How to Connect OpenClaw to WeChat (Complete Setup Guide)

With Tencent's QClaw launch putting OpenClaw on WeChat's radar for 1.4 billion users, a lot of people are asking the same question: can I connect my own OpenClaw to WeChat?

Yes. Here's how.

This guide walks you through connecting your OpenClaw instance to WeChat using the openclaw-wechat plugin. You'll end up with your personal AI agent accessible directly from WeChat — voice commands, image input, task automation — all running on your own infrastructure with your own data.

Before You Start

You'll need:

• A running OpenClaw instance (cloud or self-hosted)
• A WeChat account
• About 15 minutes

If you don't have OpenClaw running yet, the fastest path is cloud.getopenclaw.ai — it's free to start and takes about 60 seconds to get online.

Option A: OpenClaw Cloud (Fastest)

If you're using cloud.getopenclaw.ai:

1. Log in to your OpenClaw Cloud dashboard
2. Navigate to Plugins → Channels
3. Find WeChat in the channel list
4. Click Enable and follow the QR code flow to link your WeChat account
5. Test it: send a message to your OpenClaw bot from WeChat

Cloud handles all the infrastructure complexity. You're just connecting your account.

Option B: Self-Hosted OpenClaw

If you're running your own OpenClaw instance, here's the manual setup:

Step 1: Install the WeChat Plugin

npx openclaw plugins install openclaw-wechat

Or if you're running via Docker, add the plugin to your openclaw.json:

{
  "plugins": {
    "channels": {
      "wechat": {
        "enabled": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 2: Configure WeChat Authentication

The WeChat plugin uses a QR code authentication flow (same as WeChat Web). Run:

npx openclaw wechat:login

This will display a QR code in your terminal. Scan it with WeChat on your phone. Once scanned, your OpenClaw instance is linked to your WeChat account.

Important: Keep the session active. WeChat Web sessions can expire if not kept alive. The plugin handles keepalive automatically, but you'll need to re-scan if your instance restarts.

Step 3: Test the Connection

Send yourself a WeChat message from another device or account. Your OpenClaw agent should respond.

You can also test from the CLI:

npx openclaw wechat:test

Step 4: Configure Your Agent Behavior

In your SOUL.md or agent config, you can add WeChat-specific instructions:

## WeChat Behavior
- Keep responses concise (WeChat UI works best with shorter messages)
- Support voice transcription (users often send voice notes)
- Handle image inputs for OCR and visual tasks

Setting Up Voice Commands

One of the killer features of the WeChat integration — and what makes QClaw compelling — is voice input.

WeChat users habitually send voice messages. OpenClaw's WeChat plugin automatically transcribes incoming voice notes using Whisper (or your configured STT model) and processes them as text commands.

To enable:

{
  "plugins": {
    "channels": {
      "wechat": {
        "enabled": true,
        "voice": {
          "transcription": "whisper",
          "language": "auto"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

The language: "auto" setting handles both Chinese and English voice input — critical if you're in a bilingual environment.

Setting Up Image Input

WeChat users also regularly send images. Your OpenClaw agent can:

• Read text from images (OCR)
• Describe image content
• Process screenshots for task automation
• Extract data from photos of documents or receipts

This is enabled by default if your configured LLM supports vision. Claude and GPT-4V both work out of the box.

Phone-to-PC Workflow (The QClaw Pattern)

The workflow that Tencent built QClaw around — voice/image from phone, execution on PC — is something you can replicate with your own OpenClaw.

The key is running OpenClaw on your PC or home server, then accessing it via WeChat on your phone:

1. OpenClaw runs on your Mac mini / PC / home server
2. You send a WeChat voice note from your phone: "Summarize the PDF I emailed this morning"
3. OpenClaw receives it, transcribes it, accesses your email, finds the PDF, summarizes it, and sends you the result via WeChat

This is fully achievable with a standard OpenClaw setup. You're not limited to what Tencent ships in QClaw.

Privacy Considerations

Unlike QClaw, which runs on Tencent's servers, your OpenClaw + WeChat setup routes messages through your infrastructure:

• Messages: WeChat delivers them to your server; your LLM API processes them
• Voice: Transcribed locally or via your chosen STT API
• Files/Images: Processed by your configured vision model
• Memory: Stored on your server, not Tencent's

The WeChat transport layer still goes through Tencent's network (that's unavoidable — it's WeChat). But your agent logic, memory, and responses are yours.

Troubleshooting

QR code expired: The login QR code expires after 5 minutes. Run wechat:login again.

Session dropped: WeChat Web sessions can drop after 24-48 hours of inactivity. The plugin pings WeChat periodically to maintain the session, but high-traffic periods or network interruptions can cause drops. Set up a cron to check session health:

# Add to your crontab
0 */6 * * * npx openclaw wechat:check-session

Messages not received: Check your OpenClaw logs for WeChat channel errors. Common causes: firewall blocking outbound WeChat connections, or session expiry.

Voice transcription not working: Ensure you have the Whisper skill installed:

npx openclaw skills install openai-whisper

What's Next

Once your OpenClaw-WeChat integration is running, you have access to the same capabilities that 1.4 billion WeChat users will eventually have through QClaw — but with full control over your data, your model, and your infrastructure.

The QClaw beta is Tencent's version of this. Your setup is yours.

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