openclaw/CONTRIBUTING.md

Contributing to OpenClaw

Welcome to the lobster tank! 🦞

Quick Links

• GitHub: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw
• Discord: https://discord.gg/qkhbAGHRBT
• X/Twitter: @steipete / @openclaw

Maintainers

• Peter Steinberger - Benevolent Dictator

  • GitHub: @steipete · X: @steipete

• Shadow - Discord + Slack subsystem

  • GitHub: @thewilloftheshadow · X: @4shad0wed

• Jos - Telegram, API, Nix mode

  • GitHub: @joshp123 · X: @jjpcodes

• Christoph Nakazawa - JS Infra

  • GitHub: @cpojer · X: @cnakazawa

• Gustavo Madeira Santana - Multi-agents, CLI, web UI

  • GitHub: @gumadeiras · X: @gumadeiras

How to Contribute

1. Bugs & small fixes → Open a PR!
2. New features / architecture → Start a GitHub Discussion or ask in Discord first
3. Questions → Discord #setup-help

Before You PR

• Test locally with your OpenClaw instance
• Run tests: pnpm build && pnpm check && pnpm test
• Keep PRs focused (one thing per PR)
• Describe what & why

Control UI Decorators

The Control UI uses Lit with legacy decorators (current Rollup parsing does not support accessor fields required for standard decorators). When adding reactive fields, keep the legacy style:

@state() foo = "bar";
@property({ type: Number }) count = 0;

The root tsconfig.json is configured for legacy decorators (experimentalDecorators: true) with useDefineForClassFields: false. Avoid flipping these unless you are also updating the UI build tooling to support standard decorators.

AI/Vibe-Coded PRs Welcome! 🤖

Built with Codex, Claude, or other AI tools? Awesome - just mark it!

Please include in your PR:

• Mark as AI-assisted in the PR title or description
• Note the degree of testing (untested / lightly tested / fully tested)
• Include prompts or session logs if possible (super helpful!)
• Confirm you understand what the code does

AI PRs are first-class citizens here. We just want transparency so reviewers know what to look for.

Current Focus & Roadmap 🗺

We are currently prioritizing:

• Stability: Fixing edge cases in channel connections (WhatsApp/Telegram).
• UX: Improving the onboarding wizard and error messages.
• Skills: Expanding the library of bundled skills and improving the Skill Creation developer experience.
• Performance: Optimizing token usage and compaction logic.

Check the GitHub Issues for "good first issue" labels!