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Reference for plugin packaging (package.json metadata), manifests (openclaw.plugin.json), setup entries, and config schemas.
Looking for a walkthrough? The how-to guides cover packaging in context: Channel plugins and Provider plugins.

Package metadata

Your package.json needs an openclaw field that tells the plugin system what your plugin provides:
Publishing externally on ClawHub requires compat and build. Canonical publish snippets live in docs/snippets/plugin-publish/.

openclaw fields

string[]
Entry point files (relative to package root). Valid source entries for workspace and git checkout development.
string[]
Built JavaScript peers for extensions, preferred when OpenClaw loads an installed npm package. See SDK entry points for the source/built resolution order.
string
Lightweight setup-only entry (optional).
string
Built JavaScript peer for setupEntry. Requires setupEntry to also be set.
object
{ id, label } fallback plugin identity, used when a plugin has no channel/provider metadata to derive an id or label from.
object
Channel catalog metadata for setup, picker, quickstart, and status surfaces.
object
Install hints: npmSpec, localPath, defaultChoice, minHostVersion, expectedIntegrity, allowInvalidConfigRecovery, requiredPlatformPackages.
object
Startup behavior flags.
object
pluginApi version range this plugin supports. Required for external ClawHub publishes.
Provider ids (providers: string[]) are manifest metadata, not package metadata. Declare them in openclaw.plugin.json, not here — see Plugin manifest.

openclaw.channel

openclaw.channel is cheap package metadata for channel discovery and setup surfaces before runtime loads.

Channel-owned setup fields

Channel plugins should define setup fields once in runtime code with defineChannelSetupContract(...) and publish the matching serializable projection under openclaw.channel.setup.fields. The runtime definition infers the plugin-local input type, parses both guided and non-interactive values, and keeps channel-specific keys out of core types. Package metadata lets openclaw channels add <channel-id> --help and openclaw channels add --channel <channel-id> --help discover only the selected channel’s options without loading the plugin.
Supported field kinds are string, boolean, integer, string-list, and choice. Use sensitive: true for credentials. Each field key must equal the camelCased attribute name of its long CLI flag, including any negated form, such as apiToken for --api-token. Boolean fields may add cli.negatedFlags when both positive and --no-* forms are needed. channel, account, and the account display name remain the shared control envelope. The released setup/ChannelSetupInput adapter stays available for existing external plugins. New plugins should expose setupContract; OpenClaw always prefers it when both are present. Example:
exposure supports:
  • configured: include the channel in configured/status-style listing surfaces
  • setup: include the channel in interactive setup/configure pickers
  • docs: mark the channel as public-facing in docs/navigation surfaces

openclaw.install

openclaw.install is package metadata, not manifest metadata.
Interactive onboarding uses openclaw.install for install-on-demand surfaces: if your plugin exposes provider auth choices or channel setup/catalog metadata before runtime loads, onboarding can prompt for ClawHub, npm, or local install, install or enable the plugin, then continue the selected flow. ClawHub choices use clawhubSpec and are preferred when present; npm choices require trusted catalog metadata with a registry npmSpec (exact versions and expectedIntegrity are optional pins, enforced on install/update when set). Keep “what to show” in openclaw.plugin.json and “how to install it” in package.json.
If minHostVersion is set, install and non-bundled manifest-registry loading both enforce it. Older hosts skip external plugins; invalid version strings are rejected. Bundled source plugins are assumed to be co-versioned with the host checkout.
For pinned npm installs, keep the exact version in npmSpec and add the expected artifact integrity:
allowInvalidConfigRecovery is not a general bypass for broken configs. It is narrow bundled-plugin recovery only, letting reinstall/setup repair known upgrade leftovers like a missing bundled plugin path or a stale channels.<id> entry for that same plugin. If config is broken for unrelated reasons, install still fails closed and tells the operator to run openclaw doctor --fix.

Deferred full load

Channel plugins can opt into deferred loading with:
When enabled, OpenClaw loads only setupEntry during the pre-listen startup phase, even for already-configured channels. The full entry loads after the gateway starts listening.
Only enable deferred loading when your setupEntry registers everything the gateway needs before it starts listening (channel registration, HTTP routes, gateway methods). If the full entry owns required startup capabilities, keep the default behavior.
If your setup/full entry registers gateway RPC methods, keep them on a plugin-specific prefix. Reserved core admin namespaces (config.*, exec.approvals.*, wizard.*, update.*) stay core-owned and always normalize to operator.admin.

Plugin manifest

Every native plugin must ship an openclaw.plugin.json in the package root. OpenClaw uses this to validate config without executing plugin code.
For channel plugins, add channels (and provider plugins add providers):
Even plugins with no config must ship a schema. An empty schema is valid:
See Plugin manifest for the full schema reference.

ClawHub publishing

Skills and plugin packages use separate ClawHub publish commands. For plugin packages, use the package-specific command:
clawhub skill publish <path> is a different command for publishing a skill folder, not a plugin package. See Publishing on ClawHub.

Setup entry

setup-entry.ts is a lightweight alternative to index.ts that OpenClaw loads when it only needs setup surfaces (onboarding, config repair, disabled channel inspection):
This avoids loading heavy runtime code (crypto libraries, CLI registrations, background services) during setup flows. Bundled workspace channels that keep setup-safe exports in sidecar modules can use defineBundledChannelSetupEntry(...) from openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-entry-contract instead of defineSetupPluginEntry(...). That bundled contract also supports an optional runtime export so setup-time runtime wiring can stay lightweight and explicit.
  • The channel is disabled but needs setup/onboarding surfaces.
  • The channel is enabled but unconfigured.
  • Deferred loading is enabled (deferConfiguredChannelFullLoadUntilAfterListen).
  • The channel plugin object (via defineSetupPluginEntry).
  • Any HTTP routes required before gateway listen.
  • Any gateway methods needed during startup.
Those startup gateway methods should still avoid reserved core admin namespaces such as config.* or update.*.
  • CLI registrations.
  • Background services.
  • Heavy runtime imports (crypto, SDKs).
  • Gateway methods only needed after startup.

Narrow setup helper imports

For hot setup-only paths, prefer the narrow setup helper seams over the broader plugin-sdk/setup umbrella when you only need part of the setup surface: Use the broader plugin-sdk/setup seam when you want the full shared setup toolbox, including config-patch helpers such as moveSingleAccountChannelSectionToDefaultAccount(...). Use createSetupTranslator(...) for fixed setup wizard copy. It uses the first nonblank value from OPENCLAW_LOCALE, LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES, and LANG, in that order, then falls back to English. Set OPENCLAW_LOCALE=en for an explicit English override. Keep plugin-specific setup text in plugin-owned code and use shared catalog keys only for common setup labels, status text, and official bundled plugin setup copy. The setup patch adapters stay hot-path safe on import. Their bundled single-account promotion contract-surface lookup is lazy, so importing plugin-sdk/setup-runtime does not eagerly load bundled contract-surface discovery before the adapter is actually used.

Channel-owned setup input fields

ChannelSetupInput is a generic envelope shared by setup callers and channel plugins. Its permanently typed fields are name, token, tokenFile, useEnv, allowFrom, and defaultTo. Additional plugin-owned keys can still be present on the runtime input object, but the shared type does not declare an index signature. Each plugin must declare and narrow its own setup fields or validate them with a plugin-owned schema at the adapter boundary:
Channel-specific fields that were previously declared directly on ChannelSetupInput remain temporarily typed for external source compatibility. They are deprecated. A 2026-07-22 registry sweep of 426 published out-of-tree channel plugins removed 21 fields with no readers and retained 22 with known readers. Each retained field is deleted as soon as no published plugin reads it; no version boundary is required. New and bundled plugins must not rely on this tier; declare the fields they own locally.

Channel-owned single-account promotion

When a channel upgrades from a single-account top-level config to channels.<id>.accounts.*, the default shared behavior moves promoted account-scoped values into accounts.default. Every channel plugin can extend or narrow that promotion through its setup adapter:
  • singleAccountKeysToMove: extra top-level keys that should move into the promoted account
  • namedAccountPromotionKeys: when named accounts already exist, only these keys move into the promoted account; shared policy/delivery keys stay at the channel root
  • resolveSingleAccountPromotionTarget(...): choose which existing account receives promoted values
The presence of singleAccountKeysToMove marks the promotion contract complete. Declare the field even when it is an empty array to opt out of legacy key promotion. Adapters that omit the field retain a reader-backed pre-declaration promotion tier for already-published plugins. The 2026-07-22 registry sweep removed 23 keys with no published dependents and retained six common keys plus the setup-only rooms key. Each retained key is deleted as soon as its published readers migrate to declarations; no version boundary is required. Declare openclaw.setupFeatures.configPromotion: true in the plugin package manifest when doctor must load these declarations from the lightweight bundled setup artifact. The setup-only plugin surface and the full channel plugin must expose the same declarations. When calling moveSingleAccountChannelSectionToDefaultAccount(...) with an already resolved plugin, pass its setup adapter as setupSurface. Caller-supplied setup surfaces take precedence over loaded and bundled lookup, which keeps scoped or setup-only plugins independent of global registration.
Matrix is the current bundled example. If exactly one named Matrix account already exists, or if defaultAccount points at an existing non-canonical key such as Ops, promotion preserves that account instead of creating a new accounts.default entry.

Config schema

Plugin config is validated against the JSON Schema in your manifest. Users configure plugins via:
Your plugin receives this config as api.pluginConfig during registration. For channel-specific config, use the channel config section instead:

Building channel config schemas

Use buildChannelConfigSchema to convert a Zod schema into the ChannelConfigSchema wrapper used by plugin-owned config artifacts:
If you already author the contract as JSON Schema or TypeBox, use the direct helper so OpenClaw can skip Zod-to-JSON-Schema conversion on metadata paths:
For third-party plugins, the cold-path contract is still the plugin manifest: mirror the generated JSON Schema into openclaw.plugin.json#channelConfigs so config schema, setup, and UI surfaces can inspect channels.<id> without loading runtime code.

Setup wizards

Channel plugins can provide interactive setup wizards for openclaw onboard. The wizard is a ChannelSetupWizard object on the ChannelPlugin:
ChannelSetupWizard also supports textInputs, dmPolicy, allowFrom, groupAccess, prepare, finalize, and more. See the Discord plugin’s src/setup-core.ts for a full bundled example.
For DM allowlist prompts that only need the standard note -> prompt -> parse -> merge -> patch flow, prefer the shared setup helpers from openclaw/plugin-sdk/setup: createPromptParsedAllowFromForAccount(...) and createTopLevelChannelParsedAllowFromPrompt(...).
For channel setup status blocks that only vary by labels, scores, and optional extra lines, prefer createStandardChannelSetupStatus(...) from openclaw/plugin-sdk/setup instead of hand-rolling the same status object in each plugin.
For optional setup surfaces that should only appear in certain contexts, use createOptionalChannelSetupSurface from openclaw/plugin-sdk/channel-setup:
plugin-sdk/channel-setup also exposes the lower-level createOptionalChannelSetupAdapter(...) and createOptionalChannelSetupWizard(...) builders when you only need one half of that optional-install surface.The generated optional adapter/wizard fail closed on real config writes. They reuse one install-required message across validateInput, applyAccountConfig, and finalize, and append a docs link when docsPath is set.
For binary-backed setup UIs, prefer the shared delegated helpers instead of copying the same binary/status glue into every channel:
  • createDetectedBinaryStatus(...) for status blocks that vary only by labels, hints, scores, and binary detection
  • createCliPathTextInput(...) for path-backed text inputs
  • createDelegatedSetupWizardProxy(...) when setupEntry needs to forward status, prepare, or finalize behavior to a heavier full wizard lazily
  • createDelegatedTextInputShouldPrompt(...) when setupEntry only needs to delegate a textInputs[*].shouldPrompt decision

Publishing and installing

External plugins: publish to ClawHub, then install:
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 — see Manage plugins.
In-repo plugins: place under the bundled plugin workspace tree; they are automatically discovered during build.
For npm-sourced installs, openclaw plugins install installs the package into a per-plugin project under ~/.openclaw/npm/projects with lifecycle scripts disabled (--ignore-scripts). Keep plugin dependency trees pure JS/TS and avoid packages that require postinstall builds.
Gateway startup does not install plugin dependencies. npm/git/ClawHub install flows own dependency convergence; local plugins must already have their dependencies installed.
Bundled package metadata is explicit, not inferred from built JavaScript at gateway startup. Runtime dependencies belong in the plugin package that owns them; packaged OpenClaw startup never repairs or mirrors plugin dependencies.