OpenClaw Gateway

#openclaw #gateway #architecture #routing #channel-adapters

OpenClaw Gateway

The Gateway is the central control plane in OpenClaw's hub-and-spoke architecture. It routes messages from all inbound sources (channel adapters, control interfaces) to the Agent Runtime and returns responses.

Binding & Network

Process: Node.js 22+
Default bind: 127.0.0.1:18789 (loopback-only; no external exposure by default)
This loopback binding is the first layer of OpenClaw's Security Model

Hub-and-Spoke Design

Channel Adapters ─┐
                  ├─→ Gateway (control plane) ─→ Agent Runtime
Control Interfaces┘

All traffic passes through the Gateway; adapters and interfaces do not talk to the runtime directly.

Channel Adapters

Platform-specific connectors that handle:

Authentication with the upstream platform
Message parsing and normalization
Access control (allowlists per channel)
Response formatting per platform conventions

Supported platforms: WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, iMessage, and others.

Control Interfaces

Human-facing surfaces that connect to the Gateway:

Web UI — browser-based interface
CLI — command-line access
macOS app — native menu bar application
Mobile nodes — lightweight mobile clients

Six-Phase Execution Flow

Each inbound message traverses these phases inside the Gateway + Runtime:

Phase	Description
1. Ingestion	Message received from channel adapter or control interface
2. Access control & routing	Auth check, channel allowlist, session lane assignment
3. Context assembly	Session history + system prompts + memory retrieval (see Context Assembly)
4. Model invocation	Assembled context sent to LLM
5. Tool execution	Tool calls dispatched, results collected
6. Response delivery	Formatted reply routed back through originating adapter