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The OpenShell lifecycle built on the same SSH transport, and the difference between its mirror and remote workspace modes.

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OpenShell backend

Use backend: "openshell" to sandbox tools in an OpenShell-managed remote environment. OpenShell reuses the same SSH transport and remote filesystem bridge as the generic SSH backend, and adds OpenShell lifecycle (sandbox create/get/delete/ssh-config) plus an optional mirror workspace sync mode.
mode: "mirror" (default) keeps the local workspace canonical: OpenClaw syncs local into the sandbox before exec and syncs back after. mode: "remote" seeds the remote workspace once from local, then runs exec/read/write/edit/apply_patch directly against the remote workspace without syncing back; local edits after the seed are invisible until you openclaw sandbox recreate. Under scope: "agent" or scope: "shared", that remote workspace is shared at the same scope. Current limitations: sandbox browser isn’t supported yet, and sandbox.docker.binds doesn’t apply to this backend. openclaw sandbox list/recreate/prune all treat OpenShell runtimes the same as Docker runtimes; prune logic is backend-aware. For the full prerequisites, configuration reference, workspace-mode comparison, and lifecycle details, see OpenShell.