OpenClaw

OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant running locally, integrating with messaging platforms for control.

Prerequisites

A MiniMax Subscription Key with Token Plan or Credits access
A computer with terminal access (macOS, Linux, or Windows with WSL)

Install and Configure OpenClaw

Run Installation Command

Run the installation command in your terminal:

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

You’ll see this entry page:

Start Setup

Select “Yes” .

Select QuickStart Mode

Select “QuickStart” to use the guided setup.

Select Model Provider

Select “MiniMax” as the model provider.

Select Auth Method

Select “MiniMax Global — OAuth (minimax.io)” as the authentication method.

You’ll be sent to a browser window to sign in to or sign up for your MiniMax API Platform account.

Authorize OpenClaw

Select “Authorize”, after which you can return to the terminal.

Confirm Model Selection

A model picker will appear with the available models already selected. Press Enter to continue.

Select a Messaging Channel

Back in the terminal, select a messaging channel to connect. OpenClaw supports a range of platforms including Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, iMessage, and more. Select channel

Confirm Installation

Follow the prompts for your chosen channel, then select “Yes” when asked to confirm. Confirm

Select Skills

Select any additional skills you wish to install (press space to select, up and down arrows to navigate). Select skills

Configure API Keys

Configure additional API Keys for tools that OpenClaw can use (optional). Select “Skip for now” if you don’t need additional tools. Configure API Keys

Open Web UI

Select “Open the Web UI” to access the OpenClaw dashboard. Open Web UI

Toggle thinking

Toggle thinking at runtime with /think: off turns it off, adaptive (the default) lets M3 decide when to think.

Advanced Capabilities

Image Understanding

This page is written against OpenClaw v2026.7.1-2: its bundled MiniMax provider includes image understanding, image, video, speech, and music capabilities. Model catalogs and tools can vary by version; verify with openclaw --version and openclaw models list.

OpenClaw v2026.7.1-2 provides image understanding through the built-in MiniMax provider and MiniMax-VL-01; no additional MCP installation is required. Check the release notes before using another version.Use one of the methods below only with an older OpenClaw version or when you specifically need a standalone MCP client.

Method 1 (Recommended): MiniMax CLI
Method 2: Token Plan MCP

MiniMax CLI (the mmx command) is the official command-line tool and an alternative integration path for older OpenClaw versions.

Prepare Environment

Make sure Node.js 18+ is available:

# Check Node.js version (should be >= 18)
node -v

# If not installed, install LTS via nvm
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash
nvm install --lts

Install MiniMax CLI

Run the following command in your terminal for a global install:

npm install -g mmx-cli

⭐️ OpenClaw can install the CLI and SKILL; enter the API key locally at authentication rather than pasting it into the Agent chat:

Please set up MiniMax CLI (https://github.com/MiniMax-AI/cli). Pause at authentication so I can enter the API key locally; do not request, print, or record my secret.

1. Install CLI globally: run `npm install -g mmx-cli`, then verify with `mmx --version`
2. Authentication: tell me to run `mmx auth login` in my local terminal; do not ask me to paste the API key into this chat
3. Install the official SKILL: run `npx skills add MiniMax-AI/cli -y -g`

After that, please run `mmx quota` to check my Token Plan balance and confirm everything is wired up.

Authenticate with your API Key. Enter it in the local terminal rather than pasting it into the Agent chat:

mmx auth login

The latest mmx-cli auto-detects your service region from the Key — no manual region setup is usually needed.

The region follows the platform where your API service was purchased: cn for the MiniMax China Token Plan, or global for the MiniMax International Token Plan.

If you hit a 401 after logging in, the region likely didn’t auto-match. Set it manually:

mmx config set --key region --value cn       # China API service
mmx config set --key region --value global   # International API service

Run mmx auth status to confirm the region matches the platform where your subscription was purchased.

Once logged in, run mmx quota to view your Token Plan balance and confirm the setup is working.

Install SKILL (Optional, Recommended for Agent Users)

If you’ll be invoking mmx from inside OpenClaw, we recommend adding the official SKILL.md so the agent makes better tool calls without having to read --help on the fly:

npx skills add MiniMax-AI/cli -y -g

The SKILL is auto-symlinked into ~/.openclaw/skills/, and OpenClaw will pick it up on the next launch.

Tell OpenClaw to Use mmx vision

Tell OpenClaw to prefer mmx vision for any future image understanding:

Going forward, prefer the mmx vision tool for image understanding,
invoke it via `mmx vision describe --image <image path or URL>` and parse the result.

Verify

Send an image in OpenClaw and check that it auto-invokes mmx vision describe --image <path> and returns a correct description.

Wire up the Token Plan MCP to use the understand_image tool.

Prepare Environment

Make sure uv (the Python package manager) is available:

# Check
which uv

# If not installed, via pip
pip install uv

# Or via curl
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Install and Configure MCP

For manual setup, follow the Token Plan MCP guide. Core steps:

Install the mcporter skill (an MCP server manager)
Configure minimax-coding-plan-mcp per the official guide
Set the MINIMAX_API_KEY environment variable (Token Plan API Key starts with sk-cp):

export MINIMAX_API_KEY="sk-..."

⭐️ OpenClaw can install the MCP; enter the subscription key locally at authentication rather than pasting it into the Agent chat:

First install the mcporter skill, then follow https://platform.minimax.io/docs/token-plan/mcp-guide to configure the MCP. Pause at authentication so I can enter the subscription key locally; do not request, print, or record it.

Tell OpenClaw to Use understand_image

Tell OpenClaw to prefer understand_image for image understanding:

Going forward, use the understand_image tool from minimax-coding-plan-mcp for any image understanding.

Verify

Send an image in OpenClaw and check it auto-invokes the understand_image tool and returns a correct description.

Web Search

OpenClaw v2026.7.1-2 provides web_search through the API-key MiniMax provider. Use one of the methods below with another version or when you need a standalone MCP client (requires a Token Plan subscription key).

Method 1 (Recommended): MiniMax CLI
Method 2: Token Plan MCP

mmx search is the web-search command from MiniMax CLI. No separate MCP server process — OpenClaw invokes it directly via Bash.

Prepare Environment

Make sure Node.js 18+ is available:

# Check Node.js version (should be >= 18)
node -v

# If not installed, install LTS via nvm
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash
nvm install --lts

Install MiniMax CLI

Run the following command in your terminal for a global install:

npm install -g mmx-cli

⭐️ OpenClaw can install the CLI and SKILL; enter the API key locally at the authentication step rather than pasting it into the Agent chat:

Please set up MiniMax CLI (https://github.com/MiniMax-AI/cli). Pause at authentication so I can enter the API key locally; do not request, print, or record my secret.

1. Install CLI globally: run `npm install -g mmx-cli`, then verify with `mmx --version`
2. Authentication: tell me to run `mmx auth login` in my local terminal
3. Install the official SKILL: run `npx skills add MiniMax-AI/cli -y -g`

After that, please run `mmx quota` to check my Token Plan balance and confirm everything is wired up.

Authenticate with your API Key. Enter it in the local terminal rather than pasting it into the Agent chat:

mmx auth login

The latest mmx-cli auto-detects your service region from the Key — no manual region setup is usually needed.

The region follows the platform where your API service was purchased: cn for the MiniMax China Token Plan, or global for the MiniMax International Token Plan.

If you hit a 401 after logging in, the region likely didn’t auto-match. Set it manually:

mmx config set --key region --value cn       # China API service
mmx config set --key region --value global   # International API service

Run mmx auth status to confirm the region matches the platform where your subscription was purchased.

Once logged in, run mmx quota to view your Token Plan balance and confirm the setup is working.

Install SKILL (Optional, Recommended for Agent Users)

If you’ll be invoking mmx from inside OpenClaw, we recommend adding the official SKILL.md so the agent makes better tool calls without having to read --help on the fly:

npx skills add MiniMax-AI/cli -y -g

The SKILL is auto-symlinked into ~/.openclaw/skills/, and OpenClaw will pick it up on the next launch.

Tell OpenClaw to Use mmx search

mmx search offers two invocation forms:

# Simple call (human-friendly, readable text output)
mmx search "latest MiniMax AI updates"

# Structured call (Agent-friendly)
mmx search query --q "MiniMax M2.7 release" --output json

Example prompt for OpenClaw:

Use the mmx search tool to search "OpenClaw multi-Agent orchestration",
invoke it via `mmx search query --q "..." --output json` to get structured results,
then summarize the top 3 hits' titles, links, and key snippets.

OpenClaw will run mmx search query --q "..." --output json via the Bash tool and hand the stdout JSON to the model directly — no MCP server process needed.

Memorize

Going forward, prefer the mmx search tool for web search,
invoke it via `mmx search query --q "..." --output json` and parse the JSON.

Wire up the Token Plan MCP to use the web_search tool.

Prepare Environment

Make sure uv (the Python package manager) is available:

# Check
which uv

# If not installed, via pip
pip install uv

# Or via curl
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Install and Configure MCP

For manual setup, follow the Token Plan MCP guide. Core steps:

Install the mcporter skill (an MCP server manager)
Configure minimax-coding-plan-mcp per the official guide
Set the MINIMAX_API_KEY environment variable (Token Plan API Key starts with sk-cp):

export MINIMAX_API_KEY="sk-..."

⭐️ OpenClaw can install the MCP; enter the subscription key locally at authentication rather than pasting it into the Agent chat:

First install the mcporter skill, then follow https://platform.minimax.io/docs/token-plan/mcp-guide to configure the MCP. Pause at authentication so I can enter the subscription key locally; do not request, print, or record it.

Tell OpenClaw to Use web_search

Tell OpenClaw to prefer web_search:

Going forward, use the web_search tool from minimax-coding-plan-mcp for any web search.

Verify

Ask OpenClaw something requiring up-to-date info, and check it auto-invokes the web_search tool and returns search results.

For a full step-by-step walkthrough of connecting OpenClaw to Telegram (including bot creation and pairing), see the OpenClaw Cookbook guide.

Token Plan

Use M3 in AI Coding Tools

MCP Guide

CLI Guide

Best Practices

Prerequisites

Install and Configure OpenClaw

Toggle thinking

Advanced Capabilities

Image Understanding

Web Search

​Prerequisites

​Install and Configure OpenClaw

​Toggle thinking

​Advanced Capabilities

​Image Understanding

​Web Search

Prerequisites

Install and Configure OpenClaw

Toggle thinking

Advanced Capabilities

Image Understanding

Web Search