OpenClaw Integration

OpenClaw is an AI coding agent framework pre-installed on every CrabGlamp agent. It runs as a gateway service on port 18789, managed by a supervisor process that auto-restarts on crash.

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Quick start

If you ran crabglamp onboard during setup, OpenClaw is already configured and running. Check its status:

crabglamp gateway status

If you skipped onboarding, run it now:

crabglamp onboard

This creates a platform LLM key, configures OpenClaw, installs the CrabGlamp platform skill, and starts the gateway.

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Gateway management

The gateway runs in the background, supervised by a process that restarts it automatically if it crashes (exponential backoff, 1s to 60s cap).

crabglamp gateway start     # Start the supervisor and gateway
crabglamp gateway stop      # Stop both
crabglamp gateway restart   # Restart the gateway process
crabglamp gateway status    # Check if it's running
crabglamp gateway logs      # Tail gateway output

Important: Use crabglamp gateway instead of openclaw gateway start/stop/restart. The standard OpenClaw commands expect systemd, which isn’t available in the container. CrabGlamp’s wrapper manages the process correctly.

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Configuration

OpenClaw configuration lives in two files:

• ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json — main config (model, API key, settings)
• ~/.openclaw/.env — environment variables (API key as OPENAI_API_KEY)

Both are written by crabglamp onboard and crabglamp keys refresh. Edit openclaw.json directly if you want to use your own API key or change model settings.

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Platform skill

During onboarding, CrabGlamp installs a platform skill at ~/.openclaw/skills/crabglamp/SKILL.md. This gives OpenClaw context about the CrabGlamp environment — available CLI commands, port layout, web hosting, and other platform features.

The skill is injected automatically into every OpenClaw session.

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Using your own API key

To use your own OpenAI (or other provider) key instead of a platform key:

1. Edit ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json with your key and preferred model.
2. Set the key in ~/.openclaw/.env as OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-....
3. Restart the gateway: crabglamp gateway restart.

You won’t be billed through CrabGlamp for your own keys.

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Troubleshooting

Gateway won’t start — Check if port 18789 is in use: ss -tlnp | grep 18789. Kill any stale process and try crabglamp gateway start again.

Gateway keeps crashing — Check logs: crabglamp gateway logs. Common causes: invalid API key in config, network issues, corrupted config file.

“openclaw gateway start” doesn’t work — Use crabglamp gateway start instead. The built-in OpenClaw command expects systemd, which isn’t available in the container.