OpenClaw Control Center - Setup Guide¶

Source: reason-machines/trending-skills (4,300+ installs) Category: Agent Infrastructure / Monitoring Quality Tier: 🟢 Production

Transforms OpenClaw from a black box into a local, auditable control center. Provides visibility into agent activity, token spend, task execution chains, cross-session collaboration, memory state, and document sources - with security-first defaults that keep all mutations off by default.

Installation¶

git clone https://github.com/TianyiDataScience/openclaw-control-center.git
cd openclaw-control-center
npm install
cp .env.example .env
npm run build
npm test
npm run smoke:ui
npm run dev:ui

Open: - English: http://127.0.0.1:4310/?section=overview&lang=en - Chinese: http://127.0.0.1:4310/?section=overview&lang=zh

Use npm run dev:ui over UI_MODE=true npm run dev - more stable, especially on Windows.

Project Structure¶

openclaw-control-center/
├── control-center/          # All modifications must stay here
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── runtime/         # Core runtime, connectors, monitors
│   │   └── ui/              # Frontend UI components
│   ├── .env.example
│   └── package.json
├── docs/
│   └── assets/              # Screenshots and docs
├── README.md
└── README.en.md

Critical constraint: Only modify files inside control-center/. Never modify ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.

Environment Configuration¶

Copy .env.example to .env and configure:

# Security defaults - do NOT change without understanding implications
READONLY_MODE=true
LOCAL_TOKEN_AUTH_REQUIRED=true
IMPORT_MUTATION_ENABLED=false
IMPORT_MUTATION_DRY_RUN=false
APPROVAL_ACTIONS_ENABLED=false
APPROVAL_ACTIONS_DRY_RUN=true

# Connection
OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_URL=http://127.0.0.1:PORT
OPENCLAW_HOME=~/.openclaw

# UI
PORT=4310
DEFAULT_LANG=en

Security Flag Reference¶

Flag	Default	Effect
`READONLY_MODE`	`true`	All state-changing endpoints disabled
`LOCAL_TOKEN_AUTH_REQUIRED`	`true`	Import/export and write APIs require local token
`IMPORT_MUTATION_ENABLED`	`false`	Import mutations blocked entirely
`IMPORT_MUTATION_DRY_RUN`	`false`	Dry-run mode for imports when enabled
`APPROVAL_ACTIONS_ENABLED`	`false`	Approval actions hard-disabled
`APPROVAL_ACTIONS_DRY_RUN`	`true`	Approval actions run as dry-run when enabled

Dashboard Sections¶

Section	What It Shows
Overview	System health, pending items, risk signals, operational summary
Usage	Daily/7d/30d token spend, quota, context pressure
Staff	Who is actively executing vs. queued
Collaboration	Parent-child session handoffs, verified cross-session messages
Tasks	Task board, approvals, execution chains, run evidence
Memory	Per-agent memory health, searchability, source file editing
Documents	Shared and agent-core documents from actual source files
Settings	Connector wiring status, security risk summary, update status

Key Commands¶

# Development
npm run dev:ui          # Start UI server (recommended)
npm run dev             # One-shot monitor run, no HTTP UI

# Build & Test
npm run build           # TypeScript compile
npm test                # Run test suite
npm run smoke:ui        # Smoke test the UI endpoints

# Lint
npm run lint            # ESLint check

Verification¶

# Start the control center
npm run dev:ui

# Verify health
curl http://127.0.0.1:4310/api/health

# Open in browser
# http://127.0.0.1:4310/?section=overview&lang=en

Notes¶

Security-first: All mutations are disabled by default (READONLY_MODE=true)
Local-only: Runs entirely on localhost, no cloud dependency
Dual-language: Full English and Chinese (中文) UI support
Pairs well with hermes-labyrinth-observability for deeper journey-level observability
From the ara.so Daily 2026 Skills collection
Repository: TianyiDataScience/openclaw-control-center