Connecting Your Repository

In this lesson, you'll connect OpenClaw to your GitHub or GitLab repository so it can receive webhook events for new pull requests and post review comments back.

Prerequisites

Connection Architecture

  Your Repository              OpenClaw                    Review Output
  ┌──────────────┐            ┌──────────┐            ┌──────────────────┐
  │  PR Opened   │──webhook──>│ Gateway  │            │ Inline comments  │
  │  PR Updated  │            │          │──review───>│ Status check     │
  │  PR Synced   │            │ Fetches  │            │ Summary comment  │
  └──────────────┘            │ diff via │            └──────────────────┘
                              │ API      │
                              └──────────┘

OpenClaw needs two things: a webhook to know when PRs are opened, and API access to read the diff and post comments.

Create an Access Token

OpenClaw needs API access to read PR diffs and post review comments.

Create a fine-grained personal access token (recommended over classic tokens).

Go to Settings > Developer settings > Personal access tokens > Fine-grained tokens
Click Generate new token
Configure:

Setting	Value
Token name	`openclaw-review`
Expiration	90 days (or your preference)
Repository access	Only select repositories
Permissions	Pull requests: Read & Write
	Contents: Read
	Commit statuses: Read & Write

Click Generate token and copy it immediately.

Terminal

export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your_token_here

Token Security

Never commit your token to the repository. Store it in your environment variables or a secrets manager. OpenClaw reads it from GITHUB_TOKEN in your environment.

Configure the Repository Connection

Add your repository to OpenClaw's configuration.

openclaw.config.yaml

Set Up the Webhook

Webhooks notify OpenClaw when a PR is opened or updated.

Go to your repo: Settings > Webhooks > Add webhook
Configure:

Field	Value
Payload URL	`https://your-gateway.example.com/webhooks/github`
Content type	`application/json`
Secret	Generate a random string and save it
Events	Select "Pull requests"

Add the webhook secret to your config:

openclaw.config.yaml

Testing Webhooks Locally

During development, use a tunneling service to expose your local Gateway:

openclaw tunnel start --port 3100

This gives you a public URL you can use as the webhook payload URL while testing.

Test the Connection

Verify everything is wired up correctly.

Terminal

openclaw code-review test-connection --repo my-app

Connection Test

Trigger a Test Review

Open a test PR (or use an existing one) to see the full review flow.

Terminal

openclaw code-review run --repo my-app --pr 42

Test Review

You can connect multiple repositories in a single config. Each repo can have its own rules.

Multiple repos

For organizations, a GitHub App is more secure than a personal access token because it has scoped permissions and doesn't tie access to an individual account. See the GitHub Apps documentation for setup instructions. OpenClaw supports both authentication methods.

Knowledge Check

Why does OpenClaw use fine-grained tokens instead of classic personal access tokens?