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Use openclaw onboard --non-interactive to script setup. It requires --accept-risk: non-interactive setup can write credentials and daemon config without a confirmation prompt, so the flag is the explicit risk acknowledgement.
--json does not imply non-interactive mode. Pass --non-interactive --accept-risk explicitly for scripts.

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Baseline non-interactive example

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice apiKey \
  --anthropic-api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  --secret-input-mode plaintext \
  --gateway-bind loopback \
  --install-daemon \
  --daemon-runtime node \
  --skip-bootstrap \
  --skip-skills
Add --json for a machine-readable summary.
  • --gateway-port defaults to 18789; only pass it to override.
  • --skip-bootstrap skips creating default workspace files, for automation that pre-seeds its own workspace.
  • --secret-input-mode ref stores an env-backed reference ({ source: "env", provider: "default", id: "<ENV_VAR>" }) in the auth profile instead of the plaintext key. In non-interactive ref mode, the provider env var must already be set in the process environment: passing an inline key flag without its matching env var fails fast.
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice openai-api-key \
  --secret-input-mode ref

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Provider-specific examples

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice apiKey \
  --anthropic-api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --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-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice gemini-api-key \
  --gemini-api-key "$GEMINI_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice mistral-api-key \
  --mistral-api-key "$MISTRAL_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice moonshot-api-key \
  --moonshot-api-key "$MOONSHOT_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-bind loopback

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

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice opencode-zen \
  --opencode-zen-api-key "$OPENCODE_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-bind loopback
Swap to --auth-choice opencode-go --opencode-go-api-key "$OPENCODE_API_KEY" for the Go catalog.
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice synthetic-api-key \
  --synthetic-api-key "$SYNTHETIC_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice ai-gateway-api-key \
  --ai-gateway-api-key "$AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice zai-api-key \
  --zai-api-key "$ZAI_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --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-bind loopback
--custom-api-key is optional; some endpoints do not require auth. If omitted, onboarding checks CUSTOM_API_KEY in env. --custom-provider-id is optional and auto-derived from the base URL when omitted. --custom-compatibility defaults to openai (other values: openai-responses, anthropic).OpenClaw infers image-input support from known vision model-id patterns (gpt-4o, claude-3/4, gemini, -vl/vision suffixes, and similar). Add --custom-image-input to force it on for an unrecognized vision model, or --custom-text-input to force text-only.Ref-mode variant, storing apiKey as { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "CUSTOM_API_KEY" }:
export CUSTOM_API_KEY="your-key"
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --accept-risk \
  --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-bind loopback
Anthropic setup-token auth remains supported, but OpenClaw prefers Claude CLI reuse when a local Claude CLI login is available. For production, prefer an Anthropic API key.

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Add another agent

openclaw agents add <name> creates a separate agent with its own workspace, sessions, and auth profiles. Running it without --workspace (and no other flags) launches the interactive wizard; passing any of --workspace, --model, --agent-dir, --bind, or --non-interactive runs it non-interactively and then requires --workspace. 
openclaw agents add work \
  --workspace ~/.openclaw/workspace-work \
  --model openai/gpt-5.5 \
  --bind whatsapp:biz \
  --non-interactive \
  --json
Config keys it writes (agents.list[] entry for the new agent id):
  • name
  • workspace
  • agentDir
  • model (only when --model is passed)
Notes:
  • Default workspace (when --workspace is omitted in the interactive wizard): ~/.openclaw/workspace-<agentId>.
  • --bind <channel[:accountId]> is repeatable; add bindings to route inbound messages to the new agent (the wizard can also do this interactively).
  • The agent name is normalized to a valid agent id; main is reserved.