Use --non-interactive to automate openclaw onboard.

Note

--json does not imply non-interactive mode. Use --non-interactive (and --workspace) for scripts.

Baseline non-interactive example

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice apiKey \
  --anthropic-api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  --secret-input-mode plaintext \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback \
  --install-daemon \
  --daemon-runtime node \
  --skip-bootstrap \
  --skip-skills

Add --json for a machine-readable summary.

Use --skip-bootstrap when your automation pre-seeds workspace files and does not want onboarding to create the default bootstrap files.

Use --secret-input-mode ref to store env-backed refs in auth profiles instead of plaintext values. Interactive selection between env refs and configured provider refs (file or exec) is available in the onboarding flow.

In non-interactive ref mode, provider env vars must be set in the process environment. Passing inline key flags without the matching env var now fails fast.

Example:

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice openai-api-key \
  --secret-input-mode ref \
  --accept-risk

Provider-specific examples

Anthropic API key example

```bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice apiKey \
  --anthropic-api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```

Gemini example

```bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice gemini-api-key \
  --gemini-api-key "$GEMINI_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```

Z.AI example

```bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice zai-api-key \
  --zai-api-key "$ZAI_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```

Vercel AI Gateway example

```bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice ai-gateway-api-key \
  --ai-gateway-api-key "$AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```

Cloudflare AI Gateway example

```bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice cloudflare-ai-gateway-api-key \
  --cloudflare-ai-gateway-account-id "your-account-id" \
  --cloudflare-ai-gateway-gateway-id "your-gateway-id" \
  --cloudflare-ai-gateway-api-key "$CLOUDFLARE_AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```

Moonshot example

```bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice moonshot-api-key \
  --moonshot-api-key "$MOONSHOT_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```

Mistral example

```bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice mistral-api-key \
  --mistral-api-key "$MISTRAL_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```

Synthetic example

```bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice synthetic-api-key \
  --synthetic-api-key "$SYNTHETIC_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```

OpenCode example

```bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice opencode-zen \
  --opencode-zen-api-key "$OPENCODE_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```
Swap to `--auth-choice opencode-go --opencode-go-api-key "$OPENCODE_API_KEY"` for the Go catalog.

Ollama example

```bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice ollama \
  --custom-model-id "qwen3.5:27b" \
  --accept-risk \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```

Custom provider example

```bash
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice custom-api-key \
  --custom-base-url "https://llm.example.com/v1" \
  --custom-model-id "foo-large" \
  --custom-api-key "$CUSTOM_API_KEY" \
  --custom-provider-id "my-custom" \
  --custom-compatibility anthropic \
  --custom-image-input \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```

`--custom-api-key` is optional. If omitted, onboarding checks `CUSTOM_API_KEY`.
OpenClaw marks common vision model IDs as image-capable automatically. Add `--custom-image-input` for unknown custom vision IDs, or `--custom-text-input` to force text-only metadata.

Ref-mode variant:

```bash
export CUSTOM_API_KEY="your-key"
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice custom-api-key \
  --custom-base-url "https://llm.example.com/v1" \
  --custom-model-id "foo-large" \
  --secret-input-mode ref \
  --custom-provider-id "my-custom" \
  --custom-compatibility anthropic \
  --custom-image-input \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
```

In this mode, onboarding stores `apiKey` as `{ source: "env", provider: "default", id: "CUSTOM_API_KEY" }`.

Anthropic setup-token remains available as a supported onboarding token path, but OpenClaw now prefers Claude CLI reuse when available. For production, prefer an Anthropic API key.

Add another agent

Use openclaw agents add <name> to create a separate agent with its own workspace, sessions, and auth profiles. Running without --workspace launches the wizard.

openclaw agents add work \
  --workspace ~/.openclaw/workspace-work \
  --model openai/gpt-5.5 \
  --bind whatsapp:biz \
  --non-interactive \
  --json

What it sets:

• agents.list[].name
• agents.list[].workspace
• agents.list[].agentDir

Notes:

• Default workspaces follow ~/.openclaw/workspace-<agentId>.
• Add bindings to route inbound messages (the wizard can do this).
• Non-interactive flags: --model, --agent-dir, --bind, --non-interactive.

Related docs

• Onboarding hub: Onboarding (CLI)
• Full reference: CLI Setup Reference
• Command reference: openclaw onboard