openclaw pairing
Approve or inspect DM pairing requests for channels that support pairing (chat DMs only - node/device pairing uses openclaw devices).
Related: Pairing flow
Commands
pairing list
List pending pairing requests for one channel.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
[channel] | positional channel id |
--channel <channel> | explicit channel id |
--account <accountId> | account id for multi-account channels |
--json | machine-readable output |
--channel. Extension channels work as long as the channel id is valid.
pairing approve
Approve a pending pairing code and allow that sender.
Usage:
openclaw pairing approve <channel> <code>openclaw pairing approve --channel <channel> <code>openclaw pairing approve <code>when exactly one pairing-capable channel is configured
--channel <channel>, --account <accountId>, --notify (send a confirmation back to the requester on the same channel).
Owner bootstrap
Ifcommands.ownerAllowFrom is empty when you approve a pairing code, OpenClaw also records the approved sender as the command owner, using a channel-scoped entry such as telegram:123456789. This only bootstraps the first owner - later pairing approvals never replace or expand commands.ownerAllowFrom.
The command owner is the human operator account allowed to run owner-only commands and approve dangerous actions such as /diagnostics, /export-trajectory, /config, and exec approvals. Pairing only lets a sender talk to the agent; it does not by itself grant owner privileges beyond this one-time bootstrap.
If you approved a sender before this bootstrap existed, run openclaw doctor; it warns when no command owner is configured and shows the exact openclaw config set commands.ownerAllowFrom ... command to fix it.