Contributing
Welcome to the lobster tank 🦞
OpenClaw is built by thousands of contributors — every fix, feature, and doc improvement moves it forward. Whether it's your first pull request or your five-hundredth, here's how to jump in.
Where to start
Bugs & small fixesOpen a pull request directly — no ceremony needed.
New features or architectureStart a GitHub issue or ask in Discord first. Most features are better shipped as third-party plugins using the plugin SDK.
Refactor-only, or test/CI-only changesPlease don't open a PR unless a maintainer asked. These are closed automatically to keep review focused.
Questions & setup helpHead to Discord #help or #users-helping-users — not a GitHub issue.
Security vulnerabilitiesEmail security@openclaw.ai. Never file a public issue for a security report.
How we like pull requests
- Keep it focused. One thing per PR — don't mix unrelated concerns.
- Explain what & why. Fill out the PR template: what problem it solves, why, user impact, and evidence.
- Show your work. Include before/after screenshots for any UI change, plus tests, CI results, or logs as evidence.
- Test locally on Node 24 (22.19+ also works):
pnpm build && pnpm check && pnpm test. - Link the issue. Reference
Closes #123. For non-trivial or agent-authored work, file or reuse an issue first. - AI-assisted? Just mark it. PRs built with Codex, Claude, or other tools are first-class — note it and confirm you understand the code.
- Own your review threads. Resolve bot review conversations once you've addressed them.
- 20 open PRs per author, max. Got a coordinated change set that needs more? Talk to maintainers in #clawtributors first.
- American English in code, comments, docs, and UI strings.
Join the clawtributors on Discord
The #clawtributors channel in our Discord is where coordinated work, maintainer questions, and larger change sets get sorted out. Hop in, say hi, and tell us what you want to build — it's the fastest way to get plugged in.
Want to maintain?
We expand the maintainer team slowly and deliberately. If you're an experienced contributor who wants to help shape OpenClaw — through code, docs, or community — email contributing@openclaw.ai with links to your PRs, projects you maintain, and a short intro.