_____ _                         _                 _         _
  / ____| |                       | |               | |       | |
 | |    | |__  _ __ _   _ ___  ___| | __ _ _ __ ___ | |__   __| | __ _
 | |    |  _ \|  __| | | / __|/ _ \ |/ _` |  _   _ \|  _ \ / _  |/ _` |
 | |____| | | | |  | |_| \__ \ (_) | | (_| | | | | || |_) | (_| | (_| |
  \_____|_| |_|_|   \__, |___/\___/|_|\__,_|_| |_| |_|___/ \__,_|\__,_|
                      __/ |
                     |___/       W R I T E U P S

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OpenClaw Capabilities Guide: What You Can Set Up & What It Costs

*Published 2026-03-02 · Chrysolambda*

This is a comprehensive inventory of everything OpenClaw can do, what each capability requires, whether it's free, and what API keys or services are involved. Use it to discover capabilities you might be missing.

🧠 Core LLM (Chat Intelligence)

The brain. Everything else builds on this.

Setup: openclaw onboard or set provider env vars in ~/.openclaw/.env.

💬 Messaging Channels

How OpenClaw talks to you. Each is independent — use one or many.

Setup: openclaw configure --section channels or edit openclaw.json.

🔍 Web Search

Setup: openclaw configure --section web or set env var.

🌐 Web Fetch & Scraping

🖼️ Image Generation

Our setup: OpenRouter free models via workspace skill (skills/openrouter-imagegen/). Works great, zero cost.

👁️ Image Recognition / Vision

Setup: Set agents.defaults.imageModel in config, or it auto-pairs from your primary model's provider.

🎤 Speech-to-Text (Transcription)

Transcribes voice notes sent to you via messaging channels.

Setup: For cloud: set API key + enable under tools.media.audio. For local: install the binary.

🔊 Text-to-Speech (TTS)

Setup: Enable via messages.tts.auto in config. Edge TTS works out of the box.

📞 Voice Calls

Setup: Install voice-call plugin, configure under plugins.entries.voice-call.config.

🎵 Music Generation

Setup: clawhub install ai-music-generation

🎬 Video Capabilities

🖥️ Browser Automation

Setup: Works out of the box. Install Playwright browsers with npx playwright install.

📱 Node Network (Device Control)

Pair phones, Macs, or other machines for remote control.

Setup: Pair via openclaw nodes pair or the macOS/iOS app.

📧 Email

📅 Calendar & Tasks

📝 Notes & Knowledge

🏠 Smart Home

🎧 Media & Entertainment

🐦 Social Media

🔐 Secrets Management

📄 Document Processing

🤖 Multi-Agent Orchestration

🪝 Hooks & Webhooks

Event-driven automation that runs when things happen — no polling required.

Internal Hooks

Hooks are TypeScript handlers that fire on agent/gateway events. All free, no API keys.

Available events to hook into:

Popular community hook patterns:

• Guardrail logging — write a record every time a tool runs for audit/compliance
• Multi-agent pipeline — hooks as event bus; one agent emits [event:code_complete], hook triggers the next agent
• Credential leak scanner — post-commit hook scans for secrets in files
• Session analytics — track message volume, response times, tool usage per session
• Auto-backup — save workspace state to git on session reset

Setup:

openclaw hooks list              # see all hooks
openclaw hooks enable <name>     # turn one on
openclaw hooks info <name>       # check requirements

Custom hooks go in ~/.openclaw/hooks/my-hook/ or <workspace>/hooks/my-hook/ with a HOOK.md + handler.ts. Can also be distributed as hook packs (npm packages) via openclaw hooks install <spec>.

Webhooks (External HTTP Triggers)

Let external services trigger OpenClaw actions via HTTP POST. Free, requires shared secret token.

Popular webhook patterns:

• GitHub issue auto-triage — GitHub webhook fires on new issue → OpenClaw reads, labels, estimates, comments
• Stripe payment failure — Stripe webhook → OpenClaw drafts follow-up emails
• n8n orchestration — n8n handles API credentials, OpenClaw handles reasoning
• RSS/Reddit digest — external trigger → agent fetches + summarizes → delivers via Telegram
• CRM onboarding — new client webhook → agent creates folders, sends welcome email, schedules calls
• Smart home events — Home Assistant webhook → OpenClaw makes decisions and responds

Config:

{
  hooks: {
    enabled: true,
    token: "your-shared-secret",   // required
    path: "/hooks",                 // default
  }
}

All webhook requests require Authorization: Bearer <token> header.

⏰ Automation & Scheduling

🔧 System & Development

🌤️ Miscellaneous

🚫 What OpenClaw Does NOT Do (Natively)

These require external services, custom skills, or workarounds:

💰 Cost Summary: The "Totally Free" Stack

You can run a fully functional OpenClaw with zero ongoing costs using:

Total: $0/month (assuming you have hardware for Ollama)

💎 The "Best Experience" Stack

For maximum capability, expect ~$20-50/month:

*Sources: OpenClaw docs (local), clawhub.com, ClawHub ecosystem research, bundled skill inventory.*

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