Tools and plugins

Everything the agent does beyond generating text happens through tools. Tools are how the agent reads files, runs commands, browses the web, sends messages, and interacts with devices.

Tools, skills, and plugins

OpenClaw has three layers that work together:

Built-in tools

These tools ship with OpenClaw and are available without installing any plugins:

For image work, use

for analysis and for generation or editing. If you target , , , or another non-default image provider, configure that provider's auth/API key first.

For music work, use

. If you target , , or another non-default music provider, configure that provider's auth/API key first.

For video work, use

. If you target or another non-default video provider, configure that provider's auth/API key first.

For workflow-driven audio generation, use

when a plugin such as ComfyUI registers it. This is separate from , which is text-to-speech.

is the lightweight status/readback tool in the sessions group. It answers -style questions about the current session and can optionally set a per-session model override; clears that override. Like , it can backfill sparse token/cache counters and the active runtime model label from the latest transcript usage entry.

is the owner-only runtime tool for gateway operations:

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  config.schema.lookup
  for one path-scoped config subtree before edits
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  config.get
  for the current config snapshot + hash
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  config.patch
  for partial config updates with restart
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  config.apply
  only for full-config replacement
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  update.run
  for explicit self-update + restart

For partial changes, prefer

then . Use only when you intentionally replace the entire config. For broader config docs, read Configuration and Configuration reference. The tool also refuses to change or ; legacy aliases normalize to the same protected exec paths.

Plugin-provided tools

Plugins can register additional tools. Some examples:

• Diffs — diff viewer and renderer
• LLM Task — JSON-only LLM step for structured output
• Lobster — typed workflow runtime with resumable approvals
• Music Generation — shared
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  music_generate
  tool with workflow-backed providers
• OpenProse — markdown-first workflow orchestration
• Tokenjuice — compact noisy
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  exec
  and
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  bash
  tool results

Tool configuration

Allow and deny lists

Control which tools the agent can call via

/ in config. Deny always wins over allow.

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{
  tools: {
    allow: ["group:fs", "browser", "web_search"],
    deny: ["exec"],
  },
}

OpenClaw fails closed when an explicit allowlist resolves to no callable tools. For example,

only works if a loaded plugin actually registers . If no built-in, plugin, or bundled MCP tool matches the allowlist, the run stops before the model call instead of continuing as a text-only run that could hallucinate tool results.

Tool profiles

sets a base allowlist before / is applied. Per-agent override: .

includes lightweight web tools (, , ) but not the full browser-control tool. Browser automation can drive real sessions and logged-in profiles, so add it explicitly with or a per-agent .

The

and profiles also allow configured bundle MCP tools under the plugin key . Add when you want a profile to keep its normal built-ins but hide all configured MCP tools. The profile does not include bundle MCP tools.

Example (broadest tool surface by default):

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{
  tools: {
    profile: "full",
  },
}

Tool groups

Use

shorthands in allow/deny lists:

returns a bounded, safety-filtered recall view. It strips thinking tags, scaffolding, plain-text tool-call XML payloads (including , , , , and truncated tool-call blocks), downgraded tool-call scaffolding, leaked ASCII/full-width model control tokens, and malformed MiniMax tool-call XML from assistant text, then applies redaction/truncation and possible oversized-row placeholders instead of acting as a raw transcript dump.

Provider-specific restrictions

Use

to restrict tools for specific providers without changing global defaults:

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{
  tools: {
    profile: "coding",
    byProvider: {
      "google-antigravity": { profile: "minimal" },
    },
  },
}