Use --non-interactive to automate openclaw onboard.
--json does not imply non-interactive mode. Use --non-interactive (and --workspace) for scripts.

​
Baseline non-interactive example

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice apiKey \
  --anthropic-api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  --secret-input-mode plaintext \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback \
  --install-daemon \
  --daemon-runtime node \
  --skip-bootstrap \
  --skip-skills
Add --json for a machine-readable summary. Use --skip-bootstrap when your automation pre-seeds workspace files and does not want onboarding to create the default bootstrap files. Use --secret-input-mode ref to store env-backed refs in auth profiles instead of plaintext values. Interactive selection between env refs and configured provider refs (file or exec) is available in the onboarding flow. In non-interactive ref mode, provider env vars must be set in the process environment. Passing inline key flags without the matching env var now fails fast. Example: 
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice openai-api-key \
  --secret-input-mode ref \
  --accept-risk

​
Provider-specific examples

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice apiKey \
  --anthropic-api-key "$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice gemini-api-key \
  --gemini-api-key "$GEMINI_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice zai-api-key \
  --zai-api-key "$ZAI_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice ai-gateway-api-key \
  --ai-gateway-api-key "$AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --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-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice moonshot-api-key \
  --moonshot-api-key "$MOONSHOT_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice mistral-api-key \
  --mistral-api-key "$MISTRAL_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice synthetic-api-key \
  --synthetic-api-key "$SYNTHETIC_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice opencode-zen \
  --opencode-zen-api-key "$OPENCODE_API_KEY" \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
Swap to --auth-choice opencode-go --opencode-go-api-key "$OPENCODE_API_KEY" for the Go catalog.
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --mode local \
  --auth-choice ollama \
  --custom-model-id "qwen3.5:27b" \
  --accept-risk \
  --gateway-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback

openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --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-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
--custom-api-key is optional. If omitted, onboarding checks CUSTOM_API_KEY. OpenClaw marks common vision model IDs as image-capable automatically. Add --custom-image-input for unknown custom vision IDs, or --custom-text-input to force text-only metadata.Ref-mode variant:
export CUSTOM_API_KEY="your-key"
openclaw onboard --non-interactive \
  --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-port 18789 \
  --gateway-bind loopback
In this mode, onboarding stores apiKey as { source: "env", provider: "default", id: "CUSTOM_API_KEY" }.
Anthropic setup-token remains available as a supported onboarding token path, but OpenClaw now prefers Claude CLI reuse when available. For production, prefer an Anthropic API key.

​
Add another agent

Use openclaw agents add <name> to create a separate agent with its own workspace, sessions, and auth profiles. Running without --workspace launches the wizard. 
openclaw agents add work \
  --workspace ~/.openclaw/workspace-work \
  --model openai/gpt-5.5 \
  --bind whatsapp:biz \
  --non-interactive \
  --json
What it sets:
  • agents.list[].name
  • agents.list[].workspace
  • agents.list[].agentDir
Notes:
  • Default workspaces follow ~/.openclaw/workspace-<agentId>.
  • Add bindings to route inbound messages (the wizard can do this).
  • Non-interactive flags: --model, --agent-dir, --bind, --non-interactive.