OpenClaw

Connect OpenSRE to OpenClaw for native context lookup and RCA write-back

OpenSRE integrates with OpenClaw in a native, one-way support loop:

• OpenSRE can search recent OpenClaw conversations during an investigation.
• OpenSRE can read full OpenClaw threads for extra engineering context.
• OpenSRE writes completed RCA findings back into OpenClaw through the OpenClaw bridge.

OpenSRE no longer ships a separate opensre-mcp command. You do not need to register OpenSRE itself as an MCP server inside OpenClaw.

Setup

0. Preflight the local OpenClaw CLI

Before you onboard OpenClaw in OpenSRE, make sure the OpenClaw CLI itself is healthy in the same shell:

node -v
openclaw --help
openclaw gateway status

Expected result:

• node -v shows Node v22.12+ or newer
• openclaw --help exits cleanly
• openclaw gateway status does not fail immediately

If you use nvm, the safe sequence is:

nvm install 22
nvm use 22
node -v
openclaw --help

nvm alias default 22 only affects future shells. It does not switch the current shell that launches uv run opensre.

1. Install and configure OpenSRE locally

make install
uv run opensre onboard

2. Configure the OpenSRE → OpenClaw bridge

Use the guided wizard:

uv run opensre onboard

Or use the direct integration setup command:

uv run opensre integrations setup openclaw
uv run opensre integrations verify openclaw

Recommended bridge settings:

OPENCLAW_MCP_MODE=stdio
OPENCLAW_MCP_COMMAND=openclaw
OPENCLAW_MCP_ARGS="mcp serve"

3. Verify the bridge

From the repo root:

uv run opensre integrations verify openclaw
uv run opensre health

4. Run a smoke test

Use the bundled OpenClaw fixture directly:

uv run opensre investigate -i tests/fixtures/openclaw_test_alert.json

If verification still fails, the next manual checks are:

openclaw gateway status
openclaw gateway run
uv run opensre integrations verify openclaw

Write-back behavior

After every completed investigation, OpenSRE attempts to write the full RCA report back into OpenClaw.

• If the investigation state contains an openclaw_context.conversation_id, OpenSRE first tries to append the result to that conversation.
• Otherwise, OpenSRE creates a new OpenClaw conversation containing the RCA report, root cause, remediation steps, and confidence score.

Investigation behavior

When OpenClaw is configured, OpenSRE now prefers the high-signal conversation actions first:

• search_openclaw_conversations to find recent related context
• get_openclaw_conversation to read the full thread
• send_openclaw_message to append a concrete follow-up

The lower-level raw bridge tools remain available, but they are treated as fallback paths instead of the default investigation path.

Accurate RCA

OpenClaw improves RCA quality by supplying engineering context, but OpenClaw alone is not enough for a strong investigation.

For accurate RCA, also configure at least one of these:

• Grafana or Datadog for metrics/logs/traces
• AWS for infra topology and runtime state
• GitHub for deploy/code-change context

A good local validation sequence is:

uv run opensre integrations verify openclaw
uv run opensre integrations verify grafana
uv run opensre integrations verify github
uv run opensre investigate -i tests/fixtures/openclaw_test_alert.json

Contributor-facing regression coverage for this path lives in:

• tests/test_openclaw_integration.py
• tests/tools/test_openclaw_mcp_tool.py
• tests/utils/test_openclaw_delivery.py
• tests/e2e/openclaw/ (e2e suite — see the “End-to-end tests” section below)

Environment variables

Variable	Meaning	Default
OPENCLAW_MCP_MODE	OpenClaw bridge transport: stdio, streamable-http, or sse	streamable-http
OPENCLAW_MCP_COMMAND	Executable used for stdio mode	openclaw
OPENCLAW_MCP_ARGS	Space-separated arguments for stdio mode	mcp serve
OPENCLAW_MCP_URL	Remote MCP endpoint for streamable-http or sse	none
OPENCLAW_MCP_AUTH_TOKEN	Optional bearer token for remote MCP transports	empty

Troubleshooting

• OpenClaw bridge validation failed: Node.js ... is required: switch the current shell to Node 22.12+ or newer. With nvm: nvm install 22 && nvm use 22 && nvm alias default 22. With Homebrew: brew install node@22 && brew link --overwrite node@22. Then re-run openclaw --help before retrying onboarding.
• uv run opensre integrations verify openclaw fails against http://127.0.0.1:18789/: that URL is the OpenClaw Control UI/Gateway, not the MCP bridge. Use stdio mode with openclaw mcp serve.
• search_openclaw_conversations or write-back fails with Connection closed or ECONNREFUSED: the OpenClaw Gateway is not running. Check openclaw gateway status, then run openclaw gateway run.
• Command not found: openclaw: install the OpenClaw CLI or point OPENCLAW_MCP_COMMAND at the full executable path.

End-to-end tests

The OpenClaw e2e suite lives at tests/e2e/openclaw/. See its README for prerequisites, how to run the suite, scenario layout, and CI behavior.