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The Control UI covers the common discovery, install, enable, and disable workflow. The CLI adds update, uninstall, advanced configuration, and explicit install-source controls. For its full command contract, flags, source-selection rules, and edge cases, see openclaw plugins. Typical CLI workflow: find a package, install it from ClawHub, npm, git, or a local path, let the managed Gateway auto-restart (or restart it manually), then verify the plugin’s runtime registrations.

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Use the Control UI

Open Plugins in the Control UI, or use /settings/plugins relative to the configured Control UI base path. For example, a base path of /openclaw uses /openclaw/settings/plugins. The page has two tabs:
  • Installed shows the full local inventory grouped by category (channels, model providers, memory, tools). Each row opens a detail view; its overflow (…) menu enables or disables the plugin and, for externally installed plugins, offers Remove. The tab also lists the configured MCP servers with the same menu-driven enable, disable, and remove actions, editing mcp.servers in the Gateway configuration.
  • Discover is the store: featured plugins included with OpenClaw, official external plugins, and a curated connector shelf. Connector cards either add a hosted MCP server in one click (GitHub, Notion, Linear, Sentry, Home Assistant) or jump into a prefilled ClawHub search. Typing in the search box queries ClawHub inline and appends a From ClawHub section with download counts and source-verification badges.
Included plugins do not need a package install. Their menu action is Enable or Disable. Workboard, for example, is included with OpenClaw and disabled by default, so choose Enable to turn it on. Bundled plugins cannot be removed, only disabled. Catalog and search access require operator.read. Install, enable, disable, remove, and MCP server changes require operator.admin. A ClawHub install is performed by the Gateway and preserves its trust, integrity, and plugin-install policy checks. Enabling an installed plugin as an administrator also records that explicit trust by adding the selected plugin to an existing restrictive plugins.allow list. An explicit plugins.deny entry remains authoritative and must be removed before enabling the plugin. Installing or removing plugin code requires a Gateway restart. Enablement changes can be applied without a restart when the installed plugin and current Gateway runtime support it; otherwise the UI tells you a restart is required. OAuth-backed MCP connectors still need a one-time openclaw mcp login <name> from the CLI after they are added. The Control UI does not install from arbitrary npm, git, or local-path sources, update plugins, or expose rich plugin configuration. Use the CLI workflows below for those operations.

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List and search plugins

--json for scripts:
plugins list is a cold inventory check: what OpenClaw can discover from config, manifests, and the persisted plugin registry. It does not prove an already-running Gateway imported the plugin runtime. JSON output includes registry diagnostics and each plugin’s dependencyStatus (whether declared dependencies/optionalDependencies resolve on disk). plugins search queries ClawHub for installable plugin packages and prints an install hint (openclaw plugins install clawhub:<package>) per result.

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Enable and disable plugins

Toggles a plugin’s config entry without touching installed files. Some bundled plugins (bundled model/speech providers, the bundled browser plugin) are enabled by default; others require enable after install.

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Install plugins

Bare package specs install from npm during the launch cutover, unless the name matches a bundled or official plugin id, in which case OpenClaw uses that local/official copy instead. Use clawhub:, npm:, git:, or npm-pack: for deterministic source selection. OpenClaw’s bundled and official catalog packages are trusted alongside ClawHub packages. New arbitrary npm, git, local path/archive, npm-pack:, or marketplace sources require --force in noninteractive installs after you review and trust the source. --force confirms a non-ClawHub source without prompting and overwrites an existing install target when needed. For routine upgrades of a tracked npm, ClawHub, or hook-pack install, use openclaw plugins update instead. With --link, --force only confirms the source; the linked directory is not copied or overwritten.

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Restart and inspect

A running managed Gateway with config reload enabled restarts automatically after installing, updating, or uninstalling plugin code. If the Gateway is unmanaged or reload is disabled, restart it yourself before checking live runtime surfaces:
inspect --runtime loads the plugin module and proves it registered runtime surfaces (tools, hooks, services, Gateway methods, HTTP routes, plugin-owned CLI commands). Plain inspect and list are cold manifest/config/registry checks only.

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Update plugins

Passing a plugin id reuses its tracked install spec: stored dist-tags (@beta) and exact pinned versions carry over to later update <plugin-id> runs. openclaw plugins update --all is the bulk maintenance path. It still respects ordinary tracked install specs, but trusted official OpenClaw plugin records sync to the current official catalog target instead of staying pinned to a stale exact official package; when update.channel is beta, that sync prefers the beta release line. Use a targeted update <plugin-id> to keep an exact or tagged official spec untouched. For npm installs, pass an explicit package spec to switch the tracked record:
The second command moves a plugin back to the registry’s default release line when it was previously pinned to an exact version or tag. See openclaw plugins for the exact fallback and pinning rules.

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Uninstall plugins

Uninstall removes the plugin’s config entry, persisted plugin index record, allow/deny list entries, and linked plugins.load.paths entries when applicable. The managed install directory is removed unless you pass --keep-files. A running managed Gateway restarts automatically when the uninstall changes plugin source. In Nix mode (OPENCLAW_NIX_MODE=1), plugin install, update, uninstall, enable, and disable are all disabled; manage those choices in the Nix source for the install instead.

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Choose a source

Managed local path installs must be plugin directories or archives. Put standalone plugin files in plugins.load.paths instead of installing them with plugins install.

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Publish plugins

ClawHub is the primary public discovery surface for OpenClaw plugins. Publish there when you want users to find plugin metadata, version history, registry scan results, and install hints before they install.
Native npm plugins must ship a plugin manifest (openclaw.plugin.json) plus package.json metadata before publishing:
package.json
Use these pages for the full publishing contract instead of treating this page as the publishing reference:
  • ClawHub publishing explains owners, scopes, releases, review, package validation, and package transfer.
  • Building plugins shows the full plugin package shape (including openclaw.plugin.json) and first publish workflow.
  • Plugin manifest defines native plugin manifest fields.
If the same package is available on both ClawHub and npm, use the explicit clawhub: or npm: prefix to force one source.