OpenClaw Workspace Cloud Sync Plugin

Bidirectional workspace sync between your OpenClaw agent and cloud storage via rclone.

Supports Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, S3/R2/Minio, and 70+ cloud providers.

How it works

Drop a file locally — it appears on the remote Gateway (and vice versa).

Zero LLM cost. All sync operations are pure rclone file operations — they never wake the bot or trigger LLM calls.

Architecture

Install

openclaw plugins install openclaw-workspace-sync

Or clone into your extensions directory:

cd ~/.openclaw/extensions
git clone https://github.com/ashbrener/openclaw-workspace-sync workspace-sync
cd workspace-sync && npm install --omit=dev

Quick start

# Interactive setup wizard (recommended)
openclaw workspace setup

The setup wizard guides you through:

1. Checking/installing rclone
2. Selecting cloud provider
3. Dropbox app folder option (for scoped access)
4. Background sync interval
5. OAuth authorization
6. First sync

Or configure manually — see Configuration below.

Configuration

Add to your openclaw.json:

{
  "plugins": {
    "entries": {
      "openclaw-workspace-sync": {
        "enabled": true,
        "config": {
          "provider": "dropbox",
          "remotePath": "openclaw-share",
          "localPath": "shared",
          "interval": 300,
          "onSessionStart": true,
          "onSessionEnd": false,
          "conflictResolve": "newer",
          "exclude": [".git/**", "node_modules/**", "*.log"]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Config reference

| Key | Type | Default | Description | |-----|------|---------|-------------| | provider | string | "off" | dropbox | gdrive | onedrive | s3 | custom | off | | remotePath | string | "openclaw-share" | Folder name in cloud storage | | localPath | string | "shared" | Subfolder within workspace to sync | | interval | number | 0 | Background sync interval in seconds (0 = manual only, min 60) | | onSessionStart | boolean | false | Sync when an agent session begins | | onSessionEnd | boolean | false | Sync when an agent session ends | | remoteName | string | "cloud" | rclone remote name | | configPath | string | auto | Path to rclone.conf | | conflictResolve | string | "newer" | newer | local | remote | | exclude | string[] | see below | Glob patterns to exclude | | copySymlinks | boolean | false | Follow symlinks during sync |

Default excludes: .git/**, node_modules/**, .venv/**, __pycache__/**, *.log, .DS_Store

Provider-specific options

Dropbox with app folder (recommended for security):

{
  "provider": "dropbox",
  "remotePath": "",
  "dropbox": {
    "appFolder": true,
    "appKey": "your-app-key",
    "appSecret": "your-app-secret",
    "token": "{\"access_token\":\"...\"}"
  }
}

Google Drive:

{
  "provider": "gdrive",
  "remotePath": "openclaw-sync",
  "gdrive": {
    "token": "{\"access_token\":\"...\"}",
    "teamDrive": "0ABcDeFgHiJ",
    "rootFolderId": "folder-id"
  }
}

teamDrive and rootFolderId are optional — omit them for personal Google Drive.

OneDrive:

{
  "provider": "onedrive",
  "remotePath": "openclaw-sync",
  "onedrive": {
    "token": "{\"access_token\":\"...\"}",
    "driveId": "drive-id",
    "driveType": "business"
  }
}

driveType can be personal, business, or sharepoint. Both fields are optional.

S3 / Cloudflare R2 / Minio:

{
  "provider": "s3",
  "remotePath": "openclaw-sync",
  "s3": {
    "endpoint": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com",
    "bucket": "your-bucket",
    "region": "us-east-1",
    "accessKeyId": "AKID...",
    "secretAccessKey": "SECRET..."
  }
}

Any rclone backend (SFTP, B2, Mega, pCloud, etc.):

{
  "provider": "custom",
  "remotePath": "openclaw-sync",
  "custom": {
    "rcloneType": "sftp",
    "rcloneOptions": {
      "host": "example.com",
      "user": "deploy",
      "key_file": "/path/to/key"
    }
  }
}

The custom provider accepts any rclone backend type and passes rcloneOptions directly to the rclone config. This gives you config-driven access to all 70+ providers without manually editing rclone.conf.

CLI commands

# Interactive setup wizard
openclaw workspace setup

# Check sync status
openclaw workspace status

# Sync bidirectionally
openclaw workspace sync

# First sync (required once to establish baseline)
openclaw workspace sync --resync

# Preview changes without syncing
openclaw workspace sync --dry-run

# One-way sync
openclaw workspace sync --direction pull   # remote -> local
openclaw workspace sync --direction push   # local -> remote

# Authorize with cloud provider
openclaw workspace authorize
openclaw workspace authorize --provider gdrive

# List remote files
openclaw workspace list

Auto-sync

Session hooks

Sync automatically when sessions start or end. These run during existing agent activity and incur zero LLM cost:

{
  "onSessionStart": true,
  "onSessionEnd": false
}

Periodic background sync

Set interval to enable automatic background sync (in seconds):

{
  "interval": 300
}

The gateway runs rclone bisync in the background at this interval. Minimum interval is 60 seconds.

External cron (alternative)

# Add to crontab (crontab -e)
*/5 * * * * openclaw workspace sync >> /var/log/openclaw-sync.log 2>&1

Supported providers

| Provider | Config value | Auth method | Config-driven | |----------|-------------|-------------|---------------| | Dropbox | dropbox | OAuth token | Full (token, appKey, appSecret, appFolder) | | Google Drive | gdrive | OAuth token | Full (token, teamDrive, rootFolderId) | | OneDrive | onedrive | OAuth token | Full (token, driveId, driveType) | | S3/R2/Minio | s3 | Access keys | Full (endpoint, bucket, region, credentials) | | Any rclone backend | custom | Varies | Full (rcloneType + rcloneOptions) |

All providers are fully config-driven — no manual rclone.conf editing needed. The custom provider gives access to all 70+ rclone backends (SFTP, B2, Mega, pCloud, Azure Blob, etc.).

Manual setup (without wizard)

If you prefer to skip the interactive wizard, configure the plugin in openclaw.json and use the CLI:

# 1. Authorize with your cloud provider
openclaw workspace authorize --provider dropbox

# 2. Run the first sync (establishes baseline)
openclaw workspace sync --resync

The plugin handles rclone installation, config generation, and token storage automatically based on your openclaw.json settings.

Dropbox app folder access (recommended)

For better security, create a scoped Dropbox app that only accesses a single folder:

1. Go to Dropbox App Console
2. Click Create app > Scoped access > App folder
3. Name it (e.g., openclaw-sync)
4. In Permissions tab, enable:
   • files.metadata.read / files.metadata.write
   • files.content.read / files.content.write
5. Copy App key and App secret from Settings

Benefits:

• Token only accesses one folder, not your entire Dropbox
• If token is compromised, blast radius is limited
• Clean separation — sync folder lives under Apps/

Troubleshooting

Token expired

openclaw workspace authorize

Conflicts

Files modified on both sides get .conflict suffix:

find <workspace>/shared -name "*.conflict"

First sync fails

openclaw workspace sync --resync

Permission errors

chmod -R 755 <workspace>/shared

Security notes

• Token storage: rclone tokens are stored in rclone.conf with 0600 permissions
• Sensitive files: Don't sync secrets, API keys, or credentials
• Encryption: Consider rclone crypt for sensitive data
• App folder: Use Dropbox app folder access for minimal permissions

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run tests
npm test

# Type check
npx tsc --noEmit

License

MIT