OpenClaw + n8n, Zapier & Make

🤔 n8n, Zapier, or Make — which one?

All three work with OpenClaw via webhooks. Here's how they compare so you can pick the right one for your setup.

🔄 How the connection works

OpenClaw exposes a webhook URL. You point your automation tool at that URL, and OpenClaw receives the trigger, runs your agent, and sends a response back.

The automation tool is just a middleman — it receives the trigger, packages the data, sends it to OpenClaw's webhook, then takes the response and delivers it wherever you want. OpenClaw does all the thinking in the middle.

🔌 Step 1 — Enable the OpenClaw webhook

Before connecting any tool, turn on OpenClaw's webhook server and note your endpoint URL. This is the same for all three tools.

1. Enable the webhook in openclaw.json

   Open your openclaw.json and add the webhook block:

   openclaw.json Copy

   {
     "webhook": {
       "enabled": true,
       "port": 8080,
       "secret": "your-secret-key",  // optional auth token
       "path": "/webhook"             // endpoint path
     }
   }

   Restart OpenClaw. Your webhook is now live at http://localhost:8080/webhook.

2. Make it reachable from the internet (if using Zapier or Make)

   Zapier and Make are cloud services — they can't reach localhost on your machine. You need to expose your local webhook using a tunnel tool:

   Terminal — using ngrok (free) Copy

   ngrok http 8080

   ngrok gives you a public URL like https://abc123.ngrok.io that tunnels to your local machine. Use that URL in Zapier or Make instead of localhost. For n8n (self-hosted on the same machine), you can skip this step.

   ⚠️

   ngrok URLs change on free plan

   The free ngrok URL changes every time you restart it. Upgrade to a paid ngrok plan or use a static domain to avoid having to update your Zaps every time.

🛠️ Step 2 — Connect your automation tool

Choose your tool below for step-by-step setup instructions.

💡 Real workflow examples

Here are some workflows you can build today with OpenClaw and these tools.

🔧 Common problems & fixes

• Zapier / Make can't reach my webhook URL ▾

  Cloud tools like Zapier and Make can't reach localhost. Make sure you:

  • Have ngrok or a similar tunnel running (ngrok http 8080)
  • Are using the ngrok https URL (not localhost) in your Zap/scenario
  • Have OpenClaw running at the same time as ngrok
  • Haven't restarted ngrok (which changes the URL on the free plan)
• Getting a 401 Unauthorized error ▾

  The secret key in your request doesn't match what's in openclaw.json. Check that:

  • The Authorization header is set to exactly Bearer your-secret-key
  • The key matches what you put in the webhook.secret field in openclaw.json
  • There are no extra spaces or quotes in either place
  • If you don't want auth, remove the secret field from openclaw.json entirely
• OpenClaw receives the request but reply is empty ▾

  The message field in your POST body is probably empty or not mapped correctly. Check that:

  • Your body is valid JSON: {"message": "some text"}
  • You've mapped the trigger data correctly (e.g. the email body, not the subject)
  • The content-type header is set to application/json
  • Check OpenClaw's logs for any parsing errors
• The workflow runs but takes too long and times out ▾

  Zapier has a 30-second timeout and Make has a 40-second timeout. If OpenClaw's LLM response takes longer than that, the request will fail. To fix it:

  • Use a faster or local model — see the Local LLM guide
  • Keep your prompts shorter and more specific
  • Use an async pattern: OpenClaw queues the request and POSTs the result back to a second webhook endpoint
  • n8n has no timeout by default — switch to n8n for long-running tasks
• How do I pass context from the trigger into the prompt? ▾

  Build the message string dynamically in your automation tool using the trigger data. For example in Zapier, set the message field to: Summarize this email and extract action items: {{Email Body}}. In n8n, use expressions: {{"Summarize: " + $json.body}}. The key is that the message value should contain everything OpenClaw needs to do its job.

🔗 Related guides