OpenClaw Dev Harness 🔧

An isolated development environment for building and debugging OpenClaw extensions — plugins, hooks, and skills.

What is this?

OpenClaw is an AI agent framework. This skill sets up an isolated --dev environment so you can build extensions without touching your production setup.

Three extension types:

• Plugins — Gateway-resident code (RPC methods, CLI commands, services, agent tools, channels)
• Hooks — Event-driven TypeScript handlers (command events, agent lifecycle, gateway startup)
• Skills — SKILL.md-based knowledge extensions that teach agents new capabilities

Quick Start

# 1. Set up isolated dev environment
bash scripts/setup-harness.sh

# 2. Start dev gateway (terminal 1)
bash scripts/dev-gateway.sh

# 3. Open TUI (terminal 2)
bash scripts/dev-tui.sh

# 4. Scaffold a new plugin
bash scripts/scaffold-extension.sh my-plugin --type plugin

Installation

As an agent skill

Drop this folder into any of these locations:

Agent	Path
OpenClaw	~/.openclaw/skills/openclaw-dev-harness/
Codex CLI	~/.agents/skills/openclaw-dev-harness/
Claude Code	.claude/skills/openclaw-dev-harness/

Or install via ClawHub:

clawhub install openclaw-dev-harness

Manual

git clone https://github.com/lekt9/openclaw-dev-harness.git
cd openclaw-dev-harness
bash scripts/setup-harness.sh

Scripts

Script	Purpose
scripts/setup-harness.sh	Initialize the isolated dev environment
scripts/dev-gateway.sh	Start gateway in dev mode with verbose logging
scripts/dev-tui.sh	Connect TUI to dev gateway
scripts/scaffold-extension.sh	Scaffold a new plugin, hook, or skill
scripts/debug-session.sh	Collect diagnostics from dev environment

Architecture

The --dev flag isolates all state under ~/.openclaw-dev/:

~/.openclaw-dev/
├── workspace/
│   ├── extensions/    ← Your plugins go here
│   ├── hooks/         ← Your hooks go here
│   └── skills/        ← Your skills go here
├── openclaw.json      ← Dev config
└── credentials/       ← Auth profiles

Gateway runs on port 19001 (configurable) — completely separate from your production instance.

References

Detailed API docs included:

• Plugin API — Registration methods, config schema, testing patterns
• Hooks API — Event types, handler signatures, discovery
• Testing — Test suites, env vars, stream debugging

Example: Create a Plugin

# Scaffold it
bash scripts/scaffold-extension.sh hello-world --type plugin

# Edit ~/.openclaw-dev/workspace/extensions/hello-world/index.ts
# Then restart gateway
openclaw --dev gateway restart

# Test it
openclaw --dev gateway call hello-world.status --params '{}'

TUI Shortcuts

Action	Key
Send message	Enter
Stop run	Esc
Model picker	Ctrl+L
Agent picker	Ctrl+G
Toggle tool output	Ctrl+O
Toggle thinking	Ctrl+T

Links

• OpenClaw Docs
• OpenClaw GitHub
• ClawHub Skills
• Discord

License

MIT