openclaw-openclaw/docs/plugins/oc-path.md

---
summary: "Bundled `oc-path` plugin: ships the `openclaw path` CLI for the `oc://` workspace-file addressing scheme"
read_when:
  - You want to inspect or edit a single leaf inside a workspace file from the terminal
  - You are scripting against workspace state and need a stable, kind-agnostic addressing scheme
  - You are deciding whether to enable the optional `oc-path` plugin on a self-hosted Gateway
title: "OC Path plugin"
---

The bundled `oc-path` plugin adds the [`openclaw path`](/cli/path) CLI for the
`oc://` workspace-file addressing scheme. It ships in the OpenClaw repo under
`extensions/oc-path/` but is opt-in: install/build leaves it dormant until you
enable it.

`oc://` addresses point at a single leaf (or a wildcard set of leaves) inside
a workspace file. The plugin understands four file kinds:

- **markdown** (`.md`): frontmatter, sections, items, fields
- **jsonc** (`.jsonc`, `.json`): comments and formatting preserved
- **jsonl** (`.jsonl`, `.ndjson`): line-oriented records
- **yaml** (`.yaml`, `.yml`, `.lobster`): map/sequence/scalar nodes through the
  `yaml` package's `Document` API

Self-hosters and editor extensions use the CLI to read or write a single leaf
without scripting against the SDK directly; agents and hooks treat it as a
deterministic substrate so byte-fidelity round-trips and the redaction
sentinel guard apply uniformly across kinds. See the
[CLI reference](/cli/path) for the full grammar, verb-by-verb flag list, and
worked examples per file kind; this page covers why and how to enable the
plugin.

## Why enable it

Enable `oc-path` when scripts, hooks, or local agent tooling need to point at
a precise piece of workspace state without a bespoke parser per file shape. A
single `oc://` address can name a markdown frontmatter key, a section item, a
JSONC config leaf, a JSONL event field, or a YAML workflow step.

That matters for maintainer workflows where the change should stay small,
auditable, and repeatable: inspect one value, find matching records, dry-run
a write, then apply only that leaf while leaving comments, line endings, and
nearby formatting alone.

Common reasons to enable it:

- **Local automation**: shell scripts resolve or update one workspace value
  with `openclaw path … --json` instead of carrying separate markdown, JSONC,
  JSONL, and YAML parsing code.
- **Agent-visible edits**: an agent shows a dry-run diff for one addressed
  leaf before writing, which is easier to review than a free-form file
  rewrite.
- **Editor integrations**: an editor maps `oc://AGENTS.md/tools/gh` to the
  exact markdown node and line number without guessing from heading text.
- **Diagnostics**: `emit` round-trips a file through the parser and emitter,
  so you can check whether a file kind is byte-stable before relying on
  automated edits.

```bash
# Is the GitHub plugin enabled in this config?
openclaw path resolve 'oc://config.jsonc/plugins/github/enabled' --json

# Which tool-call names appear in this session log?
openclaw path find 'oc://session.jsonl/[event=tool_call]/name' --json

# What bytes would this tiny config edit write?
openclaw path set 'oc://config.jsonc/plugins/github/enabled' 'true' --dry-run
```

`oc-path` is intentionally not the owner of higher-level semantics. Memory
plugins still own memory writes, config commands still own full config
management, and last-known-good (LKG) config recovery still owns
restore/promotion. `oc-path` is the narrow addressing and byte-preserving
file operation layer those higher-level tools can build around.

## Where it runs

The plugin runs **in-process inside the `openclaw` CLI** on the host where you
invoke the command. It does not need a running Gateway and does not open any
network sockets; every verb is a pure transform over a file you point it at.

Plugin metadata lives in `extensions/oc-path/openclaw.plugin.json`:

```json
{
  "id": "oc-path",
  "name": "OC Path",
  "activation": {
    "onStartup": false,
    "onCommands": ["path"]
  },
  "commandAliases": [{ "name": "path", "kind": "cli" }]
}
```

`onStartup: false` keeps the plugin out of the Gateway startup path.
`commandAliases` and `activation.onCommands` tell the CLI to load the plugin
lazily the first time you run `openclaw path …`, so installs that never use
the verb pay no cost.

## Enable

```bash
openclaw plugins enable oc-path
```

Restart the Gateway (if you run one) so the manifest snapshot picks up the new
state. Bare `openclaw path` invocations work immediately on the same host;
the CLI loads the plugin on demand.

Disable with:

```bash
openclaw plugins disable oc-path
```

## Dependencies

All parser dependencies are plugin-local; enabling `oc-path` does not pull
new packages into the core runtime:

| Dependency     | Purpose                                                                |
| -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `commander`    | Subcommand wiring for `resolve`, `find`, `set`, `validate`, `emit`.    |
| `jsonc-parser` | JSONC parse and leaf edits with comments and trailing commas kept.     |
| `markdown-it`  | Markdown tokenization for the section / item / field model.            |
| `yaml`         | YAML `Document` parse / emit / edit with comments and flow style kept. |

JSONL stays hand-rolled: line-oriented parsing is simpler than any
dependency, and the per-line parse already goes through `jsonc-parser`.

## What it provides

| Surface                        | Provided by                                             |
| ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| `openclaw path` CLI            | `extensions/oc-path/cli-registration.ts`                |
| `oc://` parser / formatter     | `extensions/oc-path/src/oc-path/oc-path.ts`             |
| Per-kind parse / emit / edit   | `extensions/oc-path/src/oc-path/{md,jsonc,jsonl,yaml}`  |
| Universal resolve / find / set | `extensions/oc-path/src/oc-path/{resolve,find,edit}.ts` |
| Redaction-sentinel guard       | `extensions/oc-path/src/oc-path/sentinel.ts`            |

The CLI is the only public surface today. The substrate verbs are private to
the plugin; consumers use the CLI (or build their own plugin against the
SDK).

## Relationship to other plugins

- **`memory-*`**: memory writes go through the memory plugins, not
  `oc-path`. `oc-path` is a generic file substrate; memory plugins layer
  their own semantics on top.
- **LKG**: `path` does not know about last-known-good config restore. If a
  file you edit through `path` is also LKG-tracked, the next config observe
  cycle decides whether to promote or recover it; treat a `path` edit the
  same as any other direct write to that file.

## Safety

`set` writes raw bytes through the substrate's emit path, which applies the
redaction-sentinel guard automatically. A leaf carrying
`__OPENCLAW_REDACTED__` (verbatim or as a substring) is refused at write time
with `OC_EMIT_SENTINEL`. The CLI also scrubs the literal sentinel from any
human or JSON output it prints, replacing it with `[REDACTED]` so terminal
captures and pipelines never leak the marker.

## Related

- [`openclaw path` CLI reference](/cli/path)
- [Manage plugins](/plugins/manage-plugins)
- [Building plugins](/plugins/building-plugins)