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Plugins

Plugins extend OpenClaw with new capabilities: channels, model providers, tools, skills, speech, image generation, and more. Some plugins are core (shipped with OpenClaw), others are external (published on npm by the community).

Quick start

1

See what is loaded

2

Install a plugin

3

Restart the Gateway

Then configure under plugins.entries.\<id\>.config in your config file.
If you prefer chat-native control, enable commands.plugins: true and use:
The install path uses the same resolver as the CLI: local path/archive, explicit clawhub:<pkg>, or bare package spec (ClawHub first, then npm fallback).

Plugin types

OpenClaw recognizes two plugin formats: Both show up under openclaw plugins list. See Plugin Bundles for bundle details. If you are writing a native plugin, start with Building Plugins and the Plugin SDK Overview.

Official plugins

Installable (npm)

Core (shipped with OpenClaw)

anthropic, byteplus, cloudflare-ai-gateway, github-copilot, google, huggingface, kilocode, kimi-coding, minimax, mistral, modelstudio, moonshot, nvidia, openai, opencode, opencode-go, openrouter, qianfan, qwen-portal-auth, synthetic, together, venice, vercel-ai-gateway, volcengine, xiaomi, zai
  • memory-core — bundled memory search (default via plugins.slots.memory)
  • memory-lancedb — install-on-demand long-term memory with auto-recall/capture (set plugins.slots.memory = "memory-lancedb")
elevenlabs, microsoft
  • copilot-proxy — VS Code Copilot Proxy bridge (disabled by default)
Looking for third-party plugins? See Community Plugins.

Configuration

Config changes require a gateway restart. If the Gateway is running with config watch + in-process restart enabled (the default openclaw gateway path), that restart is usually performed automatically a moment after the config write lands.
  • Disabled: plugin exists but enablement rules turned it off. Config is preserved.
  • Missing: config references a plugin id that discovery did not find.
  • Invalid: plugin exists but its config does not match the declared schema.

Discovery and precedence

OpenClaw scans for plugins in this order (first match wins):
1

Config paths

plugins.load.paths — explicit file or directory paths.
2

Workspace extensions

\<workspace\>/.openclaw/extensions/*.ts and \<workspace\>/.openclaw/extensions/*/index.ts.
3

Global extensions

~/.openclaw/extensions/*.ts and ~/.openclaw/extensions/*/index.ts.
4

Bundled plugins

Shipped with OpenClaw. Many are enabled by default (model providers, speech). Others require explicit enablement.

Enablement rules

  • plugins.enabled: false disables all plugins
  • plugins.deny always wins over allow
  • plugins.entries.\<id\>.enabled: false disables that plugin
  • Workspace-origin plugins are disabled by default (must be explicitly enabled)
  • Bundled plugins follow the built-in default-on set unless overridden
  • Exclusive slots can force-enable the selected plugin for that slot

Plugin slots (exclusive categories)

Some categories are exclusive (only one active at a time):

CLI reference

See openclaw plugins CLI reference for full details.

Plugin API overview

Plugins export either a function or an object with register(api):
Common registration methods: