27 KiB
| summary | read_when | title | sidebarTitle | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Browser-based control UI for the Gateway (chat, nodes, config) |
|
Control UI | Control UI |
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.
Quick open (local)
If the Gateway is running on the same computer, open:
If the page fails to load, start the Gateway first: openclaw gateway.
Auth is supplied during the WebSocket handshake via:
connect.params.auth.tokenconnect.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".
Device pairing (first connection)
When you connect to the Control UI from a new browser or device, the Gateway usually requires a one-time pairing approval. This is a security measure to prevent unauthorized access.
What you'll see: "disconnected (1008): pairing required"
```bash openclaw devices list ``` ```bash openclaw devices approve ```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 approval.
If the browser is already paired and you change it from read access to write/admin access, this 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 and revocation.
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, is 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 actually send. Clearing site data or switching browsers resets it to empty.
The same browser-local pattern applies to the assistant avatar override. Uploaded assistant avatars overlay the gateway-resolved identity on the local browser only and never round-trip through config.patch. The shared ui.assistant.avatar config field is still available for non-UI clients writing the field directly (such as scripted gateways or custom dashboards).
Runtime config endpoint
The Control UI fetches its runtime settings from /__openclaw/control-ui-config.json. 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 either an already valid gateway token/password, Tailscale Serve identity, or a trusted-proxy identity.
Language support
The Control UI can localize itself on first load based on your browser locale. To override it later, open Overview -> Gateway Access -> Language. The locale picker lives in the Gateway Access card, not under Appearance.
- Supported locales:
en,zh-CN,zh-TW,pt-BR,de,es,ja-JP,ko,fr,tr,uk,id,pl,th - 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.
Appearance themes
The Appearance panel keeps the built-in Claw, Knot, and Dash themes, plus one browser-local tweakcn import slot. To import a theme, open tweakcn themes, choose or create a theme, click Share, and paste the copied theme 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 the active theme back to Claw if the imported theme was selected.
What it can do (today)
- Chat with the model via Gateway WS (`chat.history`, `chat.send`, `chat.abort`, `chat.inject`). - 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. The relay keeps provider credentials on the Gateway while the browser streams microphone PCM through `talk.realtime.relay*` RPCs and sends `openclaw_agent_consult` tool calls back through `chat.send` for the larger configured OpenClaw model. - Stream tool calls + live tool output cards in Chat (agent events). - Channels: built-in plus bundled/external plugin channels status, QR login, and per-channel config (`channels.status`, `web.login.*`, `config.patch`). - Instances: presence list + refresh (`system-presence`). - Sessions: list + per-session model/thinking/fast/verbose/trace/reasoning overrides (`sessions.list`, `sessions.patch`). - Dreams: dreaming status, enable/disable toggle, and Dream Diary reader (`doctor.memory.status`, `doctor.memory.dreamDiary`, `config.patch`). - Cron jobs: list/add/edit/run/enable/disable + run history (`cron.*`). - Skills: status, enable/disable, install, API key updates (`skills.*`). - Nodes: list + caps (`node.list`). - Exec approvals: edit gateway or node allowlists + ask policy for `exec host=gateway/node` (`exec.approvals.*`). - View/edit `~/.openclaw/openclaw.json` (`config.get`, `config.set`). - Apply + restart with validation (`config.apply`) and 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. - Schema + form rendering (`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 + channel schemas when available); Raw JSON editor is available only when the snapshot has a safe raw round-trip. - If a snapshot cannot safely round-trip raw text, Control UI forces Form mode and disables Raw mode for that snapshot. - 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 are rendered read-only in form text inputs to prevent accidental object-to-string corruption. - Debug: status/health/models snapshots + event log + manual RPC calls (`status`, `health`, `models.list`). - Logs: live tail of gateway file logs with filter/export (`logs.tail`). - Update: run a package/git update + restart (`update.run`) with a restart report, then poll `update.status` after reconnect to verify the running gateway version. - For isolated jobs, delivery defaults to announce summary. You can switch to none if you want 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 jobs, 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. - Deprecated fallback: stored legacy jobs with `notify: true` can still use `cron.webhook` until migrated.Chat behavior
- `chat.send` is **non-blocking**: it acks immediately with `{ runId, status: "started" }` and the response streams via `chat` events. - 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]`). - 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. - `chat.history` also 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 `...`, `...`, `...`, `...`, and truncated tool-call blocks), and leaked ASCII/full-width model control tokens, and omits assistant entries whose whole visible text is only the exact silent token `NO_REPLY` / `no_reply`. - 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. - `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 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. - The chat model picker requests the Gateway's configured model view. If `agents.defaults.models` is present, that allowlist drives the picker. Otherwise the picker shows explicit `models.providers.*.models` entries before falling back to the full catalog for fresh installs. - When fresh Gateway session usage reports show high context pressure, the chat composer area shows a context notice and, at recommended compaction levels, 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.provider: "openai"` plus `talk.providers.openai.apiKey`, or configure Google with `talk.provider: "google"` plus `talk.providers.google.apiKey`; Voice Call realtime provider config can still be reused as the fallback. The browser never receives a standard provider API key. OpenAI receives an ephemeral Realtime client secret for WebRTC. 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.realtime.session` does not accept caller-provided instruction overrides.In the Chat composer, the Talk control is the waves button next to the microphone dictation button. When Talk starts, the composer status row shows `Connecting Talk...`, then `Talk live` while audio is connected, or `Asking OpenClaw...` while a realtime tool call is consulting the configured larger model through `chat.send`.
Maintainer live smoke: `OPENAI_API_KEY=... GEMINI_API_KEY=... node --import tsx scripts/dev/realtime-talk-live-smoke.ts` verifies the 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.
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.
| Surface | What it does |
|---|---|
ui/public/manifest.webmanifest |
PWA manifest. Browsers offer "Install app" once it is reachable. |
ui/public/sw.js |
Service worker that handles push events and notification clicks. |
push/vapid-keys.json (under the OpenClaw state dir) |
Auto-generated VAPID keypair used to sign Web Push payloads. |
push/web-push-subscriptions.json |
Persisted browser subscription endpoints. |
Override the VAPID keypair through env vars on the Gateway process when you want to pin keys (for multi-host deployments, secrets rotation, or tests):
OPENCLAW_VAPID_PUBLIC_KEYOPENCLAW_VAPID_PRIVATE_KEYOPENCLAW_VAPID_SUBJECT(defaults tomailto:openclaw@localhost)
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 anendpointpluskeys.p256dh/keys.auth.push.web.unsubscribe— removes a registered endpoint.push.web.test— sends a test notification to the caller's subscription.
Hosted embeds
Assistant messages can render hosted web content inline with the [embed ...] shortcode. The iframe sandbox policy is controlled by gateway.controlUi.embedSandbox:
Example:
{
gateway: {
controlUi: {
embedSandbox: "scripts",
},
},
}
Absolute external http(s) embed URLs stay blocked by default. If you intentionally want [embed url="https://..."] to load third-party pages, set gateway.controlUi.allowExternalEmbedUrls: true.
Tailnet access (recommended)
Keep the Gateway on loopback and let Tailscale Serve proxy it with HTTPS:```bash
openclaw gateway --tailscale serve
```
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.
<Warning>
Tokenless Serve auth assumes the gateway host is trusted. If untrusted local code may run on that host, require token/password auth.
</Warning>
Then open:
- `http://<tailscale-ip>:18789/` (or your configured `gateway.controlUi.basePath`)
Paste the matching shared secret into the UI settings (sent as `connect.params.auth.token` or `connect.params.auth.password`).
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:
https://<magicdns>/(Serve)http://127.0.0.1:18789/(on the gateway host)
`allowInsecureAuth` is a local compatibility toggle only:
- It allows localhost Control UI sessions to 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.
<Warning>
`dangerouslyDisableDeviceAuth` disables Control UI device identity checks and is a severe security downgrade. Revert quickly after emergency use.
</Warning>
See Tailscale for HTTPS setup guidance.
Content security policy
The Control UI ships with 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 do not issue network fetches.
What this means in practice:
- Avatars and images served under relative paths (for example
/avatars/<id>) still render, including authenticated avatar routes that the UI fetches and converts into localblob:URLs. - Inline
data:image/...URLs still render (useful for in-protocol payloads). - Local
blob:URLs created by the Control UI still render. - 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.
You do not need to change anything to get this behavior — it is always on and not configurable.
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=1returns the avatar metadata under the same rule.- Unauthenticated requests to either route are rejected (matching the sibling assistant-media route). This prevents the avatar route from leaking agent identity on hosts that are otherwise protected.
- The Control UI itself 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.
Building the UI
The Gateway serves static files from dist/control-ui. Build them with:
pnpm ui:build
Optional absolute base (when you want fixed asset URLs):
OPENCLAW_CONTROL_UI_BASE_PATH=/openclaw/ pnpm ui:build
For local development (separate dev server):
pnpm ui:dev
Then point the UI at your Gateway WS URL (e.g. ws://127.0.0.1:18789).
Debugging/testing: dev server + remote Gateway
The Control UI is static files; the WebSocket target is configurable and can be different from the HTTP origin. This is handy when you want the Vite dev server locally but the Gateway runs elsewhere.
```bash pnpm ui:dev ``` ```text http://localhost:5173/?gatewayUrl=ws://:18789 ```Optional one-time auth (if needed):
```text
http://localhost:5173/?gatewayUrl=wss://<gateway-host>:18789#token=<gateway-token>
```
Example:
{
gateway: {
controlUi: {
allowedOrigins: ["http://localhost:5173"],
},
},
}
Remote access setup details: Remote access.
Related
- Dashboard — gateway dashboard
- Health Checks — gateway health monitoring
- TUI — terminal user interface
- WebChat — browser-based chat interface