Pairing

Pairing is OpenClaw's explicit owner-approval mechanism. It protects two things: who may send the bot direct messages and which devices or nodes may join the Gateway network.

Security Channels Help Center

Two Types of Pairing

Direct-message pairing

When the DM policy is pairing, unknown senders only receive a code. Their messages are ignored until you approve them.

Node

Node and device pairing

iOS, Android and macOS nodes also need explicit approval before they can join the Gateway, which prevents arbitrary new devices from attaching.

Common Commands

Approve a DM sender

openclaw pairing list telegram
openclaw pairing approve telegram <CODE>

Approve or reject devices

openclaw devices list
openclaw devices approve <requestId>
openclaw devices reject <requestId>

Where State Is Stored

Pending DM requests: ~/.openclaw/credentials/<channel>-pairing.json

Approved DM allowlists: ~/.openclaw/credentials/<channel>-allowFrom.json

Device pairing: ~/.openclaw/devices/pending.json and paired.json