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critiqor monitor openclaw launches the OpenClaw TUI via openclaw chat and wraps it with Critiqor’s runtime observer. While the session is active, Critiqor captures tool calls, state transitions, process events, and plugin evidence — everything needed to produce an accurate diagnosis when you later run critiqor finalize.

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Syntax

critiqor monitor openclaw [OPTIONS] [-- AGENT_COMMAND...]

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Arguments

ArgumentDescription
AGENT_COMMAND (optional)Legacy: pass -- <command> [args...] to run and observe a custom agent command instead of launching OpenClaw interactively.

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Options

OptionDefaultDescription
--agent-id TEXTopenclaw_agentAgent identifier used in run metadata and dashboard
--tenant-id TEXTdefaultTenant identifier for multi-agent setups
--visibilityprivateEvidence visibility: private, public, anonymous, or shared
--events TEXT.critiqor/events.jsonlLegacy event log path for custom command runs
--evaluation TEXT.critiqor/latest_run.jsonOutput path for the latest run diagnosis JSON
--benchmark-id TEXTopenclaw_runtime_v1Versioned benchmark spec ID
--difficulty-tierstandardBenchmark difficulty tier: easy, standard, hard, or stress
--runs-dir TEXTrunsDirectory where run artifacts are stored
--openclaw-command TEXTopenclaw chatCommand used to launch OpenClaw
--cwd TEXT(current directory)Working directory for the OpenClaw process
--timeout FLOAT(none)Optional timeout in seconds — terminates OpenClaw if exceeded

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What happens when you run it

  1. Checks for an existing active session — if runs/active_session.json already exists, the command exits with instructions to run critiqor finalize first.
  2. Verifies openclaw is on PATH — resolves the executable from --openclaw-command. If not found, exits with an error and installation guidance.
  3. Creates a new session in runs/<run_id>/ with status MONITORING and writes runs/active_session.json.
  4. Sets environment variables so the Critiqor plugin inside OpenClaw knows where to write evidence: CRITIQOR_RUN_ID, CRITIQOR_RUNS_DIR, CRITIQOR_AGENT_ID, CRITIQOR_TENANT_ID, CRITIQOR_VISIBILITY, and CRITIQOR_EVENT_SOURCE.
  5. Launches openclaw chat as a child process with the plugin active, printing confirmation before handing control to the TUI: 
    ✓ OpenClaw detected
✓ Runtime observer attached
✓ Event collection active

Launching OpenClaw...
  6. Waits for the OpenClaw session to end, forwarding the process exit code.

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After OpenClaw exits

When the OpenClaw process terminates (whether by user exit, error, or --timeout), Critiqor prints: 
OpenClaw session ended.
Run `critiqor finalize` to stop monitoring and generate a diagnosis report.
The collected evidence remains in runs/<run_id>/ until you finalize. Nothing is lost if you close your terminal — run critiqor finalize from the same working directory to complete the session.

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Troubleshooting

“OpenClaw command not found” : OpenClaw is not installed or is not on your PATH. Install OpenClaw, or pass --openclaw-command with the full path to the executable, for example: 
critiqor monitor openclaw --openclaw-command /usr/local/bin/openclaw chat
“Critiqor monitoring is already active for <run_id>” : A previous session was never finalized. Run critiqor finalize to close it before starting a new one.