openclaw/docs/nodes/node-exec.md

summary, read_when, title, sidebarTitle

summary	read_when	title	sidebarTitle
Allowlist node commands, point exec at a node, and invoke commands directly	Routing exec tool calls to a paired node Allowlisting node commands or binding exec to one node Invoking a node command over raw RPC	Run commands on a node	Node exec

Allowlist the commands

Exec approvals are per node host. Add allowlist entries from the gateway:

openclaw approvals allowlist add --node <id|name|ip> "/usr/bin/uname"
openclaw approvals allowlist add --node <id|name|ip> "/usr/bin/sw_vers"

Approvals live on the node host in ~/.openclaw/state/openclaw.sqlite#exec_approvals_config.

Point exec at the node

Configure defaults (gateway config):

openclaw config set tools.exec.host node
openclaw config set tools.exec.mode allowlist
openclaw config set tools.exec.node "<id-or-name>"

Or per session:

/exec host=node security=allowlist node=<id-or-name>

Once set, any exec call with host=node runs on the node host (subject to the node allowlist/approvals).

host=auto will not implicitly choose the node on its own. An explicit per-call host=node request is allowed from auto only when no sandbox runtime is active; while a sandbox runtime is active, auto rejects it. To run on a node from a sandboxed session, or to make node exec the session default, set tools.exec.host=node or /exec host=node ... explicitly.

Related:

• Node host CLI
• Exec tool
• Exec approvals

Invoking commands

Low-level (raw RPC):

openclaw nodes invoke --node <idOrNameOrIp> --command device.info --params '{}'

nodes invoke blocks system.run and system.run.prepare; those commands only run through the exec tool with host=node (see above). Higher-level helpers exist for the common "give the agent a MEDIA attachment" workflows (camera, screen, location: see Node device commands).

Long-running streaming node commands use additive node.invoke.progress events. Each event carries the invoke ID, a zero-based sequence number, and a bounded UTF-8 text chunk; the Gateway orders chunks before delivering them to the caller. The existing node.invoke.result remains the single terminal response. Streaming callers can set an inactivity deadline that starts with the first progress event and resets after later progress while retaining the invoke's separate hard timeout during approval and execution. Result, hard timeout, inactivity timeout, and node disconnect all discard pending stream state. Caller cancellation emits node.invoke.cancel with the published NodeInvokeCancelEvent payload (invokeId and nodeId); the node host then terminates the matching process tree. Existing request/response commands are unchanged.

Exec node binding

With no node target set, exec host=node selects the sole paired, connected node that supports system.run. Other paired devices do not make the selection ambiguous. If multiple executable nodes are connected, choose a target per call or bind exec to a specific node; the active Canvas target does not select the exec host. A bound or explicit target that is offline or cannot execute commands is rejected rather than redirected to another node.

A binding sets the default node for exec host=node and can be overridden per agent.

Global default:

openclaw config set tools.exec.node "node-id-or-name"

Per-agent override:

openclaw config get agents.entries
openclaw config set 'agents.entries.main.tools.exec.node' "node-id-or-name"

Unset the binding to use the sole eligible node, or choose a target per call when multiple eligible nodes are connected:

openclaw config unset tools.exec.node
openclaw config unset 'agents.entries.main.tools.exec.node'