OpenClaw MCP Server for Claude

Overview

OpenClaw ships an official MCP surface through the openclaw mcp CLI. The most important path for Claude and other external clients is openclaw mcp serve, which starts a stdio MCP server, connects to an OpenClaw Gateway over WebSocket, and exposes routed OpenClaw channel conversations as MCP tools.

Use this when an MCP client should inspect and reply to OpenClaw-backed conversations without running a separate bridge for each channel. OpenClaw also uses the same openclaw mcp namespace for its client-side MCP registry, where operators can save, inspect, probe, and update third-party MCP server definitions for OpenClaw-managed runtimes.

Features

• Start OpenClaw as a stdio MCP server with openclaw mcp serve.
• Connect the bridge to a local or remote OpenClaw Gateway.
• List routed conversations with conversations_list.
• Fetch a single conversation with conversation_get.
• Read recent transcript history with messages_read.
• Inspect non-text transcript message metadata with attachments_fetch.
• Poll or wait for live inbound events with events_poll and events_wait.
• Send a text reply through an existing route with messages_send.
• List and resolve live exec or plugin approvals with permissions_list_open and permissions_respond.
• Enable Claude-specific channel notifications for live messages and permission events.
• Manage OpenClaw-saved outbound MCP server definitions with openclaw mcp add, set, configure, tools, login, logout, status, doctor, probe, reload, and unset.
• Inspect the MCP registry from the OpenClaw Control UI at /mcp.

Installation

Install the OpenClaw CLI:

npm install -g openclaw@latest

Configure a local MCP client to launch the OpenClaw bridge:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openclaw": {
      "command": "openclaw",
      "args": ["mcp", "serve"]
    }
  }
}

For a remote Gateway, pass a WebSocket URL and a token or password file:

openclaw mcp serve --url wss://gateway-host:18789 --token-file ~/.openclaw/gateway.token
openclaw mcp serve --url wss://gateway-host:18789 --password-file ~/.openclaw/gateway.password

Use openclaw mcp serve --claude-channel-mode off when a generic MCP client should use only standard MCP polling tools instead of Claude-specific channel notifications.

Bridge Tools

MCP Registry Commands

The non-serve commands make OpenClaw act as a client-side MCP registry. They save and inspect server definitions under mcp.servers in OpenClaw config. They do not expose OpenClaw over MCP by themselves.

Common registry commands:

openclaw mcp list
openclaw mcp status --verbose
openclaw mcp doctor --probe
openclaw mcp probe context7 --json
openclaw mcp add memory --command npx --arg -y --arg @modelcontextprotocol/server-memory
openclaw mcp set docs '{"url":"https://mcp.example.com","transport":"streamable-http"}'
openclaw mcp configure docs --auth oauth --oauth-scope 'docs.read'
openclaw mcp login docs
openclaw mcp unset context7

Use probe or doctor --probe when you need live proof that a saved MCP server connects and lists capabilities.

Use Cases

• Let Claude Code or Codex inspect OpenClaw conversations that already have Gateway route metadata.
• Read recent transcript history before responding to a channel thread.
• Watch live inbound events from OpenClaw-backed channels while an MCP client is connected.
• Send a text reply through the same recorded route after human review.
• Surface live OpenClaw approval requests inside an MCP client session.
• Maintain a central registry of MCP servers that OpenClaw-managed runtimes can later consume.

Safety and Privacy

OpenClaw MCP inherits the authority of the connected Gateway and its configured channels. Sender allowlists, pairing policies, sandboxing, and channel trust boundaries still belong in OpenClaw Gateway configuration. The bridge only sends text through existing routes, but those routes may point at real messaging surfaces.

The live event queue starts when the bridge connects and disappears when the MCP client disconnects. Use messages_read for durable transcript history. Approval state is also live-session scoped, so permissions_list_open only includes requests observed while the bridge was connected.

For remote Gateways, keep token and password files out of prompts, screenshots, logs, and commits. Before exposing OpenClaw beyond localhost, review the official Gateway security and exposure runbooks.

Source Review

Verified on 2026-06-18:

• OpenClaw's MCP documentation describes openclaw mcp serve as the path for running OpenClaw as an MCP server and the other openclaw mcp subcommands as the client-side registry path.
• The documentation lists the bridge tools for conversations, transcript reads, live event polling, message sends, and approval handling.
• The documentation describes Claude-specific channel notifications and notes that generic MCP clients should rely on the standard polling tools.
• The OpenClaw npm package is published as openclaw with the upstream openclaw/openclaw repository.

Duplicate Check

No dedicated OpenClaw MCP server entry was found in content/mcp. Existing OpenClaw entries in content/skills are skill packs, not the official MCP bridge or MCP registry documentation.