Quick Start: OpenClaw MCP

OpenClaw runs long Amazon jobs end to end. Give it a goal — pull the week's Sponsored Products performance, find the ASINs losing the Buy Box, draft the listing fixes — and it plans, calls the Amazon tools in order, and hands back the result with every tool call traced.

Use OpenClaw's MCP client registry when you want an OpenClaw-managed runtime to know about your private MCP server.

For the official reference, see OpenClaw mcp.

Your MCP server hostname is private to your deployment. It comes from your cloud provider, belongs to your environment, and is not shared across customers. Replace {your-private-mcp-host} with the private host shown in your dashboard.

Before you start

Install and configure OpenClaw.
Create an API key from the dashboard Keys tab.
Keep the key in MCP_API_KEY or another local secret source.
Confirm the private MCP endpoint ends with /mcp.

https://{your-private-mcp-host}/mcp

Understand OpenClaw MCP modes

OpenClaw's MCP command has two different modes:

Command shape	What it does
`openclaw mcp serve`	Runs OpenClaw itself as a stdio MCP server for another MCP client.
`openclaw mcp set/list/show/unset`	Manages outbound MCP server definitions saved under `mcp.servers`.

Use openclaw mcp set to register your existing private MCP server. This saves configuration only; it does not open a live MCP session or validate that the remote server is reachable.

Register the server

Set your key in the environment OpenClaw or its runtime adapter will use:

export MCP_API_KEY="mcp_live_..."

Add the remote MCP server definition:

openclaw mcp set private-mcp '{"transport":"streamable-http","url":"https://{your-private-mcp-host}/mcp","headers":{"Authorization":"Bearer ${MCP_API_KEY}"}}'

Keep the single quotes around the JSON so OpenClaw stores the literal environment-variable reference.

Inspect the saved definition

List saved MCP servers:

openclaw mcp list

Show the saved server:

openclaw mcp show private-mcp --json

If the entry appears, OpenClaw has saved the registry definition. A runtime adapter still has to load that definition and open a connection before tools are available.

Manual config form

OpenClaw stores MCP definitions under mcp.servers. The manual shape is:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "private-mcp": {
        "transport": "streamable-http",
        "url": "https://{your-private-mcp-host}/mcp",
        "headers": {
          "Authorization": "Bearer ${MCP_API_KEY}"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

OpenClaw supports stdio, SSE/HTTP, and streamable HTTP definitions. For a modern remote MCP endpoint, set "transport": "streamable-http". If transport is omitted, OpenClaw treats a URL-based entry as SSE/HTTP.

Troubleshooting

The server is saved but tools do not appear

openclaw mcp set only writes configuration. Restart or reload the OpenClaw runtime adapter that consumes MCP registry entries, then check whether it opens the saved server.

Authentication fails

Confirm MCP_API_KEY is set in the environment that launches the runtime adapter, not only in a separate terminal. If you changed the variable while OpenClaw was already running, restart the process.

The endpoint does not connect

Confirm the endpoint uses your private host and the normal bearer-auth MCP path:

https://{your-private-mcp-host}/mcp

Do not use a Claude-only signed connector URL such as /mcp/connect/{signed-token} for OpenClaw.

<- Previous Quick Start: Codex Next -> Quick Start: Hermes MCP