openclaw/docs/cli/qr.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
CLI reference for `openclaw qr` (generate mobile pairing QR + setup code)	You want to pair a mobile node app with a gateway quickly You need setup-code output for remote/manual sharing	QR

openclaw qr

Generate a mobile pairing QR and setup code from your current Gateway configuration.

openclaw qr
openclaw qr --setup-code-only
openclaw qr --json
openclaw qr --remote
openclaw qr --limited
openclaw qr --url wss://gateway.example/ws

Official OpenClaw iOS and Android apps connect automatically when their setup-code metadata matches. If a request remains pending (for example, for a non-official client or mismatched metadata), review and approve it:

openclaw devices list
openclaw devices approve <requestId>

Options

• --remote: prefer gateway.remote.url; falls back to gateway.tailscale.mode=serve|funnel if that URL is unset. Ignores device-pair plugin publicUrl.
• --url <url>: override the gateway URL used in the payload
• --public-url <url>: override the public URL used in the payload
• --token <token>: override the gateway token the bootstrap flow authenticates against
• --password <password>: override the gateway password the bootstrap flow authenticates against
• --limited: omit administrative Gateway access from the handed-off operator token
• --setup-code-only: print only the setup code
• --no-ascii: skip ASCII QR rendering
• --json: emit JSON (setupCode, gatewayUrl, optional gatewayUrls, auth, access, optional accessDowngraded, urlSource)

--token and --password are mutually exclusive.

Setup code contents

The setup code carries an opaque, short-lived bootstrapToken, not the shared gateway token/password. For a wss:// endpoint (or same-host loopback), the default bootstrap flow issues:

• a primary node token with scopes: []
• a full native-mobile operator handoff token with operator.admin, operator.approvals, operator.read, operator.talk.secrets, and operator.write

Use --limited to keep the same node token while omitting operator.admin from the operator handoff. Pairing-mutation scope is never handed off by a setup code.

Plaintext LAN ws:// setup remains available, but OpenClaw automatically uses the limited profile because a network observer could capture and race the bearer bootstrap token. Configure wss:// or Tailscale Serve, then generate a new code to get full access.

Gateway URL resolution

Mobile pairing fails closed for Tailscale/public ws:// gateway URLs: use Tailscale Serve/Funnel or a wss:// gateway URL for those. Private LAN addresses and .local Bonjour hosts remain supported over plain ws://, with limited operator access as described above.

When the selected Gateway URL comes from gateway.bind=lan, OpenClaw also checks persistent tailscale serve status --json routes. Any HTTPS Serve root that proxies the active Gateway's loopback port is included as a fallback. The QR command adds this fallback only for lan; custom and tailnet keep their explicitly advertised routes. Current iOS clients probe the advertised routes in order and save the first reachable one; the legacy url field remains unchanged for older clients.

With --remote, one of gateway.remote.url or gateway.tailscale.mode=serve|funnel is required.

Auth resolution (no --remote)

When no CLI auth override is passed, local gateway auth SecretRefs resolve as follows:

Condition	Resolves
gateway.auth.mode="token", or inferred mode with no winning password source	gateway.auth.token
gateway.auth.mode="password", or inferred mode with no winning token from auth/env	gateway.auth.password
Both gateway.auth.token and gateway.auth.password are configured (including SecretRefs) and gateway.auth.mode is unset	fails; set gateway.auth.mode explicitly

Auth resolution (--remote)

If effectively active remote credentials are configured as SecretRefs and neither --token nor --password is passed, the command resolves them from the active gateway snapshot. If the gateway is unavailable, the command fails fast.

This command path requires a gateway that supports the `secrets.resolve` RPC method. Older gateways return an unknown-method error.

Related

• CLI reference
• Devices
• Pairing