openclaw dns CLI Reference for Wide-Area Discovery
This page documents the openclaw dns command for setting up CoreDNS-based wide-area discovery. It is intended for macOS users who need to configure DNS-SD discovery with Tailscale.
Read this when
- You want wide-area discovery (DNS-SD) via Tailscale + CoreDNS
- You're setting up split DNS for a custom discovery domain (example: openclaw.internal)
openclaw dns
Wide-area discovery relies on DNS helpers built around Tailscale and CoreDNS. Support is currently limited to macOS with Homebrew-installed CoreDNS.
See also:
- Gateway discovery: Discovery
- Wide-area discovery configuration: Configuration
dns setup
Use this command to plan or apply a CoreDNS setup that enables unicast DNS-SD discovery.
openclaw dns setup
openclaw dns setup --domain openclaw.internal
openclaw dns setup --apply
| Option | Effect |
|---|---|
--domain <domain> | The domain used for wide-area discovery, for example openclaw.internal. |
--apply | Installs or refreshes the CoreDNS configuration and restarts the service. Requires sudo and works only on macOS. |
When --domain is omitted, OpenClaw falls back to discovery.wideArea.domain from its configuration. Supplying that domain activates wide-area discovery.
Without --apply, the command only outputs:
- The resolved discovery domain and the path to the zone file
- The current tailnet IP addresses
- A recommended
openclaw.jsondiscovery configuration - The Tailscale Split DNS nameserver and domain values to enter in the Tailscale admin console
With --apply (macOS only, Homebrew CoreDNS required):
- Creates the zone file from scratch if it does not exist
- Inserts the CoreDNS import stanza when it is absent
- Restarts the
corednsbrew service