Managing Global Wake Words in OpenClaw

I have spent too much time manually syncing configurations across different devices. It gets annoying when you want to change a trigger word and realize you have to hunt down every single node to update it individually. It leads to a fragmented experience where one room responds to “Computer” while another only listens for “OpenClaw.”

OpenClaw fixes this by treating wake words as a single global list. I like this approach because the Gateway owns the list, and any change you make on one device immediately updates every other node in your setup.

What You’ll Need

• An OpenClaw Gateway host.
• Connected nodes or apps (macOS, iOS, or Android).

Quick Start

Setting up or changing your wake words takes less than five minutes. Here is how the system handles it under the hood.

1. Locate the storage

All your wake words live on the Gateway machine. You can find them in a specific JSON file: ~/.openclaw/settings/voicewake.json

The file structure looks like this:

{
  "triggers": ["openclaw", "claude", "computer"],
  "updatedAtMs": 1730000000000
}

2. Update via any client

You do not need to manually edit that JSON file. Whether you are using the macOS app, an iPhone, or an Android device, you can change the “Trigger words” in the settings. When you save your changes, the client calls the voicewake.set method with your new list: voicewake.set params: { triggers: string[] }

3. Automatic normalization

I should mention that the Gateway is smart about how it saves these. It trims extra spaces and drops empty strings. If you try to save an empty list, the system automatically falls back to the default wake words.

4. Real-time sync

Once the Gateway saves the new list, it sends a voicewake.changed event to everyone connected. This includes:

• macOS apps and WebChat.
• iOS nodes.
• Android nodes.
• Any node that connects later (they get the current state immediately).

Troubleshooting

If things aren’t working as expected, check these two scenarios covered in the documentation:

Wake words didn’t save or changed unexpectedly The Gateway enforces safety limits on both the number of trigger words and the length of each word. If your input is empty, the system will revert to the default triggers.

A specific device isn’t responding to the wake word Even though the list is global, each device has its own “Voice Wake” enabled/disabled toggle. Check the local settings on that specific macOS, iOS, or Android node to ensure the feature is turned on.

Ending

If you run into issues with specific protocol methods or need help configuring your Gateway, check out the AI Setup Assistant.

What’s Next

• Gateway Configuration Guide
• Setting up macOS Nodes
• iOS Node Permissions
• Android Node Settings