OpenClaw

Fastest install: the one-line curl — it detects the agent frameworks you already have and installs Telem into as many of them as you select in one pass. The steps below are the manual path.

@telemai/openclaw-plugin adds telem_search and telem_fetch as agent tools in OpenClaw. While enabled it also blocks OpenClaw’s built-in web_search and web_fetch, redirecting the agent to the Telem tools.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+

• OpenClaw 2026.7.1 or newer — older hosts don’t expose the plugin API this plugin needs (see Troubleshooting); install or upgrade with:

  npm i -g openclaw

Install

1. Get an API key in the Telem console, under API keys in your project — see Authentication.

2. Install the plugin. This registers telem in OpenClaw’s plugin list and enables it.

3. Put your key in the Gateway environment. TELEM_API_KEY goes in ~/.openclaw/.env; skip this line if your deployment doesn’t need a key.

4. Restart the Gateway. Required, not optional — OpenClaw won’t load the plugin or pick up the key until it restarts.

openclaw plugins install npm:@telemai/openclaw-plugin
echo "TELEM_API_KEY=${TELEM_API_KEY}" >> ~/.openclaw/.env
openclaw gateway restart

What you get

Two tools:

• telem_search — runs one or more search queries as a single Telem interaction and returns every provider’s results, provider-attributed, in one normalized envelope.
• telem_fetch — reads up to 5 whole web pages in one call, fetched as one interaction and rendered one section per URL.

The plugin tells the model to prefer telem_search over an overlapping public-web search tool unless you ask otherwise, Telem is unavailable, or the task needs a capability Telem does not expose. That preference is soft guidance; the hard enforcement applies only to the exact built-in names web_search and web_fetch.

Configuration

OpenClaw is the one surface whose config carries credentials, and the one with no .telem/telem.json layer. Options come from OpenClaw’s own plugin config, with TELEM_* beneath it — two levels, resolved per key on every tool call.

Config key	Env fallback	Meaning
apiKey	TELEM_API_KEY	Bearer credential. Every other surface reads this from the environment only.
baseUrl	TELEM_BASE_URL	Point the plugin at a non-hosted deployment.
tier	TELEM_TIER	Named result-field tier: minimalist, default, extended, or max

Full parameter reference → — every key, its env fallback and how the levels compose.

providersInclude and providersExclude are forwarded unchanged here rather than composed locally, so naming the same provider in both is a server 400.

{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      telem: {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          apiKey: "tlm_...",
          tier: "extended",
          providersInclude: ["exa", "tavily"],
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Troubleshooting

Tools missing from the agent

A restrictive tool policy can hide telem_search/telem_fetch even though the plugin is installed and enabled. Check first:

npx --yes --package=@telemai/openclaw-plugin telem-openclaw-setup --check

Then run the same command without --check to add the two tools to your tool policy. It preserves any explicit tools.deny and reports per-agent policies it can’t safely change.

Tools still missing after setup

The Gateway that’s actually serving your agents hasn’t restarted yet — plugin installs and config changes only take effect after a Gateway restart.

Plugin won’t load at all

Your OpenClaw host is older than 2026.7.1, the plugin’s version floor. Upgrade OpenClaw and reinstall.