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Guides

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.

Baseline non-interactive example

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

Provider-specific examples

Anthropic API key example
bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \  --mode local \  --auth-choice apiKey \  --anthropic-api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \  --gateway-bind loopback
Cloudflare AI Gateway example
bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \  --mode local \  --auth-choice cloudflare-ai-gateway-api-key \  --cloudflare-ai-gateway-account-id "your-account-id" \  --cloudflare-ai-gateway-gateway-id "your-gateway-id" \  --cloudflare-ai-gateway-api-key "$CLOUDFLARE_AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY" \  --gateway-bind loopback
Gemini example
bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \  --mode local \  --auth-choice gemini-api-key \  --gemini-api-key "$GEMINI_API_KEY" \  --gateway-bind loopback
Mistral example
bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \  --mode local \  --auth-choice mistral-api-key \  --mistral-api-key "$MISTRAL_API_KEY" \  --gateway-bind loopback
Moonshot example
bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \  --mode local \  --auth-choice moonshot-api-key \  --moonshot-api-key "$MOONSHOT_API_KEY" \  --gateway-bind loopback
Ollama example
bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \  --mode local \  --auth-choice ollama \  --custom-model-id "qwen3.5:27b" \  --gateway-bind loopback
OpenCode example
bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \  --mode local \  --auth-choice opencode-zen \  --opencode-zen-api-key "$OPENCODE_API_KEY" \  --gateway-bind loopback

Swap to --auth-choice opencode-go --opencode-go-api-key "$OPENCODE_API_KEY" for the Go catalog.

Synthetic example
bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \  --mode local \  --auth-choice synthetic-api-key \  --synthetic-api-key "$SYNTHETIC_API_KEY" \  --gateway-bind loopback
Vercel AI Gateway example
bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \  --mode local \  --auth-choice ai-gateway-api-key \  --ai-gateway-api-key "$AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY" \  --gateway-bind loopback
Z.AI example
bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \  --mode local \  --auth-choice zai-api-key \  --zai-api-key "$ZAI_API_KEY" \  --gateway-bind loopback
Custom provider example
bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \  --mode local \  --auth-choice custom-api-key \  --custom-base-url "https://llm.example.com/v1" \  --custom-model-id "foo-large" \  --custom-api-key "$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.

bash
openclaw agents add work \  --workspace ~/.openclaw/workspace-work \  --model openai/gpt-5.5 \  --bind whatsapp:biz \  --non-interactive \  --json

Config keys it writes (agents.list[] 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.
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