@virtue-ai/gateway-connect

One-command setup to connect OpenClaw to the VirtueAI MCP gateway. Works with any model — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, LiteLLM, etc.

Quick Start

Step 1: Install OpenClaw

npm install -g openclaw@latest

Step 2: Configure Model Auth

Set up API key for your preferred model provider:

openclaw models auth paste-token --provider anthropic
# or
openclaw models auth paste-token --provider openai

Step 3: Connect to VirtueAI MCP Gateway

# Standalone gateway
npx @virtue-ai/gateway-connect --gateway-url https://virtueai-agent-gtw-xxxx.ngrok.io

# Platform-hosted gateway
npx @virtue-ai/gateway-connect --gateway-url https://your-domain.ngrok.app/api/gateways/gtw_xxxx

This will:

1. Open your browser for OAuth login
2. Fetch all MCP tools from the gateway
3. Generate a native OpenClaw plugin wrapping each tool (~/.openclaw/extensions/virtueai-mcp-tools/)
4. Patch ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json to enable the plugin
5. Install the trajectory recording plugin

Step 4: Start Using

One-shot mode:

openclaw agent --local --agent main --message "What tools do you have?"

Interactive TUI mode:

# Terminal 1: start the OpenClaw gateway
openclaw gateway --allow-unconfigured

# Terminal 2: open the TUI
openclaw tui

To stop the gateway, press Ctrl+C in Terminal 1, or run:

openclaw gateway stop

Switching Models

In TUI mode, use slash commands to switch models on the fly:

/model openai/gpt-5.2
/model anthropic/claude-opus-4-6
/models                              # opens model picker

All gateway tools remain available regardless of which model you use. Any model with a configured API key can be selected.

What It Does

gateway-connect generates a native OpenClaw plugin that registers every MCP gateway tool via api.registerTool(). Each tool call is proxied to the gateway as a JSON-RPC tools/call request with Bearer auth.

This approach works with any embedded model provider (not just Claude CLI), because the tools are part of OpenClaw's plugin system rather than being passed via --mcp-config.

Generated Files

| Path | Purpose | |------|---------| | ~/.openclaw/extensions/virtueai-mcp-tools/ | Native plugin with all gateway tools | | ~/.openclaw/extensions/virtueai-trajectory/ | Trajectory recording plugin | | ~/.openclaw/mcp-gateway.json | Auth & trajectory config | | ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json | Patched with plugin entries |

Options

npx @virtue-ai/gateway-connect [options]

Options:
  --gateway-url <url>    Gateway URL (standalone or platform-hosted)
  --api-url <url>        Prompt-guard API URL (default: https://agentgateway1.virtueai.io)
  --gateway-id <id>      Gateway ID for trajectory recording
  --model <model>        Model to use (e.g. openai/gpt-4o, anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5)
  --guard-uuid <uuid>    Guard UUID for trajectory recording (or set VIRTUEAI_GUARD_UUID)
  --help                 Show help message

Re-authentication

If your token expires, just run the command again. It will regenerate the plugin with a fresh token.

License

MIT