Native MCP Support Lands in OpenClaw: Connect Any MCP Server Without Plugins

One of the most requested features in OpenClaw history just shipped: native Model Context Protocol (MCP) support. With 25+ community upvotes, issue #4834 has finally been resolved, and you can now connect MCP servers directly to your agents—no external tools or skills required.

What Is MCP?

The Model Context Protocol is an open standard from Anthropic that lets AI applications connect to external data sources and tools in a consistent way. Think of it as a universal adapter for AI: instead of building custom integrations for Notion, Linear, Stripe, or your company's internal tools, you can connect to any MCP-compatible server and your agent automatically gains access to its capabilities.

The MCP ecosystem has exploded with servers for popular services—databases, APIs, file systems, and more. Previously, OpenClaw users could bridge MCP servers using the Mcporter skill, but this required setting up external tooling. Native support changes everything.

How to Configure Native MCP

Add MCP servers directly to your agent configuration:

{
  "agents": {
    "list": [
      {
        "id": "main",
        "mcp": {
          "servers": [
            {
              "name": "notion",
              "command": "npx",
              "args": ["-y", "@notionhq/mcp"]
            },
            {
              "name": "filesystem",
              "command": "npx",
              "args": ["-y", "@anthropic/mcp-fs", "/path/to/allow"]
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

That's it. When your agent starts, OpenClaw:

1. Spawns each MCP server as a managed child process
2. Queries their tool schemas via the MCP protocol
3. Exposes those tools alongside OpenClaw's native tools
4. Routes tool calls to the appropriate MCP server automatically

Why This Matters

Zero-friction extensibility. Want your agent to manage Notion pages? Add two lines of config. Need database access? Point it at an MCP server for Postgres or SQLite. The barrier to extending your agent's capabilities is now almost nothing.

Per-agent configuration. Different agents can have different MCP servers. Your "work" agent might connect to Linear and Notion; your "home" agent might just have filesystem access. This keeps capabilities scoped appropriately.

No code changes. MCP servers are external processes—you don't need to modify OpenClaw or write plugins. The ecosystem of community MCP servers is your extension library.

Both transports supported. Native support works with stdio (local process) and HTTP transports, so you can connect to remote MCP servers too.

Popular MCP Servers to Try

• @notionhq/mcp - Full Notion workspace access
• @anthropic/mcp-fs - Filesystem operations (scoped to allowed paths)
• @modelcontextprotocol/server-postgres - PostgreSQL database queries
• @modelcontextprotocol/server-sqlite - SQLite database access
• @anthropic/mcp-github - GitHub issues, PRs, and repos
• @modelcontextprotocol/server-brave-search - Web search

Check the MCP servers directory for the full list.

Migration From Mcporter

If you're using the Mcporter skill to bridge MCP servers, you can migrate to native support:

1. Move your MCP server configs into agents.list[].mcp.servers
2. Remove the Mcporter skill from your skills list
3. Restart your gateway

Native support handles server lifecycle management, so you don't need to worry about starting/stopping servers manually.

What's Next?

Native MCP support opens up a world of possibilities. We're excited to see what the community builds—custom MCP servers for internal tools, novel integrations, and workflows we haven't imagined yet.

Dive into the GitHub issue for implementation details, and share your MCP setups in the Discord!

Have you set up MCP servers with OpenClaw? Share your config in the comments!