OpenClaw + Claude Code

Why Pair Claude Code With OpenClaw?

Claude Code is great at code-and-config: editing JSON, writing skills, running shell commands, reading logs. OpenClaw is great at agent deployment: gateway, channels, memory, model routing. Connecting them gives you a powerful workflow — you develop your OpenClaw agent from Claude Code, then OpenClaw serves the result to end users on chat platforms.

Step 1: Install Claude Code

Install from the Anthropic CLI distribution channels. Once installed, log in with your Anthropic account.

# Verify Claude Code is installed
claude --version

# Login (opens browser)
claude login

Step 2: Get an OpenClaw Container

Either self-host via the install guide or deploy a managed container on OpenClaw Launch. Once you have a container, note its workspace path (usually /home/node/.openclaw) and gateway URL.

Step 3: Point Claude Code at the OpenClaw Workspace

Open Claude Code from inside the OpenClaw workspace so the CLI's file edits land where the gateway watches:

# Self-hosted
cd ~/.openclaw && claude

# Managed (via SSH to the container)
ssh openclaw@your-container "cd .openclaw && claude"

From here, Claude Code can read openclaw.json, edit channel configs, draft new skills under extensions/, and run openclaw CLI commands directly.

Step 4: Share Workspace + Memory

The OpenClaw workspace at ~/.openclaw contains: openclaw.json,credentials/ (channel tokens), memory/ (Qwen embeddings on paid plans), and extensions/ (installed skills). Claude Code can read and edit all of these — just keep in mind:

• Edits to channels.*, agents.*, models.* hot-apply
• Edits to plugins.* or gateway.auth.* need a gateway restart
• Don't commit credentials/ — it has live tokens

Step 5: Drive the Agent From Claude Code

Claude Code can call the OpenClaw CLI as a tool. Ask Claude to send a test message, tail logs, or restart the gateway:

# In Claude Code:
"Send a test message via the OpenClaw gateway and report the response."

# Claude Code runs:
openclaw chat send "test"
openclaw logs --since 30s

Comparison With Hermes Agent + Claude Code

Hermes Agent has a similar Claude Code integration — see the Hermes side guide. The difference is scope: with OpenClaw you ship the result to Telegram / Discord / WhatsApp; with Hermes you ship to a single chat session.

Skip the Setup