openclaw-openclaw/docs/reference/rpc.md

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RPC adapters for external CLIs (signal-cli, imsg) and gateway patterns	Adding or changing external CLI integrations Debugging RPC adapters (signal-cli, imsg)	RPC adapters

OpenClaw integrates external CLIs via JSON-RPC. Two patterns are used today.

Pattern A: HTTP daemon (signal-cli)

• signal-cli runs as a daemon with JSON-RPC over HTTP.
• Event stream is SSE (/api/v1/events).
• Health probe: /api/v1/check.
• OpenClaw owns lifecycle when channels.signal.autoStart=true.

See Signal for setup and endpoints.

Pattern B: stdio child process (imsg)

• OpenClaw spawns imsg rpc as a child process for iMessage.
• JSON-RPC is line-delimited over stdin/stdout (one JSON object per line).
• No TCP port, no daemon required.

Core methods used:

• watch.subscribe → notifications (method: "message")
• watch.unsubscribe
• send
• chats.list (probe/diagnostics)

See iMessage for setup and addressing (chat_id preferred over display strings).

Adapter guidelines

• Gateway owns the process (start/stop tied to provider lifecycle).
• Keep RPC clients resilient: timeouts, restart on exit.
• Prefer stable IDs (e.g., chat_id) over display strings.

Related

• Gateway protocol