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RPC adapters

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

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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.

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Pattern B: stdio child process (legacy: imsg)

Note: For new iMessage setups, use BlueBubbles instead.
  • OpenClaw spawns imsg rpc as a child process (legacy iMessage integration).
  • 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 legacy setup and addressing (chat_id preferred).

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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.