Hooks & Plugins
Event-driven automations and channel extensions that add capabilities to your agent.
Hooks
Hooks are event-driven automations that trigger on specific gateway events. Unlike heartbeats (which run on a schedule) or cron jobs (which run at specific times), hooks fire in response to something happening.
Hook Events
| gateway:startup | Fires when the gateway starts up |
| /new | Fires when a new session is created |
| /reset | Fires when a session is reset |
Managing Hooks
The Hooks Manager in ClawManager lets you:
- • View all available hooks and their status
- • Enable or disable individual hooks
- • See which events each hook responds to
- • Check for missing requirements (system binaries, config)
- • Install new hooks
Hooks can be bundled with OpenClaw, installed as packages, or placed in your workspace directory.
Plugins
Plugins are channel extensions that add messaging platform support. They're different from skills (which add agent capabilities) - plugins enable new communication channels.
How They Work
Each messaging platform (Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp, etc.) is implemented as a plugin. Most common plugins come bundled with OpenClaw. Additional plugins can be installed for less common platforms:
Plugins Manager
The Plugins Manager in ClawManager shows all installed plugins with their status. You can enable or disable plugins, check for updates, and see which channels each plugin supports. Plugins are global - they apply to all agents (individual agent access is controlled via routing).
Skills vs Hooks vs Plugins
| Skills | Hooks | Plugins | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Agent capabilities | Event automations | Channel support |
| Trigger | Agent decides to use | Gateway events | Always active |
| Example | Web search, GIF search | On /new, run setup | Telegram, Twitch |
Next Steps
Learn about Skills & Tools for agent capabilities, or set up scheduled tasks in Automation.