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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, updating, or removing plugin code requires a Gateway restart. Enablement changes for plugins in the startup inventory can be applied without a restart when the 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. OpenClaw asks you to review a third-party plugin’s declared capabilities before installing or enabling it. The consent screen identifies the plugin, its version and source, artifact integrity, and available trust information. It also lists declared channels, providers, tools, hooks, MCP servers, CLI commands and backends, skills, and dangerous configuration flags, along with the operator grants that apply to hooks, model access, and subagents. Bundled plugins and verified first-party plugins from OpenClaw’s official catalog do not require this capability review during install, enable, update, or Doctor repair. For separately installed first-party plugins, OpenClaw checks the actual package identity against its catalog and verified npm source record or official-channel record from https://clawhub.ai. A matching plugin id or package name alone is insufficient: local copies, archives, git installs, custom ClawHub registries, and conflicting source records still require review. This exemption does not grant OAuth access, operating-system permissions, or runtime tool approvals, and does not create an operator acceptance record. The review token hashes the exact declared capability surface, not the plugin’s executable files. Acceptance separately records installer-provided artifact integrity when available. Re-enabling an installed plugin reuses acceptance when its declared surface and recorded integrity are unchanged. Updates of enabled plugins require fresh consent when the new artifact declares additional capabilities; unchanged or narrower surfaces can refresh an existing valid acceptance. Updating a disabled plugin preserves disablement and defers any required consent until enablement. Reinstalling through plugins install also preserves an authored enabled: false, but requires consent before committing the install when no valid acceptance can be reused. Run openclaw plugins enable <plugin-id> to activate it afterward. Already-enabled third-party legacy installations remain usable without an initial review; disabling and re-enabling them requires consent. Setup rechecks consent when saving its final config, so a plugin update during login cannot activate a replacement with unaccepted capabilities. Declining an update’s capability review leaves the previous plugin enabled and unchanged. Repairing a missing or damaged artifact requires a fresh review; OpenClaw cannot carry acceptance forward from an artifact it cannot verify. Carrying an earlier acceptance forward requires the install record to pin artifact integrity, which registry and ClawHub installs provide. Sources without recorded integrity — notably local paths — cannot prove the new bytes are the artifact you approved before, so they ask for consent on every install rather than inheriting it. Interactive CLI commands, onboarding, and provider, search, or channel setup prompt when consent is required, including automatic installs of required runtime plugins. Noninteractive or silent setup cannot approve new capabilities. Review and preinstall or enable the plugin with --accept-capabilities, then retry setup. Noninteractive plugin install, update, and enable commands also require the explicit flag when consent is needed:
Doctor uses the same source checks and review before installing or adopting a replacement plugin. doctor --fix and --yes do not approve capabilities automatically. For noninteractive repair, review and install the plugin with the explicit flag above, then rerun doctor. Chat installs and enablement use the same capability consent. When consent is required, review the capabilities in the reply, then rerun the same command with --accept-capabilities:
Plugins discovered directly in a workspace or through plugins.load.paths, without a managed install record, cannot persist capability acceptance. Their details in the Control UI still show declared capabilities. openclaw plugins install --link <path> creates a managed install record and requires capability consent even though it loads the plugin from its source directory. It is not the same as adding a bare plugins.load.paths entry.

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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. If a newly installed plugin requires configuration that is not present yet, OpenClaw records the install but leaves the plugin disabled. Configure plugins.entries.<id>.config, then run openclaw plugins enable <id>. If an existing config entry is present but invalid, install fails without rewriting it. A plugin package can expose multiple child entries. Installation tracks that package once, enables each ready child entry, and preserves any child that you explicitly disabled. Runtime policy remains child-addressable through plugins.entries.<child-id>, allow/deny lists, channel config, exact child load paths, and the memory and contextEngine slots.

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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:
The Gateway keeps the plugin inventory it discovered at startup. Management commands can inspect a newly installed package before restart, but that does not make its code or metadata available to the running Gateway. Manifest edits and plugins added to an agent workspace also require a restart. Ordinary config, enablement, and account changes can still hot-apply against the existing inventory. For API clients, plugins.refresh reports restartRequired: true and requests a restart through config reload. With gateway.reload.mode: "off", restart manually; refresh does not rescan or replace the running inventory. 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. For a multi-entry package, any child id resolves to the one tracked package install, so all siblings update together. Removed or renamed children have their stale entries, allow/deny policy, exact load paths, channel config, and memory/context slot selections reconciled before the new package/index state commits; retained/new children and unrelated plugins are preserved. If OpenClaw cannot prove exactly one package owner and a complete child list, update and uninstall fail closed without changing package files, config, or the installed index. Run openclaw plugins registry --refresh, inspect openclaw plugins doctor, and use openclaw doctor --fix for repairable legacy index state. If the ambiguity remains, reinstall the package before retrying. 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. The canonical channel resolver uses both update.channel and the installed core version, so an installed beta core with no configured channel keeps official plugins on 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 package’s persisted install record and every owned child’s settings from plugin config, allow/deny lists, memory/context slots, exact linked plugins.load.paths, and channel config entries when applicable. It retains only an exact enabled: false marker for each removed child so remaining model, provider, or channel selections cannot automatically reinstall the package during startup repair. Reinstalling does not silently re-enable it; enabling the plugin again replaces the marker. You may address a multi-entry package by any child id; the preview names the package owner and all siblings that will be removed. The managed install directory is removed once unless you pass --keep-files. A running managed Gateway restarts automatically when the uninstall changes plugin source. If an installed Claw references the plugin, preview and uninstall print the affected Claw package names. Ordinary plugin uninstall can still proceed and may break those Claws; use openclaw claws status to review ownership first. Removing a Claw releases its plugin reference but retains the process-wide plugin by default. 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.