openclaw agents add work \
  --workspace ~/.openclaw/workspace-work \
  --model openai/gpt-5.6-sol \
  --bind whatsapp:biz \
  --non-interactive \
  --json

Config keys it writes (agents.entries.* entry for the new agent id):

• name
• workspace
• agentDir
• model (only when --model is passed)

Notes:

• Default workspace (when --workspace is omitted in the interactive wizard): ~/.openclaw/workspace-<agentId>.
• --bind <channel[:accountId]> is repeatable; add bindings to route inbound messages to the new agent (the wizard can also do this interactively).
• The agent name is normalized to a valid agent id; main is reserved.

Related docs

• Onboarding hub: Onboarding (CLI)
• Full reference: CLI Setup Reference
• Command reference: openclaw onboard