devclaw-gitea/docs/ONBOARDING.md

DevClaw — Onboarding Guide

What you need before starting

Requirement	Why	How to check
OpenClaw installed	DevClaw is an OpenClaw plugin	openclaw --version
Node.js >= 20	Runtime for plugin	node --version
glab CLI	GitLab issue/label management	glab --version
glab authenticated	Plugin calls glab for every label transition	glab auth status
A GitLab repo with issues	The task backlog lives in GitLab	glab issue list from your repo
An OpenClaw agent with Telegram	The orchestrator agent that will manage projects	Agent defined in openclaw.json

Setup steps

1. Install the plugin

# Copy to extensions directory (auto-discovered on next restart)
cp -r devclaw ~/.openclaw/extensions/

Verify:

openclaw plugins list
# Should show: DevClaw | devclaw | loaded

2. Configure your orchestrator agent

In openclaw.json, your orchestrator agent needs access to the DevClaw tools:

{
  "agents": {
    "list": [{
      "id": "my-orchestrator",
      "name": "Dev Orchestrator",
      "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5",
      "tools": {
        "allow": [
          "task_pickup",
          "task_complete",
          "queue_status",
          "session_health",
          "sessions_spawn",
          "sessions_send",
          "sessions_list"
        ]
      }
    }]
  }
}

The agent also needs the OpenClaw session tools (sessions_spawn, sessions_send, sessions_list) — DevClaw handles the orchestration logic (labels, state, model selection, audit), but the agent executes the actual session operations to spawn or communicate with DEV/QA sub-agent sessions.

3. Create GitLab labels

DevClaw uses these labels as a state machine. Create them once per GitLab project:

cd ~/git/your-project
glab label create "Planning" --color "#6699cc"
glab label create "To Do" --color "#428bca"
glab label create "Doing" --color "#f0ad4e"
glab label create "To Test" --color "#5bc0de"
glab label create "Testing" --color "#9b59b6"
glab label create "Done" --color "#5cb85c"
glab label create "To Improve" --color "#d9534f"
glab label create "Refining" --color "#f39c12"

4. Register a project

Add your project to memory/projects.json in the orchestrator's workspace:

{
  "projects": {
    "<telegram-group-id>": {
      "name": "my-project",
      "repo": "~/git/my-project",
      "groupName": "Dev - My Project",
      "deployUrl": "https://my-project.example.com",
      "baseBranch": "development",
      "deployBranch": "development",
      "dev": {
        "active": false,
        "sessionId": null,
        "issueId": null,
        "startTime": null,
        "model": null
      },
      "qa": {
        "active": false,
        "sessionId": null,
        "issueId": null,
        "startTime": null,
        "model": null
      }
    }
  }
}

Finding the Telegram group ID: The group ID is the numeric ID of your Telegram supergroup (a negative number like -1234567890). You can find it via the Telegram bot API or from message metadata in OpenClaw logs.

5. Add the agent to the Telegram group

Add your orchestrator bot to the Telegram group for the project. The agent will now receive messages from this group and can operate on the linked project.

6. Create your first issue

Issues can be created in multiple ways:

• Via the agent — Ask the orchestrator in the Telegram group: "Create an issue for adding a login page"
• Via glab CLI — cd ~/git/my-project && glab issue create --title "My first task" --label "To Do"
• Via GitLab UI — Create an issue and add the "To Do" label

The orchestrator agent and sub-agent sessions can all create and update issues via glab tool usage.

7. Test the pipeline

Ask the agent in the Telegram group:

"Check the queue status"

The agent should call queue_status and report the "To Do" issue. Then:

"Pick up issue #1 for DEV"

The agent calls task_pickup, which selects a model, transitions the label to "Doing", and returns instructions to spawn or reuse a DEV sub-agent session.

Adding more projects

Repeat steps 3-5 for each new project:

1. Create labels in the GitLab repo
2. Add an entry to projects.json with the new Telegram group ID
3. Add the bot to the new Telegram group

Each project is fully isolated — separate queue, separate workers, separate state.

What the plugin handles vs. what you handle

Responsibility	Who	Details
GitLab label setup	You (once per project)	8 labels, created via glab label create
Project registration	You (once per project)	Entry in projects.json
Agent definition	You (once)	Agent in openclaw.json with tool permissions
Telegram group setup	You (once per project)	Add bot to group
Issue creation	Agent or sub-agents	Created via glab tool usage (or manually via GitLab UI)
Label transitions	Plugin	Atomic --unlabel + --label via glab
Model selection	Plugin	Keyword-based heuristic per task
State management	Plugin	Atomic read/write to projects.json
Session reuse	Plugin	Detects existing sessions, returns spawn vs send
Audit logging	Plugin	Automatic NDJSON append per tool call
Zombie detection	Plugin	session_health checks active vs alive
Queue scanning	Plugin	queue_status queries GitLab per project