Manual Browser Login for Automation

When a website needs you to log in, do it manually inside the host browser's openclaw profile. Never hand your credentials to the model: automated sign-ins frequently trip anti-bot measures and could get the account locked.

Use the host browser (manual login) for both reading (searching threads) and posting on X/Twitter and other bot-sensitive platforms. Sandboxed browser sessions are more prone to triggering bot detection.

Return to the main browser docs: Browser.

Which Chrome profile is used?

OpenClaw manages a dedicated Chrome profile called openclaw (orange-tinted UI), separate from your everyday browser profile.

For agent browser tool calls:

Default behavior: the agent uses its isolated openclaw browser.
Use profile="user" only when existing logged-in sessions matter and you are at the machine to click or approve any attach prompt.
If you have multiple user-browser profiles, specify the profile explicitly rather than relying on guessing.

Two ways to access the openclaw profile:

Ask the agent to open the browser, then log in yourself.
Open it via CLI:

openclaw browser start
openclaw browser open https://x.com

For a non-default profile, put --browser-profile <name> before the subcommand (default is openclaw):

openclaw browser --browser-profile <name> open https://x.com

Sandboxing: allow host browser access

When the agent is sandboxed, its browser tool calls default to the sandbox browser, not the host. To let the agent target the host browser instead:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      sandbox: {
        mode: "non-main",
        browser: {
          allowHostControl: true,
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

CLI invocations always target the host browser, never the sandbox, so you can open the host browser yourself regardless of this setting:

openclaw browser --browser-profile openclaw open https://x.com

Once sandbox.browser.allowHostControl: true is set, the agent's browser tool calls can also target the host. Alternatively, disable sandboxing for the agent that posts updates.

Manual login (recommended)

Which Chrome profile is used?

Sandboxing: allow host browser access

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