MCP

openclaw mcp has two jobs:

• run OpenClaw as an MCP server with openclaw mcp serve
• manage OpenClaw-owned outbound MCP server definitions with list, show, set, and unset

In other words:

• serve is OpenClaw acting as an MCP server
• list / show / set / unset is OpenClaw acting as an MCP client-side registry for other MCP servers its runtimes may consume later

Use [openclaw acp](/docs/openclaw-docs/cli/acp when OpenClaw should host a coding harness session itself and route that runtime through ACP.

OpenClaw as an MCP server

This is the openclaw mcp serve path.

When to use serve

Use openclaw mcp serve when:

• Codex, Claude Code, or another MCP client should talk directly to OpenClaw-backed channel conversations
• you already have a local or remote OpenClaw Gateway with routed sessions
• you want one MCP server that works across OpenClaw's channel backends instead of running separate per-channel bridges

Use [openclaw acp](/docs/openclaw-docs/cli/acp instead when OpenClaw should host the coding runtime itself and keep the agent session inside OpenClaw.

How it works

openclaw mcp serve starts a stdio MCP server. The MCP client owns that process. While the client keeps the stdio session open, the bridge connects to a local or remote OpenClaw Gateway over WebSocket and exposes routed channel conversations over MCP.

Choose a client mode

Use the same bridge in two different ways:

What serve exposes

The bridge uses existing Gateway session route metadata to expose channel-backed conversations. A conversation appears when OpenClaw already has session state with a known route such as:

• channel
• recipient or destination metadata
• optional accountId
• optional threadId

This gives MCP clients one place to:

• list recent routed conversations
• read recent transcript history
• wait for new inbound events
• send a reply back through the same route
• see approval requests that arrive while the bridge is connected

Usage

Bridge tools

The current bridge exposes these MCP tools:

Useful filters:

- `limit`
- `search`
- `channel`
- `includeDerivedTitles`
- `includeLastMessage`

Use this when a generic MCP client needs near-real-time delivery without a Claude-specific push protocol.

Current behavior:

- requires an existing conversation route
- uses the session's channel, recipient, account id, and thread id
- sends text only

- `allow-once`
- `allow-always`
- `deny`

Event model

The bridge keeps an in-memory event queue while it is connected.

Current event types:

• message
• exec_approval_requested
• exec_approval_resolved
• plugin_approval_requested
• plugin_approval_resolved
• claude_permission_request

Claude channel notifications

The bridge can also expose Claude-specific channel notifications. This is the OpenClaw equivalent of a Claude Code channel adapter: standard MCP tools remain available, but live inbound messages can also arrive as Claude-specific MCP notifications.

When Claude channel mode is enabled, the server advertises Claude experimental capabilities and can emit:

• notifications/claude/channel
• notifications/claude/channel/permission

Current bridge behavior:

• inbound user transcript messages are forwarded as notifications/claude/channel
• Claude permission requests received over MCP are tracked in-memory
• if the linked conversation later sends yes abcde or no abcde, the bridge converts that to notifications/claude/channel/permission
• these notifications are live-session only; if the MCP client disconnects, there is no push target

This is intentionally client-specific. Generic MCP clients should rely on the standard polling tools.

MCP client config

Example stdio client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openclaw": {
      "command": "openclaw",
      "args": [
        "mcp",
        "serve",
        "--url",
        "wss://gateway-host:18789",
        "--token-file",
        "/path/to/gateway.token"
      ]
    }
  }
}

For most generic MCP clients, start with the standard tool surface and ignore Claude mode. Turn Claude mode on only for clients that actually understand the Claude-specific notification methods.

Options

openclaw mcp serve supports:

Security and trust boundary

The bridge does not invent routing. It only exposes conversations that Gateway already knows how to route.

That means:

• sender allowlists, pairing, and channel-level trust still belong to the underlying OpenClaw channel configuration
• messages_send can only reply through an existing stored route
• approval state is live/in-memory only for the current bridge session
• bridge auth should use the same Gateway token or password controls you would trust for any other remote Gateway client

If a conversation is missing from conversations_list, the usual cause is not MCP configuration. It is missing or incomplete route metadata in the underlying Gateway session.

Testing

OpenClaw ships a deterministic Docker smoke for this bridge:

pnpm test:docker:mcp-channels

That smoke:

• starts a seeded Gateway container
• starts a second container that spawns openclaw mcp serve
• verifies conversation discovery, transcript reads, attachment metadata reads, live event queue behavior, and outbound send routing
• validates Claude-style channel and permission notifications over the real stdio MCP bridge

This is the fastest way to prove the bridge works without wiring a real Telegram, Discord, or iMessage account into the test run.

For broader testing context, see [Testing](/docs/openclaw-docs/help/testing.

Troubleshooting

- the client kept the stdio MCP session open
- `--claude-channel-mode` is `on` or `auto`
- the client actually understands the Claude-specific notification methods
- the inbound message happened after the bridge connected

OpenClaw as an MCP client registry

This is the openclaw mcp list, show, set, and unset path.

These commands do not expose OpenClaw over MCP. They manage OpenClaw-owned MCP server definitions under mcp.servers in OpenClaw config.

Those saved definitions are for runtimes that OpenClaw launches or configures later, such as embedded Pi and other runtime adapters. OpenClaw stores the definitions centrally so those runtimes do not need to keep their own duplicate MCP server lists.

Runtime adapters may normalize this shared registry into the shape their downstream client expects. For example, embedded Pi consumes OpenClaw transport values directly, while Claude Code and Gemini receive CLI-native type values such as http, sse, or stdio.

Saved MCP server definitions

OpenClaw also stores a lightweight MCP server registry in config for surfaces that want OpenClaw-managed MCP definitions.

Commands:

• openclaw mcp list
• openclaw mcp show [name]
• openclaw mcp set <name> <json>
• openclaw mcp unset <name>

Notes:

• list sorts server names.
• show without a name prints the full configured MCP server object.
• set expects one JSON object value on the command line.
• Use transport: "streamable-http" for Streamable HTTP MCP servers. openclaw mcp set also normalizes CLI-native type: "http" to the same canonical config shape for compatibility.
• unset fails if the named server does not exist.

Examples:

openclaw mcp list
openclaw mcp show context7 --json
openclaw mcp set context7 '{"command":"uvx","args":["context7-mcp"]}'
openclaw mcp set docs '{"url":"https://mcp.example.com","transport":"streamable-http"}'
openclaw mcp unset context7

Example config shape:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "context7": {
        "command": "uvx",
        "args": ["context7-mcp"]
      },
      "docs": {
        "url": "https://mcp.example.com",
        "transport": "streamable-http"
      }
    }
  }
}

Stdio transport

Launches a local child process and communicates over stdin/stdout.

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "remote-tools": {
        "url": "https://mcp.example.com",
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "Bearer <token>"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "streaming-tools": {
        "url": "https://mcp.example.com/stream",
        "transport": "streamable-http",
        "connectionTimeoutMs": 10000,
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "Bearer <token>"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}