Channels

Channels define how users interact with your agents. Different agents support different channels based on their design goals.

Available Channels

Channel	Agents	Use Case
CLI	All	Terminal-based interaction
Discord	OpenClaw	Discord server bot
Slack	OpenClaw	Slack workspace bot
Web	OpenClaw (planned)	Browser-based chat
WhatsApp	Not planned	Mobile messaging

Channel Comparison

Feature	CLI	Discord	Slack	Web
Setup Complexity	Low	Medium	Medium	High
Multi-user	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Access Control	OS-level	Roles	Policies	Auth
Rich Media	Limited	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mobile Support	SSH app	Discord app	Slack app	Browser
Connection	Local	Gateway	Socket Mode	HTTP
Required Tokens	None	1 (bot)	2 (bot + app)	Varies

Channel vs Provider

• Provider = The AI model (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.)
• Channel = How users talk to the agent (CLI, Discord, etc.)

An agent uses:

• 1 provider (the LLM backend)
• 1+ channels (how users interact)

Configuration

Channels are managed in two steps:

1. Register the channel in the channel registry (one record per chat surface, reusable across agents):

   clawctl channel registry create <channel-name> --type discord --token-stdin <<<"$BOT_TOKEN"
   # or for slack:
   clawctl channel registry create <channel-name> --type slack \
     --token-stdin <<<"$BOT_TOKEN" --app-token "$APP_TOKEN"

2. Attach the channel to an agent:

   clawctl agent channel attach <channel-name> --agent <agent-name>
   clawctl agent sync <agent-name>

To detach: clawctl agent channel detach <channel-name> --agent <agent-name> followed by clawctl agent sync <agent-name>.

Deprecated: clawctl agent configure --stage channels and writes to hosts.json.agents.<name>.config.channels.* are no longer supported. The canonical attachment list is hosts.json.agents.<name>.channels[] (see #555).

Note: Some agents (like ZeroClaw) only support CLI and cannot attach chat channels.

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See individual channel pages for detailed setup instructions.