Phase 2 / Ep 08: Configuration Management —— config get/set and openclaw.json Deep Dive

🎯 Learning Objectives: Master the hierarchical relationships of the configuration system and common configuration items.

1. Configuration Priority

graph TD
    A["1️⃣ CLI Arguments\nHighest Priority"] --> B["2️⃣ Environment Variables\nOPENCLAW_*"]
    B --> C["3️⃣ Agent-level Configuration\nagent.json"]
    C --> D["4️⃣ Global Configuration\nopenclaw.json"]

2. config Command

# Read configuration
openclaw config get llm.provider
# → anthropic

# Write configuration
openclaw config set llm.provider anthropic
openclaw config set llm.model claude-sonnet-4-20250514
openclaw config set tools.profile coding

# List all configurations
openclaw config list

3. openclaw.json Key Fields

{
  "gateway": {
    "port": 3377,
    "host": "127.0.0.1",
    "logLevel": "info"
  },
  "llm": {
    "provider": "anthropic",
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
    "maxTokens": 4096,
    "temperature": 0.7
  },
  "tools": {
    "profile": "standard",
    "allowedCommands": [],
    "blockedCommands": ["rm -rf /", "shutdown"]
  },
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "enabled": true,
      "token": "${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}",
      "allowedUsers": [123456789]
    }
  },
  "agents": {
    "default": "personal"
  }
}

4. Sensitive Configuration Management

NEVER hardcode API Keys in openclaw.json. Use environment variables:

# .env file
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-xxx
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN=7123456789:AAH...
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-xxx

# Reference in openclaw.json
"token": "${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}"

5. CLI vs Telegram Comparison

Next Episode Preview: Ep 09 delves into the Skills command—discover, install, and manage skills from ClawHub, unlocking new capabilities for your Agent.