openclaw-android

v2026.2.22

Published

3 months ago

OpenClaw for Android/Termux - Personal AI assistant for Android

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OpenClaw

OpenClaw (Termux Fork) is a Termux-optimized fork designed to run a personal AI assistant natively on Android without root access.

中文文档 | English README

🚀 Termux Compatibility Fork

Run full-featured OpenClaw on any Android device — even a $30 used phone!

Website · Docs · Vision · DeepWiki · Getting Started · Updating · Showcase · FAQ · Wizard · Nix · Docker · Discord

Preferred setup: run the onboarding wizard (openclaw onboard) in your terminal. The wizard guides you step by step through setting up the gateway, workspace, channels, and skills. The CLI wizard is the recommended path and works on macOS, Linux, and Windows (via WSL2; strongly recommended). Works with npm, pnpm, or bun. New install? Start here: Getting started

Models (selection + auth)

Models config + CLI: Models
Auth profile rotation (OAuth vs API keys) + fallbacks: Model failover

Install (recommended) - Termux

Runtime: Node ≥22 (installed automatically by deploy script).

One-Click Deploy (English)

# Clone and run
git clone https://github.com/yunze7373/openclaw-termux.git
cd openclaw-termux
./Install_termux.sh --full

One-Click Deploy (Chinese Version)

# Clone and run
git clone https://github.com/yunze7373/openclaw-termux.git
cd openclaw-termux
./Install_termux_cn.sh --full

The script will:

Install dependencies (nodejs-lts, pnpm, pm2, etc.)
Configure environment variables
Build the project
Compile sqlite-vec from source for Android/arm64
Set up PM2 service

After deployment, run:

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

Quick start (TL;DR) - Termux

Full beginner guide (auth, pairing, channels): Getting started

# After deploy script completes:
source ~/.bashrc

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

openclaw gateway --port 18789 --verbose

# Send a message
openclaw message send --to +1234567890 --message "Hello from OpenClaw"

# Talk to the assistant
openclaw agent --message "Ship checklist" --thinking high

Upgrading? ./Install_termux.sh --update or Updating guide.

Development channels

stable: tagged releases (vYYYY.M.D or vYYYY.M.D-<patch>), npm dist-tag latest.
beta: prerelease tags (vYYYY.M.D-beta.N), npm dist-tag beta.
dev: moving head of main, npm dist-tag dev (when published).

Switch channels (git + npm): openclaw update --channel stable|beta|dev. Details: Development channels.

From source (development) - Termux

For development and debugging on Termux:

git clone https://github.com/yunze7373/openclaw-termux.git
cd openclaw-termux

# Install dependencies only
./Install_termux.sh --deps

# Manual build steps for development
pnpm install --no-frozen-lockfile --ignore-scripts
pnpm exec tsdown
pnpm build:plugin-sdk:dts
pnpm ui:build

# Fix sqlite-vec for Android
./scripts/fix-sqlite-vec.sh

# Run with tsx (development mode)
node --import tsx openclaw.mjs gateway --port 18789 --verbose

# Or build and run
pnpm build
./openclaw.mjs gateway start

Termux-specific Notes

Root not required for basic usage - Gateway, messaging, AI agents all work in Termux userspace
With root access (optional), you can:
- Use iptables for port forwarding (expose services on privileged ports like 80/443)
- Access Android system services directly
- Run background services more reliably via init.d or Magisk modules
- Mount external storage with full permissions
sqlite-vec - compiled from source for Android/arm64 (no prebuilt binaries)
PM2 recommended - Termux lacks systemd, use PM2 for service management
SSL certificates - configured automatically via $PREFIX/etc/tls/cert.pem

Security defaults (DM access)

OpenClaw connects to real messaging surfaces. Treat inbound DMs as untrusted input.

Full security guide: Security

Default behavior on Telegram/WhatsApp/Signal/iMessage/Microsoft Teams/Discord/Google Chat/Slack:

DM pairing (dmPolicy="pairing" / channels.discord.dmPolicy="pairing" / channels.slack.dmPolicy="pairing"; legacy: channels.discord.dm.policy, channels.slack.dm.policy): unknown senders receive a short pairing code and the bot does not process their message.
Approve with: openclaw pairing approve <channel> <code> (then the sender is added to a local allowlist store).
Public inbound DMs require an explicit opt-in: set dmPolicy="open" and include "*" in the channel allowlist (allowFrom / channels.discord.allowFrom / channels.slack.allowFrom; legacy: channels.discord.dm.allowFrom, channels.slack.dm.allowFrom).

Run openclaw doctor to surface risky/misconfigured DM policies.

Highlights

Local-first Gateway — single control plane for sessions, channels, tools, and events.
Multi-channel inbox — WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, BlueBubbles (iMessage), iMessage (legacy), Microsoft Teams, Matrix, Zalo, Zalo Personal, WebChat, macOS, iOS/Android.
Multi-agent routing — route inbound channels/accounts/peers to isolated agents (workspaces + per-agent sessions).
Voice Wake + Talk Mode — always-on speech for macOS/iOS/Android with ElevenLabs.
Live Canvas — agent-driven visual workspace with A2UI.
First-class tools — browser, canvas, nodes, cron, sessions, and Discord/Slack actions.
Companion apps — macOS menu bar app + iOS/Android nodes.
Onboarding + skills — wizard-driven setup with bundled/managed/workspace skills.

Star History

Everything we built so far

Core platform

Gateway WS control plane with sessions, presence, config, cron, webhooks, Control UI, and Canvas host.
CLI surface: gateway, agent, send, wizard, and doctor.
Pi agent runtime in RPC mode with tool streaming and block streaming.
Session model: main for direct chats, group isolation, activation modes, queue modes, reply-back. Group rules: Groups.
Media pipeline: images/audio/video, transcription hooks, size caps, temp file lifecycle. Audio details: Audio.

Channels

Channels: WhatsApp (Baileys), Telegram (grammY), Slack (Bolt), Discord (discord.js), Google Chat (Chat API), Signal (signal-cli), BlueBubbles (iMessage, recommended), iMessage (legacy imsg), Microsoft Teams (extension), Matrix (extension), Zalo (extension), Zalo Personal (extension), WebChat.
Group routing: mention gating, reply tags, per-channel chunking and routing. Channel rules: Channels.

Apps + nodes

macOS app: menu bar control plane, Voice Wake/PTT, Talk Mode overlay, WebChat, debug tools, remote gateway control.
iOS node: Canvas, Voice Wake, Talk Mode, camera, screen recording, Bonjour pairing.
Android node: Canvas, Talk Mode, camera, screen recording, optional SMS.
macOS node mode: system.run/notify + canvas/camera exposure.

Tools + automation

Browser control: dedicated openclaw Chrome/Chromium, snapshots, actions, uploads, profiles.
Canvas: A2UI push/reset, eval, snapshot.
Nodes: camera snap/clip, screen record, location.get, notifications.
Cron + wakeups; webhooks; Gmail Pub/Sub.
Skills platform: bundled, managed, and workspace skills with install gating + UI.

Runtime + safety

Channel routing, retry policy, and streaming/chunking.
Presence, typing indicators, and usage tracking.
Models, model failover, and session pruning.
Security and troubleshooting.

Ops + packaging

Control UI + WebChat served directly from the Gateway.
Tailscale Serve/Funnel or SSH tunnels with token/password auth.
Nix mode for declarative config; Docker-based installs.
Doctor migrations, logging.

How it works (short)

WhatsApp / Telegram / Slack / Discord / Google Chat / Signal / iMessage / BlueBubbles / Microsoft Teams / Matrix / Zalo / Zalo Personal / WebChat
               │
               ▼
┌───────────────────────────────┐
│            Gateway            │
│       (control plane)         │
│     ws://127.0.0.1:18789      │
└──────────────┬────────────────┘
               │
               ├─ Pi agent (RPC)
               ├─ CLI (openclaw …)
               ├─ WebChat UI
               ├─ macOS app
               └─ iOS / Android nodes

Key subsystems

Gateway WebSocket network — single WS control plane for clients, tools, and events (plus ops: Gateway runbook).
Tailscale exposure — Serve/Funnel for the Gateway dashboard + WS (remote access: Remote).
Browser control — openclaw‑managed Chrome/Chromium with CDP control.
Canvas + A2UI — agent‑driven visual workspace (A2UI host: Canvas/A2UI).
Voice Wake + Talk Mode — always‑on speech and continuous conversation.
Nodes — Canvas, camera snap/clip, screen record, location.get, notifications, plus macOS‑only system.run/system.notify.

Tailscale access (Gateway dashboard)

OpenClaw can auto-configure Tailscale Serve (tailnet-only) or Funnel (public) while the Gateway stays bound to loopback. Configure gateway.tailscale.mode:

off: no Tailscale automation (default).
serve: tailnet-only HTTPS via tailscale serve (uses Tailscale identity headers by default).
funnel: public HTTPS via tailscale funnel (requires shared password auth).

Notes:

gateway.bind must stay loopback when Serve/Funnel is enabled (OpenClaw enforces this).
Serve can be forced to require a password by setting gateway.auth.mode: "password" or gateway.auth.allowTailscale: false.
Funnel refuses to start unless gateway.auth.mode: "password" is set.
Optional: gateway.tailscale.resetOnExit to undo Serve/Funnel on shutdown.

Details: Tailscale guide · Web surfaces

Remote Gateway (Linux is great)

It’s perfectly fine to run the Gateway on a small Linux instance. Clients (macOS app, CLI, WebChat) can connect over Tailscale Serve/Funnel or SSH tunnels, and you can still pair device nodes (macOS/iOS/Android) to execute device‑local actions when needed.

Gateway host runs the exec tool and channel connections by default.
Device nodes run device‑local actions (system.run, camera, screen recording, notifications) via node.invoke. In short: exec runs where the Gateway lives; device actions run where the device lives.

Details: Remote access · Nodes · Security

macOS permissions via the Gateway protocol

The macOS app can run in node mode and advertises its capabilities + permission map over the Gateway WebSocket (node.list / node.describe). Clients can then execute local actions via node.invoke:

system.run runs a local command and returns stdout/stderr/exit code; set needsScreenRecording: true to require screen-recording permission (otherwise you’ll get PERMISSION_MISSING).
system.notify posts a user notification and fails if notifications are denied.
canvas.*, camera.*, screen.record, and location.get are also routed via node.invoke and follow TCC permission status.

Elevated bash (host permissions) is separate from macOS TCC:

Use /elevated on|off to toggle per‑session elevated access when enabled + allowlisted.
Gateway persists the per‑session toggle via sessions.patch (WS method) alongside thinkingLevel, verboseLevel, model, sendPolicy, and groupActivation.

Details: Nodes · macOS app · Gateway protocol

Agent to Agent (sessions_* tools)

Use these to coordinate work across sessions without jumping between chat surfaces.
sessions_list — discover active sessions (agents) and their metadata.
sessions_history — fetch transcript logs for a session.
sessions_send — message another session; optional reply‑back ping‑pong + announce step (REPLY_SKIP, ANNOUNCE_SKIP).

Details: Session tools

Skills registry (ClawHub)

ClawHub is a minimal skill registry. With ClawHub enabled, the agent can search for skills automatically and pull in new ones as needed.

ClawHub

Chat commands

Send these in WhatsApp/Telegram/Slack/Google Chat/Microsoft Teams/WebChat (group commands are owner-only):

/status — compact session status (model + tokens, cost when available)
/new or /reset — reset the session
/compact — compact session context (summary)
/think <level> — off|minimal|low|medium|high|xhigh (GPT-5.2 + Codex models only)
/verbose on|off
/usage off|tokens|full — per-response usage footer
/restart — restart the gateway (owner-only in groups)
/activation mention|always — group activation toggle (groups only)

Apps (optional)

The Gateway alone delivers a great experience. All apps are optional and add extra features.

If you plan to build/run companion apps, follow the platform runbooks below.

macOS (OpenClaw.app) (optional)

Menu bar control for the Gateway and health.
Voice Wake + push-to-talk overlay.
WebChat + debug tools.
Remote gateway control over SSH.

Note: signed builds required for macOS permissions to stick across rebuilds (see docs/mac/permissions.md).

iOS node (optional)

Pairs as a node via the Bridge.
Voice trigger forwarding + Canvas surface.
Controlled via openclaw nodes ….

Runbook: iOS connect.

Android node (optional)

Pairs via the same Bridge + pairing flow as iOS.
Exposes Canvas, Camera, and Screen capture commands.
Runbook: Android connect.

Agent workspace + skills

Workspace root: ~/.openclaw/workspace (configurable via agents.defaults.workspace).
Injected prompt files: AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, TOOLS.md.
Skills: ~/.openclaw/workspace/skills/<skill>/SKILL.md.

Configuration

Minimal ~/.yunze7373/yunze7373.json (model + defaults):

{
  agent: {
    model: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6",
  },
}

Full configuration reference (all keys + examples).

Security model (important)

Default: tools run on the host for the main session, so the agent has full access when it’s just you.
Group/channel safety: set agents.defaults.sandbox.mode: "non-main" to run non‑main sessions (groups/channels) inside per‑session Docker sandboxes; bash then runs in Docker for those sessions.
Sandbox defaults: allowlist bash, process, read, write, edit, sessions_list, sessions_history, sessions_send, sessions_spawn; denylist browser, canvas, nodes, cron, discord, gateway.

Details: Security guide · Docker + sandboxing · Sandbox config

Link the device: pnpm openclaw channels login (stores creds in ~/.openclaw/credentials).
Allowlist who can talk to the assistant via channels.whatsapp.allowFrom.
If channels.whatsapp.groups is set, it becomes a group allowlist; include "*" to allow all.

Set TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN or channels.telegram.botToken (env wins).
Optional: set channels.telegram.groups (with channels.telegram.groups."*".requireMention); when set, it is a group allowlist (include "*" to allow all). Also channels.telegram.allowFrom or channels.telegram.webhookUrl + channels.telegram.webhookSecret as needed.

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      botToken: "123456:ABCDEF",
    },
  },
}

Slack

Set SLACK_BOT_TOKEN + SLACK_APP_TOKEN (or channels.slack.botToken + channels.slack.appToken).

Discord

Set DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN or channels.discord.token (env wins).
Optional: set commands.native, commands.text, or commands.useAccessGroups, plus channels.discord.allowFrom, channels.discord.guilds, or channels.discord.mediaMaxMb as needed.

{
  channels: {
    discord: {
      token: "1234abcd",
    },
  },
}

Signal

Requires signal-cli and a channels.signal config section.

BlueBubbles (iMessage)

Recommended iMessage integration.
Configure channels.bluebubbles.serverUrl + channels.bluebubbles.password and a webhook (channels.bluebubbles.webhookPath).
The BlueBubbles server runs on macOS; the Gateway can run on macOS or elsewhere.

iMessage (legacy)

Legacy macOS-only integration via imsg (Messages must be signed in).
If channels.imessage.groups is set, it becomes a group allowlist; include "*" to allow all.

Microsoft Teams

Configure a Teams app + Bot Framework, then add a msteams config section.
Allowlist who can talk via msteams.allowFrom; group access via msteams.groupAllowFrom or msteams.groupPolicy: "open".

WebChat

Uses the Gateway WebSocket; no separate WebChat port/config.

Browser control (optional):

{
  browser: {
    enabled: true,
    color: "#FF4500",
  },
}

Docs

Use these when you’re past the onboarding flow and want the deeper reference.

Advanced docs (discovery + control)

Operations & troubleshooting

Deep dives

Workspace & skills

Platform internals

Email hooks (Gmail)

docs.openclaw.ai/gmail-pubsub

Android (Termux) Compatibility

This fork is specifically optimized for running OpenClaw on Android via Termux. We have implemented over 50 compatibility fixes to ensure a stable and feature-rich experience on mobile devices.

Key Adaptations

Skill Compatibility Layer: The built-in skill installer (skills-install.ts) has been rewritten to:
- Automatically map macOS brew formulas to Termux pkg packages (e.g., go → golang).
- Handle global npm installs by correctly setting PNPM_HOME.
- Gracefully skip incompatible macOS-only formulas with clear notifications.
- Support over 95% of the official skill library on Android.
Core Stability:
- Clipboard: Patched @mariozechner/clipboard to use termux-api for native clipboard access.
- Path Resolution: Fixed binary path detection for node, npm, go, and other tools in the Termux environment.
- Service Management: Implemented a "Manual (Android)" service manager to bypass systemd/launchd dependencies.
Memory & Storage:
- Auto-Archiving: Implemented a tiered memory architecture that automatically archives MEMORY.md when it exceeds 25k chars, preventing context loss.
- Vector Search: Added a fallback proxy to Supabase for vector operations, as local sqlite-vec limits are problematic on Android.
Browser Automation:
- Enabled Headless Chromium support with Termux-specific flags, allowing full browser automation capabilities on mobile.

For a detailed list of all fixes, see ANDROID_FIXES.md.

Community

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines, maintainers, and how to submit PRs. AI/vibe-coded PRs welcome! 🤖

Follow usage: X (Twitter) @hanyz_eth

Special thanks to Mario Zechner for his support and for pi-mono. Special thanks to Adam Doppelt for lobster.bot.

Thanks to all clawtributors:

Published

Vulnerabilities

Links

Maintainers

Keywords

Readme

OpenClaw

🚀 Termux Compatibility Fork

Sponsors

Key Adaptations

📸 Gallery

📱 Advanced Capabilities (Sensors & Hardware)

🛸 Ultimate Form: Matrix Cluster (Multi-Device)

Models (selection + auth)

Install (recommended) - Termux

One-Click Deploy (English)

One-Click Deploy (Chinese Version)

Quick start (TL;DR) - Termux

Development channels

From source (development) - Termux

Termux-specific Notes

Security defaults (DM access)

Highlights

Star History

Everything we built so far

Core platform

Channels

Apps + nodes

Tools + automation

Runtime + safety

Ops + packaging

How it works (short)

Key subsystems

Tailscale access (Gateway dashboard)

Remote Gateway (Linux is great)

macOS permissions via the Gateway protocol

Agent to Agent (sessions_* tools)

Skills registry (ClawHub)

Chat commands

Apps (optional)

macOS (OpenClaw.app) (optional)

iOS node (optional)

Android node (optional)

Agent workspace + skills

Configuration

Security model (important)

Docs

Advanced docs (discovery + control)

Operations & troubleshooting

Deep dives

Workspace & skills

Platform internals

Email hooks (Gmail)

Android (Termux) Compatibility

Key Adaptations

Community