Building plugins

Plugins extend OpenClaw with new capabilities: channels, model providers, speech, realtime transcription, realtime voice, media understanding, image generation, video generation, web fetch, web search, agent tools, or any combination.

You do not need to add your plugin to the OpenClaw repository. Publish to ClawHub and users install with openclaw plugins install clawhub:<package-name>. Bare package specs still install from npm during the launch cutover.

Prerequisites

• Node >= 22 and a package manager (npm or pnpm)
• Familiarity with TypeScript (ESM)
• For in-repo plugins: repository cloned and pnpm install done. Source checkout plugin development is pnpm-only because OpenClaw loads bundled plugins from the extensions/* workspace packages.

What kind of plugin?

For a channel plugin that isn't guaranteed to be installed when onboarding/setup runs, use createOptionalChannelSetupSurface(...) from openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-setup. It produces a setup adapter + wizard pair that advertises the install requirement and fails closed on real config writes until the plugin is installed.

Quick start: tool plugin

This walkthrough creates a minimal plugin that registers an agent tool. Channel and provider plugins have dedicated guides linked above.

```json openclaw.plugin.json
{
  "id": "my-plugin",
  "name": "My Plugin",
  "description": "Adds a custom tool to OpenClaw",
  "contracts": {
    "tools": ["my_tool"]
  },
  "activation": {
    "onStartup": true
  },
  "configSchema": {
    "type": "object",
    "additionalProperties": false
  }
}
```
</CodeGroup>

Every plugin needs a manifest, even with no config. Runtime-registered tools
must be listed in `contracts.tools` so OpenClaw can discover the owning
plugin without loading every plugin runtime. Plugins should also declare
`activation.onStartup` intentionally. This example sets it to `true`. See
[Manifest](/plugins/manifest) for the full schema. The canonical ClawHub
publish snippets live in `docs/snippets/plugin-publish/`.

```typescript
// index.ts
import { definePluginEntry } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/plugin-entry";
import { Type } from "@sinclair/typebox";

export default definePluginEntry({
  id: "my-plugin",
  name: "My Plugin",
  description: "Adds a custom tool to OpenClaw",
  register(api) {
    api.registerTool({
      name: "my_tool",
      description: "Do a thing",
      parameters: Type.Object({ input: Type.String() }),
      async execute(_id, params) {
        return { content: [{ type: "text", text: `Got: ${params.input}` }] };
      },
    });
  },
});
```

`definePluginEntry` is for non-channel plugins. For channels, use
`defineChannelPluginEntry` — see [Channel Plugins](/plugins/sdk-channel-plugins).
For full entry point options, see [Entry Points](/plugins/sdk-entrypoints).

**External plugins:** validate and publish with ClawHub, then install:

```bash
clawhub package publish your-org/your-plugin --dry-run
clawhub package publish your-org/your-plugin
openclaw plugins install clawhub:@myorg/openclaw-my-plugin
```

Bare package specs like `@myorg/openclaw-my-plugin` install from npm during
the launch cutover. Use `clawhub:` when you want ClawHub resolution.

**In-repo plugins:** place under the bundled plugin workspace tree — automatically discovered.

```bash
pnpm test -- <bundled-plugin-root>/my-plugin/
```

Plugin capabilities

A single plugin can register any number of capabilities via the api object:

For the full registration API, see SDK Overview.

Bundled plugins can use api.registerAgentToolResultMiddleware(...) when they need async tool-result rewriting before the model sees the output. Declare the targeted runtimes in contracts.agentToolResultMiddleware, for example ["pi", "codex"]. This is a trusted bundled-plugin seam; external plugins should prefer regular OpenClaw plugin hooks unless OpenClaw grows an explicit trust policy for this capability.

If your plugin registers custom gateway RPC methods, keep them on a plugin-specific prefix. Core admin namespaces (config.*, exec.approvals.*, wizard.*, update.*) stay reserved and always resolve to operator.admin, even if a plugin asks for a narrower scope.

Hook guard semantics to keep in mind:

• before_tool_call: { block: true } is terminal and stops lower-priority handlers.
• before_tool_call: { block: false } is treated as no decision.
• before_tool_call: { requireApproval: true } pauses agent execution and prompts the user for approval via the exec approval overlay, Telegram buttons, Discord interactions, or the /approve command on any channel.
• before_install: { block: true } is terminal and stops lower-priority handlers.
• before_install: { block: false } is treated as no decision.
• message_sending: { cancel: true } is terminal and stops lower-priority handlers.
• message_sending: { cancel: false } is treated as no decision.
• message_received: prefer the typed threadId field when you need inbound thread/topic routing. Keep metadata for channel-specific extras.
• message_sending: prefer typed replyToId / threadId routing fields over channel-specific metadata keys.

The /approve command handles both exec and plugin approvals with bounded fallback: when an exec approval id is not found, OpenClaw retries the same id through plugin approvals. Plugin approval forwarding can be configured independently via approvals.plugin in config.

If custom approval plumbing needs to detect that same bounded fallback case, prefer isApprovalNotFoundError from openclaw/plugin-sdk/error-runtime instead of matching approval-expiry strings manually.

See Plugin hooks for examples and the hook reference.

Registering agent tools

Tools are typed functions the LLM can call. They can be required (always available) or optional (user opt-in):

register(api) {
  // Required tool — always available
  api.registerTool({
    name: "my_tool",
    description: "Do a thing",
    parameters: Type.Object({ input: Type.String() }),
    async execute(_id, params) {
      return { content: [{ type: "text", text: params.input }] };
    },
  });

  // Optional tool — user must add to allowlist
  api.registerTool(
    {
      name: "workflow_tool",
      description: "Run a workflow",
      parameters: Type.Object({ pipeline: Type.String() }),
      async execute(_id, params) {
        return { content: [{ type: "text", text: params.pipeline }] };
      },
    },
    { optional: true },
  );
}

Every tool registered with api.registerTool(...) must also be declared in the plugin manifest:

{
  "contracts": {
    "tools": ["my_tool", "workflow_tool"]
  },
  "toolMetadata": {
    "workflow_tool": {
      "optional": true
    }
  }
}

OpenClaw captures and caches the validated descriptor from the registered tool, so plugins do not duplicate description or schema data in the manifest. The manifest contract only declares ownership and discovery; execution still calls the live registered tool implementation. Set toolMetadata.<tool>.optional: true for tools registered with api.registerTool(..., { optional: true }) so OpenClaw can avoid loading that plugin runtime until the tool is explicitly allowlisted.

Users enable optional tools in config:

{
  tools: { allow: ["workflow_tool"] },
}

• Tool names must not clash with core tools (conflicts are skipped)
• Tools with malformed registration objects, including missing parameters, are skipped and reported in plugin diagnostics instead of breaking agent runs
• Use optional: true for tools with side effects or extra binary requirements
• Users can enable all tools from a plugin by adding the plugin id to tools.allow

Registering CLI commands

Plugins can add root openclaw command groups with api.registerCli. Provide descriptors for every top-level command root so OpenClaw can show and route the command without eagerly loading every plugin runtime.

register(api) {
  api.registerCli(
    ({ program }) => {
      const demo = program
        .command("demo-plugin")
        .description("Run demo plugin commands");

      demo
        .command("ping")
        .description("Check that the plugin CLI is executable")
        .action(() => {
          console.log("demo-plugin:pong");
        });
    },
    {
      descriptors: [
        {
          name: "demo-plugin",
          description: "Run demo plugin commands",
          hasSubcommands: true,
        },
      ],
    },
  );
}

After install, verify the runtime registration and execute the command:

openclaw plugins inspect demo-plugin --runtime --json
openclaw demo-plugin ping

Import conventions

Always import from focused openclaw/plugin-sdk/<subpath> paths:

import { definePluginEntry } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/plugin-entry";
import { createPluginRuntimeStore } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk/runtime-store";

// Wrong: monolithic root (deprecated, will be removed)
import { ... } from "openclaw/plugin-sdk";

For the full subpath reference, see SDK Overview.

Within your plugin, use local barrel files (api.ts, runtime-api.ts) for internal imports — never import your own plugin through its SDK path.

For provider plugins, keep provider-specific helpers in those package-root barrels unless the seam is truly generic. Current bundled examples:

• Anthropic: Claude stream wrappers and service_tier / beta helpers
• OpenAI: provider builders, default-model helpers, realtime providers
• OpenRouter: provider builder plus onboarding/config helpers

If a helper is only useful inside one bundled provider package, keep it on that package-root seam instead of promoting it into openclaw/plugin-sdk/*.

Some generated openclaw/plugin-sdk/<bundled-id> helper seams still exist for bundled-plugin maintenance when they have tracked owner usage. Treat those as reserved surfaces, not as the default pattern for new third-party plugins.

Pre-submission checklist

<Check>package.json has correct openclaw metadata</Check> <Check>openclaw.plugin.json manifest is present and valid</Check> <Check>Entry point uses defineChannelPluginEntry or definePluginEntry</Check> <Check>All imports use focused plugin-sdk/<subpath> paths</Check> <Check>Internal imports use local modules, not SDK self-imports</Check> <Check>Tests pass (pnpm test -- <bundled-plugin-root>/my-plugin/)</Check> <Check>pnpm check passes (in-repo plugins)</Check>

Beta release testing

1. Watch for GitHub release tags on openclaw/openclaw and subscribe via Watch > Releases. Beta tags look like v2026.3.N-beta.1. You can also turn on notifications for the official OpenClaw X account @openclaw for release announcements.
2. Test your plugin against the beta tag as soon as it appears. The window before stable is typically only a few hours.
3. Post in your plugin's thread in the plugin-forum Discord channel after testing with either all good or what broke. If you do not have a thread yet, create one.
4. If something breaks, open or update an issue titled Beta blocker: <plugin-name> - <summary> and apply the beta-blocker label. Put the issue link in your thread.
5. Open a PR to main titled fix(<plugin-id>): beta blocker - <summary> and link the issue in both the PR and your Discord thread. Contributors cannot label PRs, so the title is the PR-side signal for maintainers and automation. Blockers with a PR get merged; blockers without one might ship anyway. Maintainers watch these threads during beta testing.
6. Silence means green. If you miss the window, your fix likely lands in the next cycle.

Next steps

Related

• Plugin Architecture — internal architecture deep dive
• SDK Overview — Plugin SDK reference
• Manifest — plugin manifest format
• Channel Plugins — building channel plugins
• Provider Plugins — building provider plugins