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The Control UI is a small Vite + Lit single-page app served by the Gateway:
  • default: http://<host>:18789/
  • optional prefix: set gateway.controlUi.basePath (e.g. /openclaw)
It speaks directly to the Gateway WebSocket on the same port.

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Quick open (local)

If the Gateway is running on the same computer, open http://127.0.0.1:18789/ (or http://localhost:18789/). If the page fails to load, start the Gateway first: openclaw gateway.
On native Windows LAN binds, Windows Firewall or organization-managed Group Policy can still block the advertised LAN URL even when 127.0.0.1 works on the Gateway host. Run openclaw gateway status --deep on the Windows host; it reports likely-blocked ports, profile mismatches, and local firewall rules that policy may ignore.
Auth is supplied during the WebSocket handshake via:
  • connect.params.auth.token
  • connect.params.auth.password
  • Tailscale Serve identity headers when gateway.auth.allowTailscale: true
  • trusted-proxy identity headers when gateway.auth.mode: "trusted-proxy"
The dashboard settings panel keeps a token for the current browser tab session and selected gateway URL; passwords are not persisted. Onboarding usually generates a gateway token for shared-secret auth on first connect, but password auth works too when gateway.auth.mode is "password".

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Device pairing (first connection)

Connecting from a new browser or device usually requires a one-time pairing approval, shown as disconnected (1008): pairing required.
1

List pending requests

2

Approve by request ID

If the browser retries pairing with changed auth details (role/scopes/public key), the previous pending request is superseded and a new requestId is created; re-run openclaw devices list before approving. Switching an already-paired browser from read access to write/admin access is treated as an approval upgrade, not a silent reconnect: OpenClaw keeps the old approval active, blocks the broader reconnect, and asks you to approve the new scope set explicitly. Once approved, the device is remembered and won’t require re-approval unless you revoke it with openclaw devices revoke --device <id> --role <role>. See Devices CLI for token rotation, revocation, and the Paperclip / openclaw_gateway first-run approval flow.
  • Direct local loopback browser connections (127.0.0.1 / localhost) are auto-approved.
  • Tailscale Serve can skip the pairing round trip for Control UI operator sessions when gateway.auth.allowTailscale: true, Tailscale identity verifies, and the browser presents its device identity. Device-less browsers and node-role connections still follow the normal device checks.
  • Direct Tailnet binds, LAN browser connects, and browser profiles without device identity still require explicit approval.
  • Each browser profile generates a unique device ID, so switching browsers or clearing browser data requires re-pairing.

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Pair a mobile device

An already paired administrator can create the iOS/Android connection QR without opening a terminal:
1

Open mobile pairing

Select Devices, then click Pair mobile device in the Devices card.
2

Connect the phone

In the OpenClaw mobile app, open Settings → Gateway and scan the QR code. You can copy and paste the setup code instead.
3

Confirm the connection

The official iOS/Android app connects automatically. If Pending approval shows a request, review its role and scopes before approving it.
Creating a setup code requires operator.admin; the button is disabled for sessions without it. A setup code contains a short-lived bootstrap credential, so treat the QR and copied code like a password while they are valid. For remote pairing, the Gateway must resolve to wss:// (for example, through Tailscale Serve/Funnel); plain ws:// is limited to loopback and private LAN addresses. See Pairing for the full security and fallback details.

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Personal identity (browser-local)

The Control UI supports a per-browser personal identity (display name and avatar) attached to outgoing messages, for attribution in shared sessions. It lives in browser storage, scoped to the current browser profile, and is not synced to other devices or persisted server-side beyond the normal transcript authorship metadata on messages you send. Clearing site data or switching browsers resets it to empty. The assistant avatar override follows the same browser-local pattern: uploaded overrides overlay the gateway-resolved identity locally and never round-trip through config.patch. The shared ui.assistant.avatar config field is still available for non-UI clients that write the field directly.

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Runtime config endpoint

The Control UI fetches its runtime settings from /control-ui-config.json, resolved relative to the gateway’s Control UI base path (for example /__openclaw__/control-ui-config.json under base path /__openclaw__/). That endpoint is gated by the same gateway auth as the rest of the HTTP surface: unauthenticated browsers cannot fetch it, and a successful fetch requires a valid gateway token/password, Tailscale Serve identity, or a trusted-proxy identity.

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Gateway host status

Open Settings in Simple view to see the Gateway Host card with the Gateway machine, LAN address, operating system, runtime, uptime, CPU load, memory, and state-volume disk space. The card refreshes every 10 seconds while visible through the system.info Gateway RPC, which requires the operator.read scope. Older Gateways and connections without that scope omit the card.

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Language support

The Control UI localizes itself on first load based on your browser locale. To override it later, open Settings -> General -> Language (the picker lives in the General quick-settings card, not under Appearance).
  • Supported locales: en, ar, de, es, fa, fr, hi, id, it, ja-JP, ko, nl, pl, pt-BR, ru, th, tr, uk, vi, zh-CN, zh-TW
  • Non-English translations are lazy-loaded in the browser.
  • The selected locale is saved in browser storage and reused on future visits.
  • Missing translation keys fall back to English.
Docs translations are generated for the same non-English locale set, but the docs site’s built-in Mintlify language picker only lists locale codes Mintlify accepts. Thai (th) and Persian (fa) docs are still generated in the publish repo; they may not appear in that picker until Mintlify supports those codes.

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Appearance themes

The Appearance panel has the built-in Claw, Knot, and Dash themes (Claw is default), plus one browser-local tweakcn import slot. To import a theme, open the tweakcn editor, choose or create a theme, click Share, and paste the copied link into Appearance. The importer also accepts https://tweakcn.com/r/themes/<id> registry URLs, editor URLs like https://tweakcn.com/editor/theme?theme=amethyst-haze, relative /themes/<id> paths, raw theme IDs, and default theme names such as amethyst-haze. Imported themes are stored only in the current browser profile; they are not written to gateway config and do not sync across devices. Replacing the imported theme updates the one local slot; clearing it switches back to Claw if the imported theme was active. Appearance also has a browser-local Text size setting, stored with the rest of Control UI preferences. It applies to chat text, composer text, tool cards, and chat sidebars, and keeps text inputs at least 16px so mobile Safari does not auto-zoom on focus.

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Manage plugins

Open Plugins in the sidebar, or use /settings/plugins relative to the configured Control UI base path, to browse and manage plugins without leaving the Control UI. For example, a base path of /openclaw uses /openclaw/settings/plugins. The page is always available, even when every optional plugin is disabled. Plugins is a hub with four tabs: Installed and Discover manage plugin code at /settings/plugins, Skills hosts the per-agent skill manager at /skills, and Workshop hosts Skill Workshop proposal review at /skills/workshop. Each tab keeps its own URL, and the sidebar shows the single Plugins entry for all of them. The Installed tab shows the full local inventory grouped by category, with overview counts. Each row opens a detail view; its overflow (…) menu enables or disables the plugin and offers Remove for externally installed plugins. It also lists configured MCP servers and supports adding, disabling, and removing them inline. The Discover tab is the store: featured plugins included with OpenClaw, official external plugins, and one-click MCP connectors for popular services. Typing in the search box queries ClawHub inline and appends a From ClawHub section with download counts and source-verification badges. Deep links can target the store directly with /settings/plugins?tab=discover. The Skills tab keeps the skill status report, enable/disable toggles, API key entry, and inline ClawHub skill search, scoped to the selected agent. The Workshop tab keeps the Skill Workshop board and Today review flow for skill proposals. Find skill ideas reviews a bounded window of substantial sessions from newest to oldest and leaves any results as pending proposals. The panel shows cumulative coverage; Scan earlier work continues from the persisted cursor, then becomes Scan new work after older history is exhausted. Manual history review works while autonomous self-learning is disabled and uses the selected agent’s configured model. Included plugins are already present on the Gateway and show Enable or Disable instead of Install. For example, Workboard is included with OpenClaw but disabled by default, so its action is Enable. Bundled plugins cannot be removed, only disabled. Reading the catalog and searching ClawHub require operator.read. Installing, enabling, disabling, or removing a plugin and changing MCP servers require operator.admin; those actions stay disabled for read-only operators. ClawHub installs run through the Gateway and keep the same trust, integrity, and plugin-install policy checks as other Gateway-mediated installs. Installing or removing plugin code requires a Gateway restart. Enabling or disabling an installed plugin can apply without a restart when the plugin and current Gateway runtime support it; otherwise the UI reports that a restart is required. OAuth-backed MCP connectors need a one-time openclaw mcp login <name> from the CLI after they are added. The page intentionally focuses on inventory, discovery, install, enablement, and removal. Use openclaw plugins for arbitrary npm, git, or local-path sources, updates, and advanced plugin configuration. The sidebar pins navigation above a scrollable session list. In multi-agent setups every agent appears as a collapsible top-level section; expanding an agent browses its sessions without navigating away from the open chat, and collapsed agents show an unread indicator. Within an agent the list splits into Pinned, one built-in section per connected channel (Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp, …), a built-in Work section for sessions bound to a managed worktree or exec node (rows show a repo ⎇ branch line plus the node host), custom groups (the session category), and Chats for the rest. Channel and Work sections classify rows automatically; assigning a session to a custom group always wins. Opening a session moves the selection highlight without reordering the rows. Sessions with new activity since they were last read show an unread dot, and opening one marks it read. Each session row has a context menu (kebab button or right-click) with Pin/Unpin, Mark as unread/read, Rename, Fork, Move to group (including New group and Remove from group), Archive, and Delete; touch layouts keep the direct pin and menu controls visible. Cmd/Ctrl-click toggles rows into a multi-select and Shift-click extends it across the visible order; opening the menu on a selected row then offers batch actions (Mark N as unread/read, Move N to group, Archive N, Delete N) that apply to every selected session, with a single confirmation for batch delete. Drag a session onto Pinned to pin it, or onto a custom group or Chats to move it. Custom group headers can be collapsed, expanded, or dragged to reorder them; group names and their order live in the gateway (sessions.groups.*), so they follow you across browsers, while the collapsed state stays in the browser profile. Group headers also have a menu (kebab button or right-click) with Rename group, New group, and Delete group; renaming or deleting a group updates every member session server-side, including archived ones, and deleting a group keeps its sessions and moves them back to Chats. The single + in the session-list header opens the New session page (see below). The sort control also has a Group by toggle: Grouped (default) or None for one flat list (Pinned stays separate); the choice is stored in the current browser profile. Usage, Automations, and Plugins are pinned by default; the More row opens a menu with every other destination, including plugin-provided tabs. Select Edit pinned items in that menu, or right-click the navigation area, to pin or unpin destinations and restore the defaults. The pinned set is stored in the current browser profile and survives reloads.

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New session page

The + in the sidebar session-list header opens a full-page draft at /new: nothing is created until you send the first message. A target row above the message box picks where the session works: the agent (multi-agent setups), where exec runs (Gateway · local or a paired node that exposes system.run; requires operator.admin), the folder (defaults to the agent workspace; other absolute Gateway paths require operator.admin and a worktree), and an optional Worktree toggle with a base-branch picker (backed by worktrees.branches, so no fetch happens) and an optional worktree name (the branch becomes openclaw/<name>). The folder chip’s browse button opens an inline directory picker backed by the admin-only fs.listDir method. Its top level shows the Gateway and every known node; offline nodes and nodes without directory-browsing support stay visible but disabled. Selecting the Gateway starts from the current folder or Gateway home. Selecting a capable node browses that node’s host filesystem, binds exec to it, and uses the selected absolute node path directly (managed worktrees remain Gateway-only). Submitting calls sessions.create with the first message, so the run starts in the same round-trip and the UI jumps to the new session’s chat. If the Gateway creates the session but rejects that first send, the chat preserves the prompt and error across reloads; Retry sends it through the already-created session instead of creating another one. Inside Settings, the dedicated sidebar starts with a Search settings field for quickly finding settings sections. A Search field at the top of the sidebar opens the command palette (⌘K). Clicking the OpenClaw brand in the sidebar header opens the clean New session start screen. When something needs action — failed or overdue cron jobs, expiring or expired model auth — compact attention chips appear above the sidebar footer and click through to the owning page. The footer shows the active agent as a chip — avatar (identity image or emoji), name, connection dot, and a live subtitle — with a + for a new session. Clicking the chip opens the agent menu: an agent switcher (multi-agent setups), “What can this agent do?”, Agent settings, Settings, mobile pairing, Docs, the build chip, and the color-mode toggle. Rosters above ten agents get a filter field and list pinned agents first; pin or unpin agents from the Agents settings page, with the pinned set stored in the browser profile. Choosing an agent scopes Chat plus Usage, Automations, Tasks, Workboard, and Sessions to that agent. Each scoped page exposes an Agent control with All agents as an escape; this widens the shared page scope without changing the concrete chat agent, while direct session links still open their target. The Agents settings page keeps its own ?agent= selection and does not follow the shared page scope. When the gateway runs from a source checkout on a branch other than main, the footer also shows that branch name in red so a non-release gateway is obvious at a glance (release installs never show it). Shift-Command-Comma opens Settings without overriding the browser’s Command-Comma shortcut. The sidebar header also holds the collapse toggle (⌘B); collapsing hides the sidebar entirely for a full-width workspace, and a floating expand control (or ⌘B) brings it back; the macOS app hosts that toggle natively in the titlebar instead. The sidebar is the only navigation chrome on desktop, with no top bar. Narrow viewports swap the sidebar for a slide-over drawer behind a compact header row holding the drawer toggle, brand, and command-palette search; in the macOS app that header row folds the titlebar clearance into a single compact strip beside the window controls. Navigation uses regular browser history, so the browser’s back/forward buttons traverse it; the macOS app adds a native sidebar toggle next to the window controls plus trackpad swipe gestures, with back/forward buttons at the sidebar’s right edge while it is expanded and native search (command palette) and new-session buttons while it is collapsed.

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What it can do (today)

  • Chat with the model via Gateway WS (chat.history, chat.send, chat.abort, chat.inject).
  • Chat history refreshes request a bounded recent window with per-message text caps, so large sessions do not force the browser to render a full transcript payload before chat becomes usable.
  • Hovering or keyboard-focusing a public GitHub issue or pull request link shows its state, title, author, recent activity, comments, and change statistics. The connected Gateway fetches and caches public metadata without changing the link target, including when the UI uses a remote Gateway. The Gateway uses GH_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN when available, after confirming the repository is public; otherwise it uses GitHub’s anonymous API with a longer cache.
  • Talk through browser realtime sessions. OpenAI uses direct WebRTC, Google Live uses a constrained one-use browser token over WebSocket, and backend-only realtime voice plugins use the Gateway relay transport. Client-owned provider sessions start with talk.client.create; Gateway relay sessions start with talk.session.create. The relay keeps provider credentials on the Gateway while the browser streams microphone PCM through talk.session.appendAudio, forwards openclaw_agent_consult provider tool calls through talk.client.toolCall for Gateway policy and the larger configured OpenClaw model, and routes active-run voice steering through talk.client.steer or talk.session.steer.
  • Stream tool calls and live tool output cards in Chat (agent events). Tool activity renders as kind-aware rows: shell commands show the syntax-highlighted command with terminal-style output; supported edit and write calls show bounded inline diffs, line numbers when available, and +added -removed stats; and consecutive calls collapse into a summary such as “Ran 13 commands, read 6 files, edited 9 files”. While a run is live, the newest running call names the group header. Expand a row to inspect its remaining arguments and raw output.
  • Optional AI purpose titles for complex tool calls (long shell commands, argument-heavy plugin tools), enabled with gateway.controlUi.toolTitles: true (default off). Titles come from the batched chat.toolTitles method through standard utility-model routing — an explicit utilityModel (operator-chosen provider, like other utility tasks), else the session provider’s declared small-model default — and cache gateway-side per agent. When the opt-in is off or no cheap model is usable, rows keep their deterministic labels and no model call happens.
  • Start or dismiss ephemeral model-suggested follow-up tasks; accepted suggestions open a fresh managed-worktree session with the proposed prompt.
  • Activity tab with browser-local, redaction-first summaries of live tool activity from existing session.tool / tool event delivery.
  • Channels: built-in plus bundled/external plugin channels status, QR login, and per-channel config (channels.status, web.login.*, config.patch).
  • Channel probe refreshes keep the previous snapshot visible while slow provider checks finish, and label partial snapshots when a probe or audit exceeds its UI budget.
  • Sessions (a settings page under Agents & Tools, /settings/sessions): list configured-agent sessions by default, pin frequent sessions, rename them, archive or restore inactive sessions, fall back from stale unconfigured agent session keys, and apply per-session model/thinking/fast/verbose/trace/reasoning overrides (sessions.list, sessions.patch). Pinned sessions sort above recent unpinned sessions; archived sessions live in the Sessions page’s archived view and keep their transcripts. Rows show an unread dot for sessions with activity since their last read, with mark-unread/mark-read actions (sessions.patch { unread }), and a Fork action that branches the transcript into a new session (sessions.create { parentSessionKey, fork: true }). Overview tiles above the table summarize the loaded roster (session count, live runs, unread sessions, total tokens), each row carries a kind glyph with a live-run dot, status renders as a plain dot plus label, and the Tokens column shows a context-window usage meter when the session reports token and context sizes. Row management actions live in a per-row menu (kebab button or right-click) mirroring the sidebar’s session menu, and the row drawer carries the agent runtime and run duration alongside the other session details.
  • Session grouping: a Group by control organizes the sessions table into sections by custom groups, channel, kind, agent, or date. Custom groups persist per session via sessions.patch (category), so sessions started from message channels (Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, …) can be categorized too; assign groups by dragging rows onto a section, or with the per-row group selector, and create groups with the New group action.
  • Memory (a tab on the Agents page, scoped to the selected agent): dreaming status, enable/disable toggle, and Dream Diary reader (doctor.memory.status, doctor.memory.dreamDiary, config.patch).
  • Import Memory (a settings page under Agents & Tools, /settings/memory-import): preview and copy local Codex consolidated memory or Claude Code auto-memory into the selected agent workspace (migrations.memory.plan, migrations.memory.apply).
  • Automations (cron jobs): stat cards (automation count, failing count, scheduler state, next wake) above an Automations/Run history tab switch; the Automations tab lists jobs in a filterable table (All/Active/Paused, search, schedule and last-run filters, per-row action menu) with starter suggestions below, and the Run history tab shows recent runs across all automations (cron.*).
  • Tasks: live active and recent background task ledger with linked sessions and cancellation (tasks.*).
  • Plugins: browse the installed inventory and curated store, search ClawHub, install and remove plugin code, and enable or disable installed plugins (plugins.*); MCP server rows edit mcp.servers through the config methods.
  • Skills: status, enable/disable, install, API key updates (skills.*).
  • Devices: one inventory joins paired device records, the node catalog, and live presence (device.pair.list, node.list, system-presence). The Gateway host is pinned first; paired clients show connection status, roles, tokens, capabilities, and commands. Duplicate pairings collapse into an expandable group, and Clean up N stale bulk-removes admin-confirmed offline duplicates that were auto-approved (silent local, trusted-CIDR, or SSH-verified) or predate approval provenance. Entries can be removed (node.pair.remove, device.pair.remove), device pairing and node re-approvals handled inline (device.pair.*, node.pair.approve/reject), and mobile setup codes created from the same card.
  • Exec approvals: edit gateway or node allowlists and ask policy for exec host=gateway/node (exec.approvals.*).
  • View/edit ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json (config.get, config.set).
  • Agents: a settings page (Settings → Agents, /settings/agents) with per-agent tabs (Overview, Files, Tools, Skills, Channels, Automations, Memory). The Overview tab edits the agent’s identity — display name, emoji, and an avatar image that is downscaled and size-bounded in the browser before agents.update. Saving stores configured identity fields and mirrors them to the workspace IDENTITY.md; configured values take precedence over manual edits to the same file fields.
  • Profile: a settings page showing the default agent’s identity with all-time usage stats — lifetime tokens, peak day, longest session, activity streaks, a year-long token heatmap, top tools, and channel highlights (usage.cost, sessions.usage).
  • MCP has a dedicated settings page with read-only server rows (transport, enablement, OAuth/filter/parallel summaries), common operator commands, and the scoped mcp config editor; adding, enabling/disabling, and removing servers happens on the Plugins page.
  • Model Providers: a settings page listing every configured model provider with its brand icon, auth state (models.authStatus), model availability (models.list), live plan/quota/billing data where the provider reports it (usage.status), and local session spend for the last 30 days (sessions.usage). A Refresh action re-reads credential state and provider usage.
  • Connection: a settings page (under Connections) owning the dashboard’s own gateway link — WebSocket URL, gateway token, password, and default session key — plus the latest handshake snapshot (status, uptime, tick interval, last channels refresh). The offline login gate handles the disconnected case; this page edits the connection while connected.
  • Apply and restart with validation (config.apply), then wake the last active session.
  • Writes include a base-hash guard to prevent clobbering concurrent edits.
  • Writes (config.set/config.apply/config.patch) preflight active SecretRef resolution for refs in the submitted config payload; unresolved active submitted refs are rejected before write.
  • Form saves discard stale redacted placeholders that cannot be restored from the saved config, while preserving redacted values that still map to saved secrets.
  • Schema and form rendering come from config.schema / config.schema.lookup, including field title/description, matched UI hints, immediate child summaries, docs metadata on nested object/wildcard/array/composition nodes, plus plugin and channel schemas when available. Raw JSON editor is available only when the snapshot has a safe raw round-trip; otherwise Control UI forces Form mode.
  • Raw JSON editor “Reset to saved” preserves the raw-authored shape (formatting, comments, $include layout) instead of re-rendering a flattened snapshot, so external edits survive a reset when the snapshot can safely round-trip.
  • Structured SecretRef object values render read-only in form text inputs, to prevent accidental object-to-string corruption.
  • Session-derived token and estimated-cost analysis stays separate from provider billing.
  • Provider cards call usage.status and show live plan names, quota windows, balances, spend, and budgets reported by configured provider plugins.
  • A provider usage failure does not block the session/cost dashboard; unavailable provider cards show their own error state.
  • Debug: status/health/models snapshots, event log, and manual RPC calls (status, health, models.list).
  • The event log includes Control UI refresh/RPC timings, slow chat/config render timings, and browser responsiveness entries for long animation frames or long tasks when the browser exposes those PerformanceObserver entry types.
  • Logs: live tail of gateway file logs with filter/export (logs.tail).
  • Update: run a package/git update plus restart (update.run) with a restart report, then poll update.status after reconnect to verify the running gateway version.
  • Selecting a row opens a full-page detail view with an Active/Paused switch and Run now in the header (run-if-due, clone, and remove in its menu); the Settings tab edits the automation inline (prompt, details, frequency, advanced overrides) and the Run history tab shows that automation’s runs.
  • Starter automations under the table prefill the create form with an editable prompt and schedule.
  • For isolated tasks, delivery defaults to announce summary; switch to none for internal-only runs.
  • Channel/target fields appear when announce is selected.
  • Webhook mode uses delivery.mode = "webhook" with delivery.to set to a valid HTTP(S) webhook URL.
  • For main-session tasks, webhook and none delivery modes are available.
  • Advanced edit controls include delete-after-run, clear agent override, cron exact/stagger options, agent model/thinking overrides, and best-effort delivery toggles.
  • Form validation is inline with field-level errors; invalid values disable the save button until fixed.
  • Set cron.webhookToken to send a dedicated bearer token; if omitted, the webhook is sent without an auth header.
  • cron.webhook is a deprecated legacy fallback: run openclaw doctor --fix to migrate stored jobs that still use notify: true to explicit per-job webhook or completion delivery.

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Import assistant memory

Open Settings → Import Memory to bring local Codex or Claude Code memory into an OpenClaw agent. The Gateway discovers supported local memory on its own host, so a remote Control UI imports from the Gateway computer rather than the browser computer.
  1. Choose the destination agent.
  2. Review the detected source collections and Markdown filenames. File contents are not sent in the plan response or displayed in the page.
  3. Select the collections to import and confirm. Apply rebuilds the plan before writing so stale selections fail safely.
  4. If files already exist, enable Replace existing imports, refresh the preview, and confirm the replacement.
Codex imports only its consolidated MEMORY.md and memory_summary.md. Claude Code imports Markdown from project auto-memory directories and a configured autoMemoryDirectory; it does not import sessions, settings, instructions, or credentials through this page. Files are copied below memory/imports/ in the selected workspace, where the active memory plugin can index them. Sources are never changed. Planning and applying require operator.admin. Every apply creates a verified OpenClaw backup when state exists, writes a redacted migration report, and keeps item-level backups before replacing existing destination files. See Memory overview for paths and recall behavior.

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MCP page

The dedicated MCP page is an operator view for OpenClaw-managed MCP servers under mcp.servers. It does not start MCP transports by itself; use it to inspect and edit saved config, then use openclaw mcp doctor --probe when you need live server proof. Typical workflow:
  1. Open MCP from the sidebar.
  2. Check the summary cards for total, enabled, OAuth, and filtered server counts.
  3. Review each server row for transport, enablement, auth, filters, timeouts, and command hints.
  4. Manage servers (add, enable/disable, remove) on the Plugins page, which is the single interactive writer of mcp.servers; the row list here links to it.
  5. Edit the scoped mcp config section for server definitions, headers, TLS/mTLS paths, OAuth metadata, tool filters, and Codex projection metadata.
  6. Use Save for a config write, or Save & Publish when the running Gateway should apply the changed config.
  7. Run openclaw mcp status --verbose, openclaw mcp doctor --probe, or openclaw mcp reload from a terminal for static diagnostics, live proof, or cached-runtime disposal.
The page redacts credential-bearing URL-like values before rendering and quotes server names in command snippets so copied commands still work with spaces or shell metacharacters. Full CLI and config reference: MCP.

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Activity tab

The Activity tab lives in Settings › System, next to Logs and Debug. It is an ephemeral browser-local observer for live tool activity, derived from the same Gateway session.tool / tool event stream that powers Chat tool cards. It does not add another Gateway event family, endpoint, durable activity store, metrics feed, or external observer stream. Activity entries keep only sanitized summaries and redacted, truncated output previews. Tool argument values are not stored in Activity state; the UI shows that arguments are hidden and records only the argument field count. The in-memory list follows the current browser tab, survives navigation within the Control UI, and resets on page reload, session switch, or Clear.

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Operator terminal

The dockable operator terminal is disabled by default. To enable it, set gateway.terminal.enabled: true and restart the Gateway. The terminal requires an operator.admin connection and opens a host PTY in the active agent workspace. New tabs follow the currently selected chat agent.
The terminal is an unconfined host shell and inherits the Gateway process environment. Enable it only for trusted operator deployments. OpenClaw refuses terminal sessions for agents with sandbox.mode: "all"; changing an active agent to that mode closes its existing and in-flight terminal sessions.
Use Ctrl + backtick to toggle the dock. The layout supports bottom and right docking, resizes with the browser viewport, and keeps multiple shell tabs. See Gateway configuration for gateway.terminal.enabled and the optional gateway.terminal.shell override. Drag one or more files onto the active terminal, or use the paperclip button to choose files. OpenClaw stages each file on the machine that owns the PTY and pastes shell-quoted absolute paths at the cursor; it never presses Enter or executes the input. A compact batch indicator shows the current file and completed count. Cancel stops the remaining batch without pasting paths; a failed transfer stays visible so you can retry from that file without re-uploading completed files. Images, PDFs, archives, and other file types are accepted up to 16 MiB per file. Staged files use a private system-temporary directory on POSIX hosts (directory mode 0700, file mode 0600) or a directory under the user-profile ACL boundary on Windows, plus a 24-hour cleanup timer, so move or copy anything you need to keep. Path insertion supports PowerShell, cmd.exe, and recognized POSIX shells (sh, Bash, Dash, Ash, Ksh, Zsh, and Fish), including Git Bash on Windows. Other shell overrides are refused because their quoting rules cannot be inferred safely; run the Gateway inside WSL for a native WSL terminal and Linux upload paths. cmd.exe paths containing % or ! are also refused because that shell expands those characters even inside double quotes. Codex and Claude Code sessions discovered in the sessions sidebar can open in their native CLI inside the same terminal panel. In Settings › Chat, set Open Codex/Claude sessions in to Terminal to make a normal row click open codex resume or claude --resume; the default remains the read-only OpenClaw viewer. A row’s right-click or kebab menu always offers both choices, and the viewer header includes Open in terminal when that session is eligible. Eligibility is per session and per host. Gateway-local sessions start the provider-owned resume command on the Gateway host. Paired-node sessions start an allowlisted provider command on the owning node and relay only that PTY’s output, input, and resize events; this does not expose a general node shell or accept browser-supplied commands. File uploads use the separate, size-bounded terminal.upload node command and remain bound to the already-open terminal session. Approve the node pairing upgrade when that command first appears. Nodes that do not advertise the matching terminal-resume command, including embedded worker bridges without duplex streaming, keep the viewer available and show terminal opening as unavailable; older nodes can still run a terminal but cannot receive dragged files. Sessions survive disconnects: a page reload, laptop sleep, or network blip detaches the session on the Gateway instead of killing it, and the same browser tab reattaches on reconnect with recent output replayed. Detached sessions are killed after gateway.terminal.detachedSessionTimeoutSeconds (default 300 seconds; 0 restores kill-on-disconnect). terminal.list shows attachable sessions, terminal.attach adopts one (tmux-style take-over), and terminal.text reads a session’s recent output as plain text without attaching - an agent/tooling affordance. The terminal is also available as a full-screen, terminal-only document at /?view=terminal. The iOS and Android apps embed this page in their Terminal screens, reusing the stored gateway credentials; availability follows the same gateway.terminal.enabled and operator.admin gate, and the page shows a notice when the connected Gateway does not offer the terminal.

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Browser panel

The Control UI ships a dockable browser panel that renders the Gateway-controlled browser (the same one agents drive through the browser tool) in any regular web browser - no native webview required. It appears when the connected Gateway advertises browser.request to an operator.admin connection; the globe button in the session workspace rail toggles it. The panel shows a live page snapshot with tabs, an editable URL bar, back/forward/reload, and open-in-your-browser, docks right or bottom, and forwards clicks, wheel scrolling, and basic typing to the remote page. Two capture modes package page context for the agent:
  • Annotate (pencil): draw freehand markup over the page. Send to chat composites the strokes into the screenshot, attaches the image to the active chat composer, and prefills a prompt describing the page URL, title, and each marked region so the agent knows exactly what you circled.
  • Inspect (pointer): hover to see the element under the cursor (selector, accessible name, role, size); click to send that element’s details plus a highlighted screenshot through the same composer flow. Inspect, wheel scrolling, and back/forward need browser.evaluateEnabled (on by default).
The macOS app keeps its native link-browser sidebar for links clicked in the dashboard; the browser panel works there too, and is the way to annotate pages on every other platform.

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Chat behavior

  • chat.send is non-blocking: it acks immediately with { runId, status: "started" } and the response streams via chat events. Trusted Control UI clients may also receive optional ACK timing metadata for local diagnostics.
  • Chat uploads accept images plus non-video files. Images keep the native image path; other files are stored as managed media and shown in history as attachment links.
  • Re-sending with the same idempotencyKey returns { status: "in_flight" } while running, and { status: "ok" } after completion.
  • chat.history responses are size-bounded for UI safety. When transcript entries are too large, Gateway may truncate long text fields, omit heavy metadata blocks, and replace oversized messages with a placeholder ([chat.history omitted: message too large]).
  • When a visible assistant message was truncated in chat.history, the side reader can fetch the full display-normalized transcript entry on demand through chat.message.get by sessionKey, active agentId when needed, and transcript messageId. If the Gateway still cannot return more, the reader shows an explicit unavailable state instead of silently repeating the truncated preview.
  • Assistant/generated images are persisted as managed media references and served back through authenticated Gateway media URLs, so reloads do not depend on raw base64 image payloads staying in the chat history response.
  • When rendering chat.history, the Control UI strips display-only inline directive tags from visible assistant text (for example [[reply_to_*]] and [[audio_as_voice]]), plain-text tool-call XML payloads (including <tool_call>...</tool_call>, <function_call>...</function_call>, <tool_calls>...</tool_calls>, <function_calls>...</function_calls>, and truncated tool-call blocks), and leaked ASCII/full-width model control tokens. It omits assistant entries whose whole visible text is only the exact silent token NO_REPLY / no_reply or the heartbeat acknowledgement token HEARTBEAT_OK.
  • During an active send and the final history refresh, the chat view keeps local optimistic user/assistant messages visible if chat.history briefly returns an older snapshot; the canonical transcript replaces those local messages once the Gateway history catches up.
  • Live chat events are delivery state, while chat.history is rebuilt from the durable session transcript. After tool-final events the Control UI reloads history and merges only a small optimistic tail; the transcript boundary is documented in WebChat.
  • chat.inject appends an assistant note to the session transcript and broadcasts a chat event for UI-only updates (no agent run, no channel delivery).
  • The sidebar lists every loaded active session by agent section and pinned/channel/work/custom/Chats buckets with a single New Session action that opens the draft dialog. Opening a visible row moves only the highlight. Sessions can be dropped onto Pinned to pin them, or onto a custom group or Chats to move them; custom groups are collapsible and drag-reorderable, group names and order sync through the gateway, and collapsed state stays in the browser. A new dashboard session asynchronously gets a concise generated title from its first non-command message; explicit names are never replaced. Set agents.defaults.utilityModel (or agents.list[].utilityModel) to route this separate model call to a lower-cost model. Expanding another agent section browses that agent’s sessions without leaving the open chat.
  • Session search lives in the command palette (⌘K, or the Search field at the top of the sidebar): typing a query follows a bounded number of matching pages across agents, filters internal child/cron rows, and lists visible matches next to navigation commands. The Sessions page keeps the exhaustive searchable list with filters.
  • Each sidebar row keeps direct pin access plus a full context menu for unread state, rename, fork, grouping, archive, and delete. Multi-selected rows (Cmd/Ctrl-click, Shift-click for ranges) get a batch menu covering unread state, grouping, archive, and delete; batch archive/delete stays disabled unless every selected session is archivable. An active run and an agent’s main session cannot be archived. Archiving or deleting the currently selected session switches Chat back to that agent’s main session.
  • In the macOS app, the OpenClaw mark uses the otherwise-empty native titlebar strip next to the window controls instead of consuming a sidebar row.
  • On desktop widths, chat controls stay on one compact row and collapse while scrolling down the transcript; scrolling up, returning to the top, or reaching the bottom restores the controls.
  • Consecutive duplicate text-only messages render as one bubble with a count badge. Messages that carry images, attachments, tool output, or canvas previews are left uncollapsed.
  • When a session’s checkout sits on a non-default branch of a GitHub repository, the chat view pins pull request chips above the composer: PR number, repo, branch, diff counts, a CI pill, and draft/merged/closed state, each linking to the PR. The row shows at most two chips — live (open/draft) PRs first — and a “Show more” button reveals collapsed merged/closed history. The CI pill opens a small CI monitoring popover with passed/failed/running/skipped check counts and a link to the PR’s checks page. Detection runs server-side through controlUi.sessionPullRequests, which reuses the Gateway’s GH_TOKEN/GITHUB_TOKEN when set. When the GitHub API rate limit is hit, chips keep the last known status and show a warning that the status may be out of date; dismissing a chip hides it for that session in the current browser profile. Before any PR exists, the row shows the branch itself — repo, branch name, and the +/− size of the diff against the default-branch merge base (committed and uncommitted work). Once the pushed branch has commits to compare, the row adds a Create PR button that opens GitHub’s new-pull-request page; before that, a session with changed files (committed, uncommitted, or untracked) still gets the row without the button. The row hides itself while an open or draft PR exists. The branch row comes from local git only, so it stays available while GitHub is rate limited and carries the same stale-status warning, since “no PR found” cannot be trusted until the limit resets.
  • The session diff panel shows what a session’s checkout actually changed: the branch button (in the workspace rail header, the split-pane header, or the floating button in single-pane chat) opens the detail panel with a per-file diff of branch, uncommitted, and untracked work against the checkout’s default-branch merge base — status dot, rename arrow, per-file +/− counts, collapsible files, and “N unmodified lines” markers between hunks. Diffs are computed server-side through the sessions.diff Gateway method (operator.read scope); binary and oversized files degrade to stats-only entries, and the button only appears when the connected Gateway advertises sessions.diff.
  • The session workspace rail in each Chat pane lists session files, project files, and artifacts. It docks to the pane’s right edge by default; drag its header (or use the dock button) to move it to the bottom, and the choice is stored in the current browser profile. A collapsed rail takes no space at all: reopen it with ⇧⌘B, the files toggle in the split-pane header, or the floating files button in single-pane chat (both carry a changed-file count badge). The separate file, tool, and Canvas detail panel is unaffected.
  • Clicking a file reference in chat, a file path in an expanded read/edit/write tool card, or a file row in the workspace rail opens the file detail panel: a CodeMirror-based code view with syntax highlighting, line numbers, jump-to-line, in-file search, copy actions, and an open-in-external-editor menu. When the Gateway advertises sessions.files.set to an operator.admin connection, the panel adds an Edit mode with dirty tracking and Cmd/Ctrl-S save; unsaved drafts survive file, panel, and session navigation in the current browser tab until explicitly saved or discarded. Saves are compare-and-swap on a content hash returned by sessions.files.get: if the file changed on disk since it was loaded (for example because the agent kept working), the panel shows a conflict notice with Reload (take the latest content) and Overwrite (keep the local edit) actions. Writes go through the same fs-safe workspace guards as reads — path containment, symlink/hardlink rejection, and a 256 KB UTF-8 cap — and only overwrite existing files; the editor never creates or deletes them.
  • The background tasks rail in each Chat pane lists the current agent’s background tasks and subagents (tasks.list scoped by agent, kept live by task events): running work shows a live elapsed timer, tool-use count, the tool currently in use, and a stop control; the collapsible finished section adds run durations; and a View transcript link opens the task’s child session in the pane. Open it with the activity toggle in the split-pane header or the floating activity button in single-pane chat — the task snapshot loads eagerly, so both carry a running-count badge without opening the rail first. The Tasks page remains the full cross-agent ledger.
  • The workspace rail, background tasks rail, and detail panel adapt to each pane’s own width rather than the window: in a narrow pane or compact window both rails present as bottom strips (side-dock controls hide until the pane widens; the workspace rail keeps first claim on the side slot when only one column fits), and the detail panel stacks below the thread with a horizontal resize handle instead of sharing the row with it. Phone-sized viewports still open the detail panel full-screen.
  • The chat header model and thinking pickers patch the active session immediately through sessions.patch; they are persistent session overrides, not one-turn-only send options.
  • Split view: open it from the top-right floating toggle row (beside the session diff, background tasks, and session files toggles), then split the active pane right or down for as many panes as fit. Each pane has its own session, transcript, composer, and tool stream.
  • Drag a session from the sidebar into chat to open it in a pane. An animated drop preview glides between zones and labels the outcome — “Split” over the exact half a new pane will occupy, “Open here” over a whole pane — and drops also work from single-pane mode.
  • The active split pane drives the sidebar selection and URL. Each pane carries its own header row with the session title plus workspace-rail, split, and close controls; dividers resize columns and stacked panes, and the browser stores the layout locally across reloads.
  • On narrow screens, split view keeps the layout but renders only the active pane, including its header with the close control.
  • If you send a message while a model picker change for the same session is still saving, the composer waits for that session patch before calling chat.send so the send uses the selected model.
  • Typing /new creates and switches to the same fresh dashboard session as New Chat, except when session.dmScope: "main" is configured and the current parent is the agent’s main session; then it resets the main session in place. Typing /reset keeps the Gateway’s explicit in-place reset for the current session.
  • The chat model picker requests the Gateway’s configured model view. If agents.defaults.models is present, that allowlist drives the picker, including provider/* entries that keep provider-scoped catalogs dynamic. Otherwise the picker shows explicit models.providers.*.models entries plus providers with usable auth. The full catalog stays available through the debug models.list RPC with view: "all".
  • When fresh Gateway session usage reports include current context tokens, the chat composer toolbar shows a small context usage ring with the used percentage. Open the ring for the current context window, latest-run token counts and estimated total cost, provider/model identity, and the latest provider response’s input/output/cache cost breakdown when reported. The ring switches to warning styling at high context pressure and, at recommended compaction levels, shows a compact button that runs the normal session compaction path. Stale token snapshots are hidden until the Gateway reports fresh usage again.
Talk mode uses a registered realtime voice provider. Configure OpenAI with talk.realtime.provider: "openai" plus an openai API-key profile, talk.realtime.providers.openai.apiKey, or OPENAI_API_KEY. OpenAI Realtime uses the public Platform API and requires a Platform API key; a Codex OAuth login does not satisfy this surface. Configure Google with talk.realtime.provider: "google" plus talk.realtime.providers.google.apiKey. The browser never receives a standard provider API key: OpenAI receives an ephemeral Realtime client secret for WebRTC, and Google Live receives a one-use constrained Live API auth token for a browser WebSocket session, with instructions and tool declarations locked into the token by the Gateway. Providers that only expose a backend realtime bridge run through the Gateway relay transport, so credentials and vendor sockets stay server-side while browser audio moves through authenticated Gateway RPCs. The Realtime session prompt is assembled by the Gateway; talk.client.create does not accept caller-provided instruction overrides.Persistent provider, model, voice, transport, reasoning effort, exact VAD threshold, silence duration, and prefix padding defaults live in Settings → Communications → Talk; changing them requires operator.admin access. Configuring Gateway relay forces the backend relay path; configuring WebRTC keeps the session client-owned and fails instead of silently falling back to relay if the provider cannot create a browser session.The Talk control itself is the microphone button in the composer toolbar. Its caret lists System default and every microphone exposed by the browser, including USB, Bluetooth, and virtual inputs. The selected device ID stays browser-local and is never sent to the Gateway; if that exact device disappears, Talk asks you to choose another input instead of silently recording from a different microphone. While Talk is live, the microphone button becomes a pill showing the live input-level meter; clicking it stops voice input, and hovering it reveals the stop glyph. Screen readers announce Connecting voice input..., Listening..., or Asking OpenClaw... while a realtime tool call is consulting the configured larger model through talk.client.toolCall. Stopping a running agent response stays a separate square Stop control next to the pill.Maintainer live smoke: OPENAI_API_KEY=... GEMINI_API_KEY=... node --import tsx scripts/dev/realtime-talk-live-smoke.ts verifies the OpenAI backend WebSocket bridge, OpenAI browser WebRTC SDP exchange, Google Live constrained-token browser WebSocket setup, and the Gateway relay browser adapter with fake microphone media. The command prints provider status only and does not log secrets.
  • Click Stop (calls chat.abort).
  • While a run is active, normal follow-ups steer into the running turn by default. Messages fall back to the queue when steering is unavailable; click Steer on a queued message to inject it into the running turn.
  • Settings → Appearance → Chat → Follow-ups while the agent is working changes that default: Steer into the active run (default) sends follow-ups into the running turn immediately, while Queue until the run ends holds them until the run finishes. Either way, queued rows keep their per-message Steer and remove controls, and messages fall back to the queue when steering is unavailable.
  • Type /stop (or standalone abort phrases like stop, stop action, stop run, stop openclaw, please stop) to abort out-of-band.
  • chat.abort supports { sessionKey } (no runId) to abort all active runs for that session.
  • When a run is aborted, partial assistant text can still be shown in the UI.
  • Gateway persists aborted partial assistant text into transcript history when buffered output exists.
  • Persisted entries include abort metadata so transcript consumers can tell abort partials from normal completion output.

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Connection loss and reconnect

Once a session is established, a dropped Gateway connection does not log you out. The dashboard stays visible with a floating amber “Gateway connection lost — Reconnecting…” pill under the top bar while the client retries automatically with backoff (800 ms up to 15 s). Live updates and realtime/session actions pause until the connection returns; Retry now in the pill forces an immediate attempt. Chat remains editable: ordinary text and attachment sends are kept in the current tab’s gateway/session-scoped browser storage, shown as waiting for reconnect, and sent automatically when the Gateway returns. Live controls and slash commands remain unavailable while offline. When this browser already holds credentials (a configured token/password or an approved device token), first opens and reloads show a small animated OpenClaw mark while the connection is established instead of flashing the login gate. The login gate only appears when no credentials are stored yet or when the Gateway actively rejects them (bad token/password, revoked pairing) — states that need your input rather than waiting.

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PWA install and web push

The Control UI ships a manifest.webmanifest and a service worker, so modern browsers can install it as a standalone PWA. Web Push lets the Gateway wake the installed PWA with notifications even when the tab or browser window is not open. If the page shows Protocol mismatch right after an OpenClaw update, first reopen the dashboard with openclaw dashboard and hard-refresh. If it still fails, clear site data for the dashboard origin or test in a private browser window; an old tab or browser service-worker cache can keep running a pre-update Control UI bundle against the newer Gateway. Override the VAPID keypair through env vars on the Gateway process when you want to pin keys (multi-host deployments, secrets rotation, or tests):
  • OPENCLAW_VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY
  • OPENCLAW_VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY
  • OPENCLAW_VAPID_SUBJECT (defaults to https://openclaw.ai)
The Control UI uses these scope-gated Gateway methods to register and test browser subscriptions:
  • push.web.vapidPublicKey fetches the active VAPID public key.
  • push.web.subscribe registers an endpoint plus keys.p256dh/keys.auth.
  • push.web.unsubscribe removes a registered endpoint.
  • push.web.test sends a test notification to the caller’s subscription.
Web Push is independent of the iOS APNS relay path (see Configuration for relay-backed push) and the push.test method, which targets native mobile pairing.

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Hosted embeds

Assistant messages can render hosted web content inline with the [embed ...] shortcode. The iframe sandbox policy is controlled by gateway.controlUi.embedSandbox: The bundled Canvas plugin also provides show_widget to render self-contained SVG or HTML directly from a tool call. The browser advertises the inline-widgets Gateway capability, and the resulting Canvas document remains available when chat history reloads. Channel-originated runs do not receive this tool.
Disables script execution inside hosted embeds.
Use trusted only when the embedded document genuinely needs same-origin behavior. For most agent-generated games and interactive canvases, scripts is the safer choice.
Absolute external http(s) embed URLs stay blocked by default. To let [embed url="https://..."] load third-party pages, set gateway.controlUi.allowExternalEmbedUrls: true.

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Chat message width

The chat transcript uses a centered readable frame aligned with the composer. Assistant and tool output stay left-aligned while user bubbles stay right-aligned inside that frame. Wide-monitor deployments can override the transcript width without patching bundled CSS by setting gateway.controlUi.chatMessageMaxWidth:
The value is validated before it reaches the browser. Supported forms include plain lengths and percentages such as 960px or 82%, plus constrained min(...), max(...), clamp(...), calc(...), and fit-content(...) width expressions.
Keep the Gateway on loopback and let Tailscale Serve proxy it with HTTPS:
Open https://<magicdns>/ (or your configured gateway.controlUi.basePath).By default, Control UI/WebSocket Serve requests can authenticate via Tailscale identity headers (tailscale-user-login) when gateway.auth.allowTailscale is true. OpenClaw verifies the identity by resolving the x-forwarded-for address with tailscale whois and matching it to the header, and only accepts these when the request hits loopback with Tailscale’s x-forwarded-* headers. For Control UI operator sessions with browser device identity, this verified Serve path also skips the device-pairing round trip; device-less browsers and node-role connections still follow the normal device checks. Set gateway.auth.allowTailscale: false if you want to require explicit shared-secret credentials even for Serve traffic, then use gateway.auth.mode: "token" or "password".For that async Serve identity path, failed auth attempts for the same client IP and auth scope are serialized before rate-limit writes. Concurrent bad retries from the same browser can therefore show retry later on the second request instead of two plain mismatches racing in parallel.
Tokenless Serve auth assumes the gateway host is trusted. If untrusted local code may run on that host, require token/password auth.

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Insecure HTTP

If you open the dashboard over plain HTTP (http://<lan-ip> or http://<tailscale-ip>), the browser runs in a non-secure context and blocks WebCrypto. By default, OpenClaw blocks Control UI connections without device identity. Documented exceptions:
  • localhost-only insecure HTTP compatibility with gateway.controlUi.allowInsecureAuth=true
  • successful operator Control UI auth through gateway.auth.mode: "trusted-proxy"
  • break-glass gateway.controlUi.dangerouslyDisableDeviceAuth=true
Recommended fix: use HTTPS (Tailscale Serve) or open the UI locally at https://<magicdns>/ (Serve) or http://127.0.0.1:18789/ (on the gateway host).
allowInsecureAuth is a local compatibility toggle only:
  • It lets localhost Control UI sessions proceed without device identity in non-secure HTTP contexts.
  • It does not bypass pairing checks.
  • It does not relax remote (non-localhost) device identity requirements.
dangerouslyDisableDeviceAuth disables Control UI device identity checks and is a severe security downgrade. Revert quickly after emergency use.
  • Successful trusted-proxy auth can admit operator Control UI sessions without device identity.
  • This does not extend to node-role Control UI sessions.
  • Same-host loopback reverse proxies still do not satisfy trusted-proxy auth; see Trusted proxy auth.
See Tailscale for HTTPS setup guidance.

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Content security policy

The Control UI ships a tight img-src policy: only same-origin assets, data: URLs, and locally generated blob: URLs are allowed. Remote http(s) and protocol-relative image URLs are rejected by the browser and never issue network fetches. In practice:
  • Avatars and images served under relative paths (for example /avatars/<id>) still render, including authenticated avatar routes the UI fetches and converts into local blob: URLs.
  • Inline data:image/... URLs still render.
  • Local blob: URLs created by the Control UI still render.
  • GitHub link preview avatars are fetched by the Gateway from GitHub’s fixed avatar host and returned as bounded data: URLs; the operator browser never contacts the remote avatar host.
  • Remote avatar URLs emitted by channel metadata are stripped at the Control UI’s avatar helpers and replaced with the built-in logo/badge, so a compromised or malicious channel cannot force arbitrary remote image fetches from an operator browser.
This is always on and not configurable.

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Avatar route auth

When gateway auth is configured, the Control UI avatar endpoint requires the same gateway token as the rest of the API:
  • GET /avatar/<agentId> returns the avatar image only to authenticated callers. GET /avatar/<agentId>?meta=1 returns the avatar metadata under the same rule.
  • Unauthenticated requests to either route are rejected (matching the sibling assistant-media route), so the avatar route cannot leak agent identity on hosts that are otherwise protected.
  • The Control UI forwards the gateway token as a bearer header when fetching avatars, and uses authenticated blob URLs so the image still renders in dashboards.
If you disable gateway auth (not recommended on shared hosts), the avatar route also becomes unauthenticated, in line with the rest of the gateway.

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Assistant media route auth

When gateway auth is configured, assistant local-media previews use a two-step route:
  • GET /__openclaw__/assistant-media?meta=1&source=<path> requires the normal Control UI operator auth; the browser sends the gateway token as a bearer header when checking availability.
  • Successful metadata responses include a short-lived mediaTicket scoped to that exact source path.
  • Browser-rendered image, audio, video, and document URLs use mediaTicket=<ticket> instead of the active gateway token or password. The ticket expires quickly and cannot authorize a different source.
This keeps media rendering compatible with browser-native media elements without putting reusable gateway credentials in visible media URLs. Operator approval notifications can deep-link to a standalone approval document served under the reserved ${controlUiBasePath}/approve/{approvalId} namespace (for example /approve/<approvalId>, or /openclaw/approve/<approvalId> with a configured base path). The URL is stable for the lifetime of the approval and safe to forward between your own devices: it identifies the approval, never authorizes it.
  • The one-segment /approve/<approvalId> namespace is reserved by the Gateway ahead of plugin HTTP routes for all HTTP methods, so a plugin route can never shadow or intercept an approval document.
  • Opening an approval document requires the same gateway auth as the rest of the Control UI (token/password, Tailscale Serve identity, or trusted-proxy identity); credentials are never part of the approval URL.
  • When Control UI serving is disabled, requests to the namespace return 404 instead of falling through to plugin handlers.
  • Signing in on an approval document is ephemeral for that page: it does not overwrite the gateway selection or settings saved by the full Control UI in the same browser.
The Gateway serves static files from dist/control-ui:
Optional absolute base (fixed asset URLs):
Local development (separate dev server):
Then point the UI at your Gateway WS URL (e.g. ws://127.0.0.1:18789).

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Blank Control UI page

If the browser loads a blank dashboard and DevTools shows no useful error, an extension or early content script may have prevented the JavaScript module app from evaluating. The static page includes a plain HTML recovery panel that appears when <openclaw-app> is not registered after startup. Use the panel’s Try again action after changing the browser environment, or reload manually after these checks:
  • Disable extensions that inject into all pages, especially extensions with <all_urls> content scripts.
  • Try a private window, a clean browser profile, or another browser.
  • Keep the Gateway running and verify the same dashboard URL after the browser change.

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Debugging/testing: dev server + remote Gateway

The Control UI is static files; the WebSocket target is configurable and can differ from the HTTP origin. This is handy when you want the Vite dev server locally but the Gateway runs elsewhere.
1

Start the UI dev server

2

Open with gatewayUrl

Optional one-time auth (if needed):
  • gatewayUrl is stored in localStorage after load and removed from the URL.
  • If you pass a full ws:// or wss:// endpoint via gatewayUrl, URL-encode the value so the browser parses the query string correctly.
  • token should be passed via the URL fragment (#token=...) whenever possible. Fragments are not sent to the server, which avoids request-log and Referer leakage. Legacy ?token= query params are still imported once for compatibility, but only as a fallback, and are stripped immediately after bootstrap.
  • password is kept in memory only.
  • When gatewayUrl is set, the UI does not fall back to config or environment credentials. Provide token (or password) explicitly; missing explicit credentials is an error.
  • Use wss:// when the Gateway is behind TLS (Tailscale Serve, HTTPS proxy, etc.).
  • gatewayUrl is only accepted in a top-level window (not embedded), to prevent clickjacking.
  • Public non-loopback Control UI deployments must set gateway.controlUi.allowedOrigins explicitly (full origins). Private same-origin LAN/Tailnet loads from loopback, RFC1918/link-local, .local, .ts.net, or Tailscale CGNAT hosts are accepted without enabling Host-header fallback.
  • Gateway startup may seed local origins such as http://localhost:<port> and http://127.0.0.1:<port> from the effective runtime bind and port, but remote browser origins still need explicit entries.
  • Do not use gateway.controlUi.allowedOrigins: ["*"] except for tightly controlled local testing; it means allow any browser origin, not “match whatever host I am using.”
  • gateway.controlUi.dangerouslyAllowHostHeaderOriginFallback=true enables Host-header origin fallback mode, but it is a dangerous security mode.
Remote access setup details: Remote access.