iOS app

Availability: iPhone app builds are distributed through Apple channels when enabled for a release. Local development builds can also run from source.

What it does

• Connects to a Gateway over WebSocket (LAN or tailnet).
• Exposes node capabilities: Screen snapshot, Camera capture, Location, Talk mode, Voice wake, and opt-in Health summaries.
• Receives node.invoke commands and reports node status events.
• Browses the selected agent’s workspace read-only from the Agents surface (Files): directory drill-down, syntax-highlighted text previews, image previews, and share-sheet export. No write operations; previews are size-capped by the gateway.
• Keeps a small read-only offline cache of recent chat sessions and transcripts per paired gateway: cold opens paint the last known transcript immediately and refresh once the gateway responds, recent chats stay browsable while disconnected, and reset/forget purges the protected local cache.
• Queues text messages sent while disconnected in a durable per-gateway outbox (up to 50): queued bubbles show in the transcript, flush in order on reconnect with idempotent retries, remain durable until canonical history confirms the send, retry with backoff before surfacing a retry/delete action, and expire instead of sending after 48 hours offline; reset/forget clears the queue with the cache.
• Chat is the single text-and-voice surface. Chat actions can open the full Sessions screen without leaving Chat and can show or hide assistant reasoning and tool activity. Tap the microphone for draft dictation, open its menu to record a voice note, or use the inline Talk control for realtime voice; the Talk control animates from live microphone or playback level while listening or speaking.
• Chat accepts images from the photo picker, camera, Files, paste, and the iOS share sheet. Assistant-generated images render inline from short-lived Gateway artifact URLs, open in a full-screen preview, and remain available after reconnect or history reload without storing image bytes in the transcript cache.
• Renders completed Mermaid code fences as inline diagrams, with source/copy controls and a full-screen zoomable preview. Diagram rendering uses bundled assets and works offline.
• Long-press a message or open its actions menu and choose Select Text to select and copy any span in a native text view; code fences show a copy button that copies the raw code.
• Settings -> OpenClaw opens a dedicated Gateway settings assistant when the operator connection has operator.admin and the Gateway supports openclaw.chat. Its setup conversation stays separate from ordinary Chat, redacts secret replies locally, and moves to Chat only after you tap Open Chat.
• Speaks assistant messages on demand: long-press a message in Chat and choose Listen. The app plays supported gateway tts.speak clips with the configured TTS provider and falls back to on-device speech when gateway audio is unavailable or unplayable. Playback stops on session switch or backgrounding.

Session colors

Long-press a session in the sidebar or Sessions screen to open its session actions, then choose Color. Select red, blue, green, yellow, purple, orange, pink, or cyan. Default clears the color.

A colored session has a narrow leading stripe in session lists and a small dot beside its title in Chat. Unset colors show neither marker. The Gateway stores color names, not hex values; the app adjusts their hues for light and dark appearances.

Diagrams in chat

Use a fenced mermaid block to display a diagram. A diagram renders when its closing fence arrives or the response finishes; an incomplete streaming fence stays readable as code. Ordinary code fences keep their usual presentation.

Tap the diagram to open a full-screen preview with pinch-to-zoom. The corner menu lets you switch between the diagram and its source, and the copy button copies the complete source. If rendering fails, the source remains available; temporary failures offer Retry diagram.

Local source builds generate the bundled renderer during pnpm ios:gen. Run pnpm install from the repository root before generating the Xcode project so the pinned renderer dependencies are available.

Requirements

• Gateway running on another device (macOS, Linux, or Windows via WSL2).
• Network path:
  • Same LAN via Bonjour, or
  • Tailnet via unicast DNS-SD (example domain: openclaw.internal.), or
  • Manual host/port (fallback).

Quick start (pair + connect)

On first launch the app walks through a short pairing explainer, then Gateway setup. It does not present an aggregate permissions page. Optional access is requested when you use the related feature, or after you tap Continue for that permission under Settings -> Permissions -> Privacy & Access. Continue immediately presents the native iOS authorization prompt. You can change granted access later in the iOS Settings app.

1. Start an authenticated Gateway with a route your phone can reach. Tailscale Serve is the recommended remote path:

openclaw gateway --port 18789 --tailscale serve

For a trusted same-LAN setup, use an authenticated gateway.bind: "lan" instead. The default loopback bind is not reachable from a phone. If the Gateway has not been configured yet, run openclaw onboard first so setup-code creation has a token or password auth path.

2. Open the Control UI, select Nodes, and click Pair device on the Devices page. Full access is recommended and selected by default; choose Limited access only when you want to omit administrative Gateway controls, then click Create setup code.

3. In the iOS app, open Settings -> Gateway, scan the QR code (or paste the setup code), and connect.

   Paired gateways remain in the Gateways list. The checkmark identifies the focused gateway; use the bolt control on another row to keep its operator session connected at the same time. Switching focus does not disconnect other enabled gateways. Only the focused gateway receives the iPhone’s capability-bearing node session, so camera, screen, location, and other device commands always have one unambiguous owner. iOS may suspend these foreground connections after the app enters the background.

4. The official app connects automatically. If Pending approval shows a request, review its role and scopes before approving it.

   Settings → Gateway shows whether the saved operator connection has Full or Limited access. Plaintext LAN ws:// setup is automatically limited for bearer-token safety. If it is limited, configure wss:// or Tailscale Serve, scan a new full-access code from Control UI or openclaw qr, then reconnect to enable settings and upgrades.

The Control UI button requires an already paired session with operator.admin. As a terminal fallback, pick a discovered gateway in the iOS app (or enable Manual Host and enter host/port), then approve the request on the Gateway host:

openclaw devices list
openclaw devices approve <requestId>

If the app retries pairing with changed auth details (role/scopes/public key), the previous pending request is superseded and a new requestId is created. Run openclaw devices list again before approval.

Optional: if the iOS node always connects from a tightly controlled subnet, you can opt in to first-time node auto-approval with explicit CIDRs or exact IPs:

{
  gateway: {
    nodes: {
      pairing: {
        autoApproveCidrs: ["192.168.1.0/24"],
      },
    },
  },
}

This is disabled by default. It applies only to fresh role: node pairing with no requested scopes. Operator/browser pairing and any role, scope, metadata, or public-key change still require manual approval.

5. Verify connection:

openclaw nodes status
openclaw gateway call node.list --params "{}"

Health summaries

The iOS node can return an opt-in, read-only HealthKit aggregate for the current calendar day. iOS device consent and explicit Gateway command authorization are independent gates. See HealthKit summaries for setup, invocation, payload fields, privacy behavior, and troubleshooting.

Apple Watch voice and chat

OpenClaw has two separate Watch voice paths:

• Talk to Claw uses watchOS dictation, text relayed through the paired iPhone, and system-voice readback on the Watch, one turn at a time.
• Talk on Watch starts an opt-in realtime audio call from the Watch after separate setup. The iPhone is not its audio or chat relay.

Neither path runs a full agent or the stock Codex runtime on the Watch. The Gateway owns agent execution and tool policy; the Watch provides input, playback, and call controls.

Pair the Watch with the iPhone in Apple’s Watch app, install OpenClaw from Watch app -> My Watch -> Available Apps, then open OpenClaw once on both devices.

Talk to Claw with the iPhone

This companion path does not need separate Watch Gateway pairing. Its Talk controls operate Talk on the paired iPhone; they do not enable a standalone Watch call.

1. Connect the iPhone to your Gateway and select the chat you want to use.
2. On the Watch, open Talk to Claw, then tap the voice button beside Message OpenClaw.
3. Use the native input sheet to dictate and submit your message. Keep Chat open on the Watch to hear the reply. The message pill also opens native input, but does not request a spoken reply.

The iPhone must remain available to relay messages. If its Gateway connection is asleep, Watch messages use the same bounded background reconnect as Watch quick replies, respecting the iPhone’s auto-connect setting. Update OpenClaw on both devices: older companion chat payloads cannot establish the ownership needed for safe delivery and are rejected with an update-required error. An older Watch app may still label a background transfer as queued; that label does not mean the updated phone accepted it. Check the phone’s delivery warning and update both apps before sending again.

Both apps save delivery state before acknowledging it. The Watch retains the original command while waiting for the phone to accept it, and the phone saves the accepted run and its reply before sending the result back. Reopening an app or losing a result acknowledgment can therefore redeliver a saved reply without submitting the same chat again. A queued message is still not confirmation that the Gateway has processed it.

A permanent rejection, such as an expired message or retired Gateway route, does not mean the phone accepted the message. The Watch records that outcome without retrying the command. Reconnecting the Watch or requesting Refresh also retries saved result delivery without submitting another chat.

If delivery stalls, open Settings -> Apple Watch -> Message Delivery on iPhone. Delivery uncertain means the phone cannot prove whether a send reached the Gateway; check the original conversation before resending. It does not automatically repeat that send. Messages saved by an older app that lack the new delivery context appear as Needs review. Copy their text to Chat if you still want to send it, or use Discard to delete that text. Completed cards offer Dismiss, which hides the card while preserving its original receipt for the Watch. Active deliveries offer neither action. Dismiss does not cancel a Gateway run or extend the reply’s expiry.

If the Gateway accepts a message but the phone cannot save that acceptance, a later refresh or reconnect retries the local save without sending again. If the app exits before saving it, the send is treated as uncertain on reopening.

New commands and their saved app-local copies expire after 48 hours, measured from their original submission, not the most recent retry. Expiration stops automatic delivery and reply replay; it does not cancel remote work or delete the Gateway conversation. Expired app-local copies are removed on the next delivery operation or when the delivery list opens, not by a background timer. Previously saved messages marked Needs review remain on iPhone until you discard them or forget their Gateway.

The phone retains hash-only import markers after Discard or Forget so an older app’s saved queue cannot restore identical deleted text on a later upgrade. If older messages conflict with saved delivery data or a forgotten Gateway, the app preserves their source and shows a recovery error. Contact support to recover those messages. Reset Onboarding deliberately erases all local client state, including the old queue and its import markers; it is not a targeted message deletion.

Only the reply belonging to the submitted turn is read aloud. Switching the Gateway or chat on iPhone retires the pending spoken reply and clears the old Watch preview. Leaving Watch Chat or backgrounding the app stops playback; a reply received while away can be read on return if its wait has not expired.

The spoken-reply wait expires after 90 seconds and shows Spoken reply timed out. Check Chat on iPhone., including after reopening the Watch app. Cancelling that wait or stopping speech does not cancel the Gateway chat run or remove a queued message. If no reply is spoken, refresh Chat or check the conversation on iPhone before resending. Long runs and interrupted return delivery can still require this manual readback. Keep the Gateway updated for reliable reply attribution when messages are collected into a later run.

The phone captures the Gateway, agent and exact session when it offers a chat or quick-reply action. Later changes to the selected chat cannot retarget a queued message, including shared main or global sessions. If that delivery context is unavailable, reconnect and refresh from iPhone rather than guessing the destination.

Forgetting a Gateway removes its phone delivery records and invalidates old commands, even if you pair the same Gateway again. A disconnected Watch cannot be remotely erased immediately; it clears a stale command when it receives the phone’s rejection. The Watch’s Forget direct setup action affects only its separate direct connection, not the iPhone relay.

These are app-local SQLite journals. They migrate when the apps open and do not require a Gateway database upgrade or openclaw doctor run.

Standalone voice

Standalone voice needs a current Gateway with Gateway-controlled WebRTC Talk, an iPhone connection with operator.admin for setup, and a secure Gateway URL the Watch can reach independently. Use the same secure endpoint and initial pairing requirements as direct Watch node setup: watchOS must trust the HTTPS certificate, and an iPhone-only or tailnet-only route is not enough when the Watch is away from the phone.

1. Configure realtime Talk mode on the Gateway with webrtc transport and a provider/authentication combination that supports gateway-control-v1 and returns an ICE-lite answer with UDP candidates. Provider credentials stay on the Gateway.
2. On iPhone, open Settings -> Apple Watch -> Enable Standalone Voice. This also pairs the direct node; Enable Direct Gateway Connection alone does not grant voice access.
3. Open OpenClaw on the Watch before the setup code expires. Open Talk on Watch and wait for Ready to talk.
4. Tap Start, allow microphone access, and choose an agent if prompted. Keep OpenClaw on screen until it shows Connected. Opening the voice screen alone does not start the microphone.
5. Speak, use Mute or Unmute as needed, and tap End to finish. The screen shows the latest user and assistant transcripts; the Gateway retains the conversation history.

The one-time setup gives the Watch its own node credential and an operator credential with exactly operator.read and operator.talk. It does not grant admin access or copy the iPhone’s saved Gateway token or password. Setup configuration is stored in the Watch Keychain; issued device credentials are stored in its protected native-state SQLite database, scoped to that Gateway. If setup is incomplete or expired, send it again from iPhone Settings.

Audio uses native WebRTC with Opus over UDP between the Watch and provider. The secure Gateway WebSocket carries call control and transcript events, not microphone audio. The Gateway controls provider tools and agent consultations; the Watch does not open a provider data channel or receive a permanent provider API key. Unsupported provider/authentication or transport choices fail visibly instead of switching to a different voice path. The native Watch transport requires ICE-lite; support for Gateway-controlled WebRTC alone is not sufficient.

Provider error notifications appear on the Watch without ending an otherwise active call. You can try another turn; an explicit session closure or an unrecoverable connection failure still ends the call.

Each new call uses a separate session for its selected agent. Network recovery is bounded and keeps that agent and chat session; Try Again after a terminal error starts a new call. This does not resume the iPhone’s currently selected chat, and the companion chat and approval features still use the iPhone relay.

For OpenAI Gateway-controlled WebRTC calls, the Gateway schedules a 30-minute active-session lease during setup; audio activity does not renew it. When the Watch receives the session-ended event from lease expiry, it shows Call unavailable and does not retry automatically. Bring OpenClaw to the foreground and tap Try Again to start a new call. The lease is not a guarantee of 30 minutes of usable audio, and calls may end earlier.

An established call uses background audio and is not intentionally ended merely because the display dims or the app backgrounds. Startup that backgrounds before connecting stops with a message asking you to keep OpenClaw on screen. Navigating back, tapping End, disabling, changing or forgetting the Watch’s Gateway connection, an audio interruption, or an unrecoverable failure ends the call.

Physical-Watch microphone/speaker routing, wrist-down operation, Wi-Fi/cellular handoff, battery use, and multi-hour reliability still need device validation. Simulator tests and native macOS provider-audio probes do not establish those behaviors. This is not an arbitrary always-on Gateway connection: watchOS low-level networking depends on an active audio session. UDP must be reachable; the Watch transport does not configure a TURN relay or TCP/WebSocket media fallback.

Review command approvals

An operator connection with operator.admin, or a paired operator.approvals connection explicitly targeted by the Gateway, can review pending exec requests on iPhone. The approval card shows the Gateway’s sanitized command preview, warning, host context, expiry, and only the decisions offered by that request. The paired Apple Watch receives the same reviewer-safe prompt through the existing iPhone relay and offers the compact allow-once/deny decision subset. Direct Watch Gateway mode does not carry approval prompts.

Approval state is shared with the Control UI and supported chat surfaces. The first committed answer wins. iPhone and Watch fetch the Gateway’s canonical terminal record after another surface resolves the request, after a remote resolved notification, and whenever a resolve acknowledgement may have been lost. Actions stay unavailable until that readback confirms whether the request remains pending.

Approval ownership is bound to the selected Gateway. Switching gateways cannot apply an old prompt to the replacement connection. Gateways that predate the unified approval methods fall back to the shipped exec-specific methods; retained terminal state and richer cross-surface results require an updated Gateway.

Answer agent questions

Chat shows pending Gateway questions as native cards for operator connections with operator.questions (or operator.admin). Cards support single- and multi-select options, option descriptions, free-text Other answers, and an expiry countdown. Reconnects reload pending questions from the Gateway. A card locks when this device answers it, another surface answers it first, or the question expires or is cancelled.

Optional direct Apple Watch node

Direct mode gives the watch its own signed node identity and Gateway connection. Supported node commands continue to work over watch Wi-Fi or cellular while OpenClaw is active, even when the paired iPhone is unavailable.

Requirements:

• The iPhone is connected to the Gateway with operator.admin scope.
• The setup code advertises a wss:// Gateway endpoint with a certificate trusted by watchOS; the watch polls the corresponding https:// origin. Plain HTTP and self-signed or fingerprint-only trust are unsupported. See Gateway-owned pairing for endpoint configuration. Loopback, iPhone-only, and tailnet-only routes are not independently reachable by the watch.
• Cellular use requires a cellular-capable Apple Watch with active service.
• OpenClaw is active on the watch. The non-voice direct node uses short HTTPS polls and reconnects when the app returns to the foreground; it does not maintain a generic background connection. Standalone voice uses the separate active-audio networking path. See Apple’s watchOS low-level networking guidance.

Setup:

1. On iPhone, open Settings -> Apple Watch.
2. Tap Enable Direct Gateway Connection.
3. Open OpenClaw on the watch before the short-lived setup code expires.
4. Verify the separate Apple Watch row with openclaw nodes status.

The setup code contains a short-lived, node-only bootstrap credential; treat it like a password until it expires. It never contains the iPhone’s saved Gateway password or token. After pairing, the watch stores its own device token and deletes the bootstrap credential. This node-only setup covers the commands below. For independent audio calls, use Enable Standalone Voice instead. Companion chat, iPhone Talk controls, approvals, and the existing watch.* notification flow remain iPhone-relay features.

A watch.notify receipt reports Watch transport delivery or queuing, not completion of the best-effort iPhone notification mirror. Cancellation is checked before starting a new Watch transfer or phone mirror; it cannot recall work already handed to WatchConnectivity. Once the phone mirror is handed off, it proceeds independently of the invoke.

Direct watchOS node commands:

Surface	Commands	Notes
Device	device.info, device.status	Watch identity, battery, thermal, storage, and network.
Notifications	system.notify	While the app is active; requires watch permission.

Relay-backed push for official builds

Official distributed iOS builds use an external push relay instead of publishing the raw APNs token to the gateway. Official App Store builds from the public release lane use the hosted relay at https://ios-push-relay.openclaw.ai; this base URL is hardcoded for App Store distribution and does not read any override.

Custom relay deployments require a deliberately separate iOS build/deployment path whose relay URL matches the gateway relay URL. The App Store release lane never accepts a custom relay URL. If you’re using a custom relay build, set the matching gateway relay URL:

{
  gateway: {
    push: {
      apns: {
        relay: {
          baseUrl: "https://relay.example.com",
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

How the flow works:

• The iOS app registers with the relay using App Attest and a StoreKit app transaction JWS.
• The relay returns an opaque relay handle plus a registration-scoped send grant.
• The iOS app fetches the paired gateway identity (gateway.identity.get) and includes it in relay registration, so the relay-backed registration is delegated to that specific gateway.
• The app forwards that relay-backed registration to the paired gateway with push.apns.register.
• The gateway uses that stored relay handle for push.test, background wakes, and wake nudges.
• If the app later connects to a different gateway or a build with a different relay base URL, it refreshes the relay registration instead of reusing the old binding.

What the gateway does not need for this path: no deployment-wide relay token, no direct APNs key for official App Store relay-backed sends.

Expected operator flow:

1. Install the official iOS app.
2. Optional: set gateway.push.apns.relay.baseUrl on the gateway only when using a deliberately separate custom relay build.
3. Pair the app to the gateway and let it finish connecting.
4. The app publishes push.apns.register once it has an APNs token, the operator session is connected, and relay registration succeeds.
5. After that, push.test, reconnect wakes, and wake nudges can use the stored relay-backed registration.

Background alive beacons

When iOS wakes the app for a silent push, background refresh, or significant-location event, the app attempts a short node reconnect and then calls node.event with event: "node.presence.alive". The gateway records this as lastSeenAtMs/lastSeenReason on the paired node/device metadata only after the authenticated node device identity is known.

The app treats a background wake as successfully recorded only when the gateway response includes handled: true. Older gateways may acknowledge node.event with { "ok": true }; that response is compatible but does not count as a durable last-seen update.

Background refresh wakes are requested through the system BackgroundTasks scheduler whenever the app moves to the background, after a silent push that could not be applied, and again after each refresh run; iOS decides when they actually execute. They stop if Background App Refresh is turned off for OpenClaw in iOS Settings, leaving push and significant-location wakes.

Compatibility note:

• OPENCLAW_APNS_RELAY_BASE_URL still works as a temporary env override for the gateway (gateway.push.apns.relay.baseUrl is the config-first path).
• The App Store release build’s push mode hardcodes the hosted relay host and never reads a relay-URL override — the OPENCLAW_PUSH_RELAY_BASE_URL build-time env var only affects local/sandbox iOS build modes.

Authentication and trust flow

The relay exists to enforce two constraints direct APNs-on-gateway cannot provide for official iOS builds:

• Only genuine OpenClaw iOS builds distributed through Apple can use the hosted relay.
• A gateway can send relay-backed pushes only for iOS devices that paired with that specific gateway.

Hop by hop:

1. iOS app -> gateway: the app pairs with the gateway through the normal Gateway auth flow, giving it an authenticated node session plus an authenticated operator session. The operator session calls gateway.identity.get.
2. iOS app -> relay: the app calls the relay registration endpoints over HTTPS with App Attest proof plus a StoreKit app transaction JWS. The relay validates the bundle ID, App Attest proof, and Apple distribution proof, and requires the official/production distribution path — this is what blocks local Xcode/dev builds from using the hosted relay, since a local build cannot satisfy the official Apple distribution proof.
3. gateway identity delegation: before relay registration, the app fetches the paired gateway identity from gateway.identity.get and includes it in the relay registration payload. The relay returns a relay handle and a registration-scoped send grant delegated to that gateway identity.
4. gateway -> relay: the gateway stores the relay handle and send grant from push.apns.register. On push.test, reconnect wakes, and wake nudges, the gateway signs the send request with its own device identity; the relay verifies both the stored send grant and the gateway signature against the delegated gateway identity from registration. Another gateway cannot reuse that stored registration, even if it somehow obtains the handle.
5. relay -> APNs: the relay owns the production APNs credentials and the raw APNs token for the official build. The gateway never stores the raw APNs token for relay-backed official builds; the relay sends the final push to APNs on behalf of the paired gateway.

Why this design was created: to keep production APNs credentials out of user gateways, avoid storing raw official-build APNs tokens on the gateway, allow hosted relay usage only for official OpenClaw iOS builds, and prevent one gateway from sending wake pushes to iOS devices owned by a different gateway.

Local/manual builds remain on direct APNs. If you are testing those builds without the relay, the gateway still needs direct APNs credentials:

export OPENCLAW_APNS_TEAM_ID="TEAMID"
export OPENCLAW_APNS_KEY_ID="KEYID"
export OPENCLAW_APNS_PRIVATE_KEY_P8="$(cat /path/to/AuthKey_KEYID.p8)"

These are gateway-host runtime env vars, not Fastlane settings. apps/ios/fastlane/.env only stores App Store Connect auth such as APP_STORE_CONNECT_KEY_ID and APP_STORE_CONNECT_ISSUER_ID; it does not configure direct APNs delivery for local iOS builds.

Recommended gateway-host storage, consistent with other provider credentials under ~/.openclaw/credentials/:

mkdir -p ~/.openclaw/credentials/apns
chmod 700 ~/.openclaw/credentials/apns
mv /path/to/AuthKey_KEYID.p8 ~/.openclaw/credentials/apns/AuthKey_KEYID.p8
chmod 600 ~/.openclaw/credentials/apns/AuthKey_KEYID.p8
export OPENCLAW_APNS_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH="$HOME/.openclaw/credentials/apns/AuthKey_KEYID.p8"

Do not commit the .p8 file or place it under the repo checkout.

Discovery paths

Bonjour (LAN)

The iOS app browses _openclaw-gw._tcp on local. and, when configured, the same wide-area DNS-SD discovery domain. Same-LAN gateways appear automatically from local.; cross-network discovery can use the configured wide-area domain without changing the beacon type.

Tailnet (cross-network)

If mDNS is blocked, use a unicast DNS-SD zone (choose a domain; example: openclaw.internal.) and Tailscale split DNS. See Bonjour for the CoreDNS example.

Manual host/port

In Settings, enable Manual Host and enter the gateway host + port (default 18789).

Multiple gateways

The app keeps a registry of every gateway it has paired with, so you can switch between them without pairing again:

• Settings -> Gateway shows a Paired Gateways list with the active gateway marked. Tap an entry to switch; the app tears down the current sessions and reconnects to the selected gateway. A quick-switch menu appears next to the connection row when more than one gateway is paired.
• Credentials, TLS trust decisions, per-gateway preferences, and cached chat history are stored per gateway. Switching never mixes state between gateways, and push registration follows the active gateway.
• Swipe a paired gateway (or use its context menu) to Forget it, which removes its credentials, device tokens, TLS pin, and cached chats.
• Discovered gateways must be visible on the network to switch to them; manual gateways reconnect by saved host and port.

Computer Use relationship

The iOS app is a mobile node surface, not a Codex Computer Use backend. Codex Computer Use and cua-driver mcp control a local macOS desktop through MCP tools; the iOS app exposes iPhone capabilities through OpenClaw node commands such as camera.*, screen.*, location.*, and talk.*.

Agents can still operate the iOS app through OpenClaw by invoking node commands, but those calls go through the gateway node protocol and follow iOS foreground/background limits. Use Codex Computer Use for local desktop control and this page for iOS node capabilities.

Voice wake + talk mode

• Voice wake and talk mode are available in Settings.
• Voice wake sends recognized commands to the active session and shows Gateway delivery failures in Settings; use talk mode for spoken assistant replies.
• OpenAI realtime Talk uses client-owned WebRTC when talk.realtime.transport is webrtc; an explicit gateway-relay configuration remains Gateway-owned. See Talk mode.
• Talk-capable iOS nodes advertise the talk capability and can declare talk.ptt.start, talk.ptt.stop, talk.ptt.cancel, and talk.ptt.once; the Gateway allows those push-to-talk commands by default for trusted Talk-capable nodes.
• iOS may suspend background audio; treat voice features as best-effort when the app is not active.

Common errors

• NODE_BACKGROUND_UNAVAILABLE: bring the iOS app to the foreground (camera/screen commands require it).
• Pairing prompt never appears: run openclaw devices list and approve manually.
• Gateway setup incomplete: the Gateway did not provide both node and operator credentials. Generate a new iPhone setup code from Devices -> Pair device in the Control UI or openclaw qr, then scan it in Settings -> Gateway. Automatic reconnect stays paused until you retry setup; this is not a device-storage error.
• Watch shows no iPhone state: confirm the iPhone reports watchPaired: true and watchAppInstalled: true in watch.status. If pairing is false, pair the Watch in Apple’s Watch app. If installation is false, install the companion from My Watch -> Available Apps. After either change, open OpenClaw on the Watch once; immediate reachability still requires both apps to be running, while queued updates can arrive later in the background.
• Reconnect fails after reinstall: the Keychain pairing token was cleared; re-pair the node.

Related docs

• Pairing
• Discovery
• Bonjour