OpenClaw

Overview

Integrate CodeAlive with OpenClaw to give your personal AI agent deep contextual understanding of your entire codebase. OpenClaw supports MCP natively, so CodeAlive tools are available out of the box.

Quick install: Run npx @codealive/installer to automatically configure CodeAlive for OpenClaw. See the Installation Guide for details.

Prerequisites

OpenClaw installed and running
CodeAlive account
At least one repository added in your CodeAlive dashboard
CodeAlive API key (Sign up here)
Indexed repositories in your CodeAlive dashboard

Installation

Add a repository and get your API key

Add at least one repository in your CodeAlive dashboard, then get your API key from app.codealive.ai/settings/api-keys.

Add MCP Server to openclaw.json

Edit your OpenClaw configuration file at ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json and add the CodeAlive MCP server under agents.main.mcpServers:Remote HTTP (recommended):

{
  "agents": {
    "main": {
      "mcpServers": {
        "codealive": {
          "transport": "streamable-http",
          "url": "https://mcp.codealive.ai/api",
          "headers": {
            "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Docker (STDIO):

{
  "agents": {
    "main": {
      "mcpServers": {
        "codealive": {
          "command": "docker",
          "args": [
            "run", "--rm", "-i",
            "-e", "CODEALIVE_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY_HERE",
            "ghcr.io/codealive-ai/codealive-mcp:main"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace YOUR_API_KEY_HERE with your actual API key.

OpenClaw uses JSON5 format — comments and trailing commas are allowed in the config file.

Restart OpenClaw

OpenClaw watches openclaw.json for changes and applies them automatically. If the server doesn’t pick up the new config, restart it.

Verify Integration

Ask OpenClaw:

“What CodeAlive repositories are available?”
“Search for authentication code in my codebase”

Available Tools

Once connected, OpenClaw can use these CodeAlive tools:

Tool	Description
`semantic_search`	Canonical semantic search across indexed repositories
`grep_search`	Exact text or regex search with line-level previews
`get_repository_ontology`	Repository-level orientation for one selected repository
`get_file_tree`	Bounded file tree for one repository
`read_file`	Read one repository-relative file path
`fetch_artifacts`	Retrieve full source code for search results
`get_artifact_relationships`	Expand call graph, inheritance, and references for one artifact
`get_artifact_query_schema`	Inspect ArtifactQuery metadata schema
`query_artifact_metadata`	Run read-only metadata analytics
`chat`	Stateless slower synthesized codebase Q&A, only when explicitly requested
`get_data_sources`	List available repositories and workspaces, optionally relevance-filtered by a task `query`

Installing the CodeAlive Skill

For workflow guidance and multi-step exploration patterns, also install the CodeAlive skill:

npx skills add CodeAlive-AI/codealive-skills@codealive-context-engine

Or manually copy the skill to OpenClaw’s skills directory:

Scope	Path
Project	`skills/codealive-context-engine/`
User	`~/.openclaw/skills/codealive-context-engine/`

The skill and MCP server complement each other: the MCP server provides tool access, the skill teaches the agent effective query patterns and cost-aware workflows.

Publishing to ClawHub

The CodeAlive Context Engine skill is also available on ClawHub, OpenClaw’s skill marketplace:

openclaw skills install codealive-context-engine

Troubleshooting

MCP server not connecting

Verify your API key is correct
Check that openclaw.json is valid JSON5 (watch for syntax errors)
Ensure "transport": "streamable-http" is set for the remote option
Check OpenClaw logs for MCP initialization errors

Tools not appearing

Confirm the codealive entry is inside agents.main.mcpServers
Restart OpenClaw if config auto-reload didn’t trigger
Verify the API key has not expired

Docker STDIO not working

Ensure Docker is installed and running:

docker pull ghcr.io/codealive-ai/codealive-mcp:main

For more solutions, see the Troubleshooting Guide.

MCP Overview

Learn about Model Context Protocol

Skills & Plugins

Install CodeAlive as an agent skill

OpenClaw Docs

Official OpenClaw documentation

ClawHub

OpenClaw skill marketplace

Instruct Your Agent

Connecting CodeAlive makes its tools available, but the agent may still default to its built-in search. For reliable results, add a short instruction in the agent’s native format telling it to prefer semantic_search and grep_search when exploring indexed code. See Instructing Coding Agents.

Getting Started

Features

Model Context Protocol

Agent Skills & Plugins

Instructing Agents

Overview

Prerequisites

Installation

Available Tools

Installing the CodeAlive Skill

Publishing to ClawHub

Troubleshooting

MCP Overview

Skills & Plugins

OpenClaw Docs

ClawHub

Instruct Your Agent

​Overview

​Prerequisites

​Installation

​Available Tools

​Installing the CodeAlive Skill

​Publishing to ClawHub

​Troubleshooting

​Related Resources

MCP Overview

Skills & Plugins

OpenClaw Docs

ClawHub

​Instruct Your Agent

Overview

Prerequisites

Installation

Available Tools

Installing the CodeAlive Skill

Publishing to ClawHub

Troubleshooting

Related Resources

Instruct Your Agent