See [Plugins](/tools/plugin).

## Optional Coven backend

OpenClaw can also register a bundled, opt-in `coven` ACP backend for operators

who want ACP coding sessions supervised by a local [Coven](https://github.com/OpenCoven/coven)

daemon instead of launched directly through ACPX.

This is intentionally an extension, not a core runtime path:

- the default ACPX backend stays unchanged for normal installs;

- Coven has its own daemon, socket, session store, harness mapping, and project

boundary model;

- the bridge can be enabled, disabled, configured, and reviewed independently

through the plugin system; and

- OpenClaw remains responsible for ACP session routing, chat bindings, task

state, and fallback policy while Coven owns harness supervision.

Minimal opt-in config:

```json5

{

acp: {

enabled: true,

backend: "coven",

defaultAgent: "codex",

},

plugins: {

entries: {

coven: {

enabled: true,

config: {

// Optional. Defaults to ~/.coven. Environment variables are not used for this trust anchor.

covenHome: "~/.coven",

// Optional. Defaults to <covenHome>/coven.sock; overrides must resolve to that path.

socketPath: "~/.coven/coven.sock",

// Optional. Defaults to false; enable only when direct ACP fallback is acceptable.

allowFallback: false,

// Optional. Used only when allowFallback is true.

fallbackBackend: "acpx",

},

},

},

},

}

```

When selected, OpenClaw checks Coven daemon health over the configured Unix

socket before launching. A successful launch creates a Coven session and records

the Coven session id in the ACP runtime handle. If the health check or launch

fails, OpenClaw fails closed by default so `acp.backend="coven"` cannot silently

downgrade to direct ACP execution. Set `allowFallback: true` only when direct

ACP fallback is an explicit, acceptable operator choice.

For path safety, `~` in `covenHome` and `socketPath` expands to the current

user home directory, and configured Coven paths must be absolute after that

expansion. OpenClaw rejects workspace-relative Coven daemon paths because the

daemon socket is a local user trust anchor, not repository-controlled state.

`socketPath` must resolve to `<covenHome>/coven.sock`; OpenClaw does not allow

arbitrary Coven socket filenames because the daemon socket is the local trust

anchor. Keep `covenHome` owned by the OpenClaw user and private (`0700`);

OpenClaw rejects symlinked, shared-accessible, shared-writable, or non-socket

Coven socket paths before connecting. The Coven backend currently requires Unix

socket validation and fails closed on Windows rather than trusting a socket path

whose owner and permissions cannot be validated by this plugin.

The default harness mapping sends known ACP agent ids such as `codex`, `claude`,

`gemini`, and `opencode` to explicitly authorized Coven harness ids. Unknown

ACP agent ids are rejected instead of being forwarded as harness names. Override

`plugins.entries.coven.config.harnesses` only when your local Coven install uses

custom harness names, and keep `acp.allowedAgents` aligned with the intended

chat-exposed harness set.

### Automatic dependency install

When you install OpenClaw globally with `npm install -g openclaw`, the acpx