Security

OpenClaw Pairing and Allowlist Security Checklist

February 21, 20263 min readUpdated September 11, 2026By OpenClawBlog Team

March 01, 20263 min read

Pairing is the first security gate for direct messages in OpenClaw. Unknown senders receive a short code and their message isn't processed until approval[1]. This checklist helps you enforce it consistently.

Checklist Before You Go Live

Set DM policy to pairing on every external channel.
Audit pending pairing queue at least daily.
Keep allowlists under versioned backup.
Require explicit mention in group channels.
Monitor logs for repeated unknown sender attempts[2].

Operational Commands

openclaw pairing list whatsapp
openclaw pairing list telegram
openclaw pairing approve whatsapp <CODE>
openclaw pairing reject telegram <CODE>

Config Baseline

{
  "channels": {
    "whatsapp": { "dmPolicy": "pairing", "groupPolicy": "allowlist" },
    "telegram": { "dmPolicy": "pairing", "groupPolicy": "allowlist" },
    "signal": { "dmPolicy": "pairing", "groupPolicy": "allowlist" }
  }
}

Known Limits You Should Plan For

The pairing system caps pending requests per channel by default, so a flood of unknown senders can block new legitimate requests until approvals/rejections clear the queue[1]. Build an operator runbook for this.

Audit Pattern

openclaw channels status --probe
openclaw logs --follow
openclaw health

Use health + logs after policy changes to confirm the gateway still routes normally[3][4].

References

OpenClaw Docs: Pairing - Accessed February 21, 2026
OpenClaw Docs: Channel Troubleshooting - Accessed February 21, 2026
OpenClaw Docs: CLI Channels - Accessed February 21, 2026
OpenClaw Docs: CLI Health - Accessed February 21, 2026
OpenClaw GitHub Repository - Accessed February 21, 2026