openclaw-cli

Talk to OpenClaw from your terminal with openclaw-cli, or run it as an MCP server with openclaw-cli mcp.

Install CLI

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TimoBechtel/openclaw-cli/main/install.sh | bash

Skill

This repo ships a skill at skills/openclaw-cli/SKILL.md so agents can call the CLI directly.

Install it with:

npx skills add TimoBechtel/openclaw-cli --skill openclaw-cli

CLI usage

openclaw-cli ask "Is there anything on my calendar for today?" # one-off question
openclaw-cli ask "Let's cancel this appointment and block 1h this afternoon for a coding session." --session-key "<session-key>" # continue same conversation
openclaw-cli ask "Send me a rain report for tomorrow on Telegram." --json # script-friendly JSON object: { response, sessionKey }
openclaw-cli ask "What should I do next?" --context=none # opt out of auto context injection
cat prompt.txt | openclaw-cli ask "Create a skill from this" # combine message argument + piped content
cat prompt.txt | openclaw-cli ask # stdin-only input also works
openclaw-cli mcp # run as an MCP server over stdio

When omitted, --session-key is auto-generated.

MCP setup

Example MCP config for Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "openclaw": {
      "command": "openclaw-cli",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": {
        "OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN": "your-token-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration

Variable	Description	Default
OPENCLAW_BASE_URL	OpenClaw Gateway URL	http://127.0.0.1:18789
OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN	Bearer token for auth	-
OPENCLAW_AGENT_ID	Target agent ID	main
OPENCLAW_SESSION_KEY_PREFIX	Prefix for generated session keys	-
OPENCLAW_ALIAS	Alias in MCP tool description	OpenClaw

Requirements

Enable OpenResponses in your OpenClaw config:

{ gateway: { http: { endpoints: { responses: { enabled: true } } } } }

Do not expose your OpenClaw Gateway to the public internet. Use Tailscale for remote access.

Build from source

You need Bun.

bun install
bun run build:all