Code of Conduct
The OpenClaw community is built on mutual respect, collaboration, and inclusivity. This Code of Conduct outlines our expectations for all community participants and the process for reporting and resolving incidents.
Our Pledge
We as contributors and maintainers pledge to make participation in the OpenClaw project and community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, level of experience, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community. We believe that a diverse community where all voices are heard produces better software and better outcomes for everyone.
Community Standards
Positive behaviors we encourage:
- Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward other community members
- Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences
- Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback
- Accepting responsibility when we make mistakes, apologizing to those affected, and learning from the experience
- Focusing on what is best for the overall community, not just individual interests
- Helping newcomers feel welcome and supported
Unacceptable behaviors:
- Harassment, trolling, insults, or derogatory comments in any form
- Public or private harassment of community members
- Publishing others' private information without explicit permission
- Sexual language or imagery in community spaces
- Dismissing contributions because of who made them rather than their merit
- Repeated unconstructive criticism without offering alternatives
Enforcement
Community leaders are responsible for clarifying and enforcing standards of acceptable behavior. They will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behavior they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.
Community leaders have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, issues, pull requests, and other contributions that are not aligned with this Code of Conduct, and will communicate reasons for moderation decisions when appropriate.
| Violation severity | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Minor — unintentional, single incident | Private written warning, explanation of why the behavior was inappropriate |
| Moderate — repeated or significant incident | Temporary ban from community spaces (1-30 days depending on severity) |
| Serious — deliberate, targeted, or severe | Permanent ban from all community spaces and contribution channels |
Reporting Incidents
Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported to the project maintainers at conduct@openclaw-ai.dev. All complaints will be reviewed and investigated promptly and fairly.
All community leaders are obligated to respect the privacy and security of those who report incidents. Reports will be kept confidential to the extent possible while still allowing appropriate investigation and action.
This Code of Conduct is adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 2.1. For questions about this policy, contact the maintainers at the address above.
Scope
This Code of Conduct applies within all community spaces, and also applies when an individual is officially representing the community in public spaces. Examples of representing our community include using an official project email address, posting via an official social media account, or acting as an appointed representative at an online or offline event.
Community spaces covered include: the GitHub repository (issues, PRs, discussions, code review comments), the official Discord server, the project documentation site's comment sections, official social media accounts, and any community events organized by project maintainers. The code of conduct applies equally to maintainers as to all other community participants — no one is exempt.
Attribution and Contact
This Code of Conduct is an adaptation of the Contributor Covenant, version 2.1, augmented with enforcement specifics from the GitHub Community Guidelines. The full text of the Contributor Covenant v2.1 is available at contributor-covenant.org.
For answers to common questions about this code of conduct, see the FAQ at contributor-covenant.org/faq. For project-specific questions or to report an incident, contact the maintainers at conduct@openclaw-ai.dev. Response time for conduct reports: within 48 hours on business days. If you feel a report was not handled to your satisfaction, you may escalate to any senior maintainer listed in the MAINTAINERS.md file.
We are committed to making OpenClaw a welcoming place for contributors from all backgrounds. Enforcing this code of conduct is how we protect that commitment — it is not optional, and it applies to everyone including the project founders.
Our Pledge and Responsibility
We as members, contributors, and leaders pledge to make OpenClaw a community where harassment-free participation is an unconditional guarantee, not a conditional aspiration. This means creating an environment where people of all backgrounds can focus on the work of building useful software together.
Community leaders are specifically responsible for clarifying and enforcing our standards of acceptable behavior and will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behavior they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful. Leaders have both the authority and the obligation to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned with this Code of Conduct.
If you witness behavior that concerns you — including behavior by maintainers — please raise it. The project's health depends on honest feedback when our standards aren't being met. All conduct reports are taken seriously and investigated promptly.
Positive Community Standards
Beyond the baseline expectation of not harassing people, we actively encourage behaviors that make the OpenClaw community stronger. Welcoming newcomers with patience is one of the most impactful things any contributor can do — it's easy to forget how much implicit knowledge long-term contributors take for granted.
When someone asks a question that seems basic, answer it thoroughly. Other beginners will find that answer through search and benefit from it too. When someone's PR has problems, explain the issue clearly with examples rather than just saying "this needs work." Critical feedback is most useful when it's specific, actionable, and respectful of the effort that went into the submission being reviewed.