WebChat (macOS)

The macOS menu bar app embeds the WebChat UI as a native SwiftUI view. It connects to the Gateway and defaults to the main session for the selected agent (with a session switcher for other sessions).

• Local mode: connects directly to the local Gateway WebSocket.
• Remote mode: forwards the Gateway control port over SSH and uses that tunnel as the data plane.

Launch & debugging

• Manual: Lobster menu → “Open Chat”.

• Auto‑open for testing:

  bash
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  dist/OpenClaw.app/Contents/MacOS/OpenClaw --webchat
  

• Logs:

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  ./scripts/clawlog.sh
  (subsystem
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  ai.openclaw
  , category
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  WebChatSwiftUI
  ).

How it is wired

• Data plane: Gateway WS methods
  text

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  chat.history
  ,
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  chat.send
  ,
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  chat.abort
  ,
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  chat.inject
  and events
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  chat
  ,
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  agent
  ,
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  presence
  ,
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  tick
  ,
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  health
  .
• text

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  chat.history
  returns display-normalized transcript rows: inline directive tags are stripped from visible text, plain-text tool-call XML payloads (including
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  <tool_call>...</tool_call>
  ,
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  <function_call>...</function_call>
  ,
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  <tool_calls>...</tool_calls>
  ,
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  <function_calls>...</function_calls>
  , and truncated tool-call blocks) and leaked ASCII/full-width model control tokens are stripped, pure silent-token assistant rows such as exact
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  NO_REPLY
  /
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  no_reply
  are omitted, and oversized rows can be replaced with placeholders.
• Session: defaults to the primary session (
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  main
  , or
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  global
  when scope is global). The UI can switch between sessions.
• Onboarding uses a dedicated session to keep first‑run setup separate.

Security surface

• Remote mode forwards only the Gateway WebSocket control port over SSH.

Known limitations

• The UI is optimized for chat sessions (not a full browser sandbox).

Related

• WebChat
• macOS app