The control plane that routes messages between users and AI agents across multiple channels, managing authentication, rate limiting, and channel-specific protocols.
The agent gateway is the front door to your AI agent. Every message — whether from WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, or a web chat — enters through the gateway. It authenticates the sender, routes the message to the right agent, and delivers the response back through the correct channel.
OpenClaw's gateway handles protocol translation between 23+ channels. A WhatsApp message and a Slack message look completely different at the protocol level, but the gateway normalizes them into a standard format the agent understands.
The gateway also enforces DM access policies, manages WebSocket connections for real-time chat, and provides the API surface for programmatic agent interaction.
Without a gateway, you build and maintain channel integrations yourself — each with its own authentication, message format, and delivery semantics. The gateway abstracts this complexity into a single deployment.
Clawctl deploys the OpenClaw gateway with TLS, health monitoring, and auto-recovery. Channel configuration is managed through the dashboard. DM access policies control who can message your agent.
Try Clawctl — 60 Second Deploy23+ channels including WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Mattermost, web chat, and more.
Yes. The gateway exposes an HTTP/WebSocket API for programmatic access alongside channel integrations.
Clawctl auto-recovery detects gateway failures and restarts or redeploys within minutes.
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
An open protocol that lets AI agents connect to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
Agent Orchestration
The coordination of multiple AI agents working together to complete complex tasks that no single agent could handle alone.
AI Agent Runtime
The execution environment that hosts an AI agent, managing its lifecycle, tool access, memory, and communication with LLM providers.
Docker Sandbox
A Docker container configured with restricted permissions that isolates an AI agent from the host system and other containers.