Managing Agent Hooks with OpenClaw

Hooks let OpenClaw react to events like gateway startup, /new, and /reset without you triggering every step manually. Run openclaw hooks with no subcommand and it behaves the same as openclaw hooks list.

Related:

• Hooks reference
• Plugin hooks

List All Hooks

openclaw hooks list

Lists every discovered hook from workspace, managed, extra, and bundled directories. Gateway startup does not load internal hook handlers until at least one internal hook is configured.

Options:

• --eligible: Show only eligible hooks (requirements met)
• --json: Output as JSON
• -v, --verbose: Show detailed information including missing requirements

Example output:

Hooks (4/4 ready)

Ready:
  🚀 boot-md ✓ - Run BOOT.md on gateway startup
  📎 bootstrap-extra-files ✓ - Inject extra workspace bootstrap files during agent bootstrap
  📝 command-logger ✓ - Log all command events to a centralized audit file
  💾 session-memory ✓ - Save session context to memory when /new or /reset command is issued

openclaw hooks list --verbose

Shows missing requirements for ineligible hooks.

openclaw hooks list --json

Returns structured JSON for programmatic use.

Get Hook Information

openclaw hooks info <name>

Show detailed information about a specific hook.

Arguments:

• <name>: Hook name or hook key (e.g., session-memory)

Options:

• --json: Output as JSON

Example:

openclaw hooks info session-memory

Output:

💾 session-memory ✓ Ready

Save session context to memory when /new or /reset command is issued

Details:
  Source: openclaw-bundled
  Path: /path/to/openclaw/hooks/bundled/session-memory/HOOK.md
  Handler: /path/to/openclaw/hooks/bundled/session-memory/handler.ts
  Homepage: https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools/automation/hooks#session-memory
  Events: command:new, command:reset

Requirements:
  Config: ✓ workspace.dir

Check Hooks Eligibility

openclaw hooks check

Show a summary of hook eligibility status (how many are ready vs. not ready).

Options:

• --json: Output as JSON

Example output:

Hooks Status

Total hooks: 4
Ready: 4
Not ready: 0

Enable a Hook

openclaw hooks enable <name>

Enable a specific hook by adding it to your config (~/.openclaw/openclaw.json by default).

Workspace hooks are disabled by default until you enable them here or in config. Hooks managed by plugins show plugin:<id> in openclaw hooks list and can’t be enabled or disabled here — enable or disable the plugin instead.

Arguments:

• <name>: Hook name (e.g., session-memory)

Example:

openclaw hooks enable session-memory

Output:

✓ Enabled hook: 💾 session-memory

What it does:

• Checks whether the hook exists and is eligible
• Updates hooks.internal.entries.<name>.enabled = true in your config
• Saves the config to disk

If the hook came from <workspace>/hooks/, this opt-in step is required before the Gateway will load it.

After enabling: restart the gateway so hooks reload (menu bar app restart on macOS, or restart your gateway process in dev).

Disable a Hook

openclaw hooks disable <name>

Disable a specific hook by updating your config.

Arguments:

• <name>: Hook name (e.g., command-logger)

Example:

openclaw hooks disable command-logger

Output:

⏸ Disabled hook: 📝 command-logger

After disabling: restart the gateway so hooks reload.

Notes

• openclaw hooks list --json, info --json, and check --json write structured JSON directly to stdout.
• Plugin-managed hooks cannot be enabled or disabled with the hooks command. Enable or disable the owning plugin instead.

Install Hook Packs

openclaw plugins install <package>        # ClawHub first, then npm
openclaw plugins install <package> --pin  # pin version
openclaw plugins install <path>           # local path

Install hook packs through the unified plugins installer. openclaw hooks install still works as a compatibility alias, but it prints a deprecation warning and forwards to openclaw plugins install.

npm specs are registry-only (package name + optional exact version or dist-tag). Git, URL, and file specs and semver ranges are rejected. Dependency installs run with --ignore-scripts for safety.

Bare specs and @latest stay on the stable track. If npm resolves either of those to a prerelease, OpenClaw stops and asks you to opt in explicitly with a prerelease tag such as @beta/@rc or an exact prerelease version.

What it does:

• Copies the hook pack into ~/.openclaw/hooks/<id>
• Enables the installed hooks in hooks.internal.entries.*
• Records the install under hooks.internal.installs

Options:

• -l, --link: Link a local directory instead of copying (adds it to hooks.internal.load.extraDirs)
• --pin: Record npm installs as exact resolved name@version in hooks.internal.installs

Supported archives: .zip, .tgz, .tar.gz, .tar

Examples:

# Local directory
openclaw plugins install ./my-hook-pack

# Local archive
openclaw plugins install ./my-hook-pack.zip

# NPM package
openclaw plugins install @openclaw/my-hook-pack

# Link a local directory without copying
openclaw plugins install -l ./my-hook-pack

Linked hook packs are treated as managed hooks from an operator-configured directory, not as workspace hooks.

Update Hook Packs

openclaw plugins update <id>
openclaw plugins update --all

Update tracked npm-based hook packs through the unified plugins updater. openclaw hooks update still works as a compatibility alias, but it prints a deprecation warning and forwards to openclaw plugins update.

Options:

• --all: Update all tracked hook packs
• --dry-run: Show what would change without writing

When a stored integrity hash exists and the fetched artifact hash changes, OpenClaw prints a warning and asks for confirmation before proceeding. Use the global --yes to bypass prompts in CI or non-interactive runs.

Bundled Hooks

OpenClaw ships a small set of bundled hooks you can enable right away.

session-memory

Saves session context to memory when you issue /new or /reset.

Enable:

openclaw hooks enable session-memory

Output: ~/.openclaw/workspace/memory/YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md

See: session-memory documentation

bootstrap-extra-files

Injects additional bootstrap files (for example monorepo-local AGENTS.md / TOOLS.md) during agent:bootstrap.

Enable:

openclaw hooks enable bootstrap-extra-files

See: bootstrap-extra-files documentation

command-logger

Logs all command events to a centralized audit file.

Enable:

openclaw hooks enable command-logger

Output: ~/.openclaw/logs/commands.log

View logs:

# Recent commands
tail -n 20 ~/.openclaw/logs/commands.log

# Pretty-print
cat ~/.openclaw/logs/commands.log | jq .

# Filter by action
grep '"action":"new"' ~/.openclaw/logs/commands.log | jq .

See: command-logger documentation

boot-md

Runs BOOT.md when the gateway starts (after channels start).

Events: gateway:startup

Enable:

openclaw hooks enable boot-md

See: boot-md documentation