openclaw/docs/cli/policy.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
CLI reference for `openclaw policy` conformance checks	You want to check OpenClaw settings against an authored policy.jsonc You want policy findings in doctor lint You need a policy attestation hash for audit evidence	Policy

openclaw policy

openclaw policy is provided by the bundled Policy plugin. Policy is an enterprise conformance layer over existing OpenClaw settings. It does not add a second configuration system. policy.jsonc defines authored requirements, OpenClaw observes the active workspace as evidence, and policy health checks report drift through doctor --lint. The final conformance signal is a clean doctor --lint run; policy contributes findings to that shared lint surface instead of creating a separate health gate.

Policy currently manages configured channels and governed tool declarations. For example, IT or a workspace operator can record that Telegram is not an approved channel provider, require governed tools to carry risk and sensitivity metadata, then use doctor --lint as the shared conformance gate.

Use policy when a workspace needs a durable statement such as "these channels must not be enabled" or "governed tools must declare approval metadata" and a repeatable way to prove that OpenClaw still conforms to that statement. Use regular config and workspace docs alone when you only need local behavior and do not need policy findings or attestation output.

Quick start

Enable the bundled Policy plugin before first use:

openclaw plugins enable policy

When policy is enabled, doctor can load policy health checks without activating arbitrary plugins. The plugin remains enabled if policy.jsonc is missing, so doctor can report the missing artifact.

Policy is authored, not generated from the user's current settings. A minimal policy for channels and tool metadata looks like this:

{
  "channels": {
    "denyRules": [
      {
        "id": "no-telegram",
        "when": { "provider": "telegram" },
        "reason": "Telegram is not approved for this workspace.",
      },
    ],
  },
  "tools": {
    "requireMetadata": ["risk", "sensitivity", "owner"],
  },
}

The rules are the authority. A category block is only a namespace; checks run when a concrete rule is present. OpenClaw reads current channels.* settings and TOOLS.md declarations as evidence, then reports observed state that does not conform.

Run policy-only checks during authoring:

openclaw policy check
openclaw policy check --json
openclaw policy check --severity-min error

policy check runs only the policy check set and emits evidence, findings, and attestation hashes. The same findings also appear in openclaw doctor --lint when the Policy plugin is enabled.

Example clean JSON output includes stable hashes that can be recorded by an operator or supervisor:

{
  "ok": true,
  "attestation": {
    "policy": {
      "path": "policy.jsonc",
      "hash": "sha256:..."
    },
    "workspace": {
      "scope": "policy",
      "hash": "sha256:..."
    },
    "findingsHash": "sha256:...",
    "attestationHash": "sha256:..."
  },
  "checksRun": 5,
  "checksSkipped": 0,
  "findings": []
}

Configure policy

Policy config lives under plugins.entries.policy.config.

{
  "plugins": {
    "entries": {
      "policy": {
        "enabled": true,
        "config": {
          "enabled": true,
          "path": "policy.jsonc",
          "workspaceRepairs": false,
          "expectedHash": "sha256:...",
          "expectedAttestationHash": "sha256:...",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Setting	Purpose
enabled	Enable policy checks even before policy.jsonc exists.
workspaceRepairs	Allow doctor --fix to edit policy-managed workspace settings.
expectedHash	Optional hash-lock for the approved policy artifact.
expectedAttestationHash	Optional hash-lock for the last accepted clean policy check.
path	Workspace-relative location of the policy artifact.

Set plugins.entries.policy.config.enabled to false to disable policy checks for a workspace while leaving the plugin installed.

Tool metadata requirements are authored in policy.jsonc with tools.requireMetadata, for example ["risk", "sensitivity", "owner"].

Accept policy state

Example JSON output:

{
  "ok": true,
  "attestation": {
    "checkedAt": "2026-05-10T20:00:00.000Z",
    "policy": {
      "path": "policy.jsonc",
      "hash": "sha256:..."
    },
    "workspace": {
      "scope": "policy",
      "hash": "sha256:..."
    },
    "findingsHash": "sha256:...",
    "attestationHash": "sha256:..."
  },
  "evidence": {
    "channels": [
      {
        "id": "telegram",
        "provider": "telegram",
        "source": "oc://openclaw.config/channels/telegram",
        "enabled": false
      }
    ],
    "tools": [
      {
        "id": "deploy",
        "source": "oc://TOOLS.md/tools/deploy",
        "line": 12,
        "risk": "critical",
        "sensitivity": "restricted",
        "capabilities": ["IRREVERSIBLE_EXTERNAL"]
      }
    ]
  },
  "checksRun": 6,
  "checksSkipped": 0,
  "findings": []
}

The policy hash identifies the authored rule artifact. The evidence block records the observed OpenClaw state used by the policy checks. The workspace.hash value identifies that evidence payload for the checked scope. The findings hash identifies the exact finding set returned by the check. checkedAt records when the evaluation ran. The attestation hash identifies the stable claim: policy hash, evidence hash, findings hash, and whether the result was clean. It intentionally does not include checkedAt, so the same policy state produces the same attestation across repeated checks. Together, these form the audit tuple for this policy check.

If a later gateway or supervisor uses policy to block, approve, or annotate a runtime action, it should record the attestation hash from the last clean policy check. checkedAt stays in JSON output for audit logs, but is not part of the stable attestation hash.

Use this lifecycle when accepting policy state:

1. Author or review policy.jsonc.
2. Run openclaw policy check --json.
3. If the result is clean, record attestation.policy.hash as expectedHash.
4. Record attestation.attestationHash as expectedAttestationHash.
5. Re-run openclaw doctor --lint in CI or release gates.

If policy rules change intentionally, update both accepted hashes from a clean check. If workspace settings change intentionally but policy stays the same, only expectedAttestationHash usually changes.

openclaw policy watch runs the same check repeatedly and reports when the current evidence no longer matches expectedAttestationHash:

openclaw policy watch --json

Use --once in CI or scripts that only need one drift evaluation. Without --once, the command polls every two seconds by default; use --interval-ms to choose a different interval.

Findings

Policy currently verifies:

Check id	Finding
policy/policy-jsonc-missing	Policy is enabled but policy.jsonc is missing.
policy/policy-jsonc-invalid	Policy cannot be parsed or has malformed rules.
policy/policy-hash-mismatch	Policy does not match configured expectedHash.
policy/attestation-hash-mismatch	Current policy evidence no longer matches the accepted attestation.
policy/channels-denied-provider	An enabled channel matches a channel deny rule.
policy/tools-missing-owner	A governed tool declaration is missing owner metadata.
policy/tools-missing-risk-level	A governed tool declaration is missing risk metadata.
policy/tools-missing-sensitivity-token	A governed tool declaration is missing sensitivity metadata.
policy/tools-unknown-risk-level	A governed tool declaration uses an unknown risk value.
policy/tools-unknown-sensitivity-token	A governed tool declaration uses an unknown sensitivity value.

Policy findings can include both target and requirement. target is the observed workspace thing that does not conform. requirement is the authored policy rule that made it a finding. Both values are addresses today, usually oc:// paths, but the field names describe their policy role rather than the address format.

Example JSON finding:

{
  "checkId": "policy/channels-denied-provider",
  "severity": "error",
  "message": "Channel 'telegram' uses denied provider 'telegram'.",
  "source": "policy",
  "path": "openclaw config",
  "ocPath": "oc://openclaw.config/channels/telegram",
  "target": "oc://openclaw.config/channels/telegram",
  "requirement": "oc://policy.jsonc/channels/denyRules/#0",
  "fixHint": "Telegram is not approved for this workspace."
}

Example tool finding:

{
  "checkId": "policy/tools-missing-risk-level",
  "severity": "error",
  "message": "TOOLS.md tool 'deploy' has no explicit risk classification.",
  "source": "policy",
  "path": "TOOLS.md",
  "line": 12,
  "ocPath": "oc://TOOLS.md/tools/deploy",
  "target": "oc://TOOLS.md/tools/deploy",
  "requirement": "oc://policy.jsonc/tools/requireMetadata"
}

Repair

doctor --lint and policy check are read-only.

doctor --fix only edits policy-managed workspace settings when workspaceRepairs is explicitly enabled. Without that opt-in, policy checks report what they would repair and leave settings unchanged.

In this version, repair can disable channels that are enabled in OpenClaw config but denied by channels.denyRules. Enable workspaceRepairs only after the policy file has been reviewed, because a valid deny rule can turn off a configured channel:

{
  "plugins": {
    "entries": {
      "policy": {
        "config": {
          "workspaceRepairs": true,
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Exit codes

Command	0	1	2
policy check	No findings at the threshold.	One or more findings met the threshold.	Argument or runtime failure.
policy watch	No findings and accepted hash is current.	Findings exist or accepted attestation is stale.	Argument or runtime failure.

Related

• Doctor lint mode
• Path CLI