DenchClaw Hidden Features Most Users Don't Know

DenchClaw has a surface layer and a depth layer. The surface layer is obvious: add contacts, track deals, talk to the agent. The depth layer is where it gets interesting — features that aren't in any tutorial, behaviors that the community discovered through experimentation, and capabilities that dramatically change what's possible.

This isn't a tips list. It's the features that most users genuinely don't know exist.

1. Direct .object.yaml Editing#

Every object in DenchClaw has a .object.yaml file in your workspace directory. You can edit this file directly with any text editor, and DenchClaw picks up the changes instantly (or on the next reload).

This is how power users make complex configuration changes that would take dozens of clicks in a UI:

• Add 10 fields at once
• Reorder fields in the display
• Configure multiple views with complex filter conditions
• Change the default view from table to kanban
• Configure relation fields with specific related object names

Find your object YAML at:

~/.openclaw-dench/workspace/objects/[object-name]/.object.yaml

Edit it, save it, and the UI updates. The agent generates these files from natural language, but editing them directly is faster for bulk changes.

2. The Relation Rollup Trick#

Relation fields link one object to another. What most users don't know: you can query the related object's data directly in your views and reports using SQL.

If your deals object has a relation to companies, you can show company industry and size in your deals table by joining the PIVOT views:

SELECT 
  d."Deal Name",
  d."Stage",
  d."Value",
  c."Industry",
  c."Employee Count"
FROM v_deals d
LEFT JOIN v_companies c ON d."Company"::int = c.entry_id

Ask the agent: "Show me all deals with their company industry and employee count in one table." It builds the query from your existing relation structure automatically.

3. Widget Mode for Dench Apps#

Dench Apps can run as widgets — compact cards in a dashboard grid that auto-refresh on a configurable interval. This is documented in the manifesto but almost nobody uses it.

In your app's .dench.yaml:

name: Pipeline Snapshot
icon: bar-chart
display: widget
widget:
  width: 2
  height: 1
  refreshMs: 300000  # 5 minutes

Your app now appears as a 2x1 card in the DenchClaw dashboard view, showing your pipeline summary, auto-refreshing every 5 minutes. Build 4-5 of these and you have a live business dashboard that's always visible when you open DenchClaw.

Useful widget ideas:

• Pipeline value by stage (bar chart)
• Leads added this week vs last week (number card)
• At-risk accounts count (alert card)
• Today's follow-ups (list)
• Revenue closed this month (number + trend line)

4. Entry Field History (Every Change is Logged)#

DuckDB stores every field change in the entry_fields table with a timestamp. This means you have a complete audit trail of every edit to every record — but most users don't know how to query it.

Ask the agent: "Show me the change history for Acme Corp's deal stage over the last 3 months."

The agent queries the entry_fields table using the updated_at timestamp and returns a timeline of changes. This is useful for:

• Auditing who changed what (if multiple people use the same instance)
• Analyzing how long deals spend in each stage
• Reviewing the history of a relationship's status

5. Multi-Profile Support#

DenchClaw runs on top of OpenClaw, which has a profiles system. You can run multiple DenchClaw profiles simultaneously — for example, a personal profile and a work profile — each with its own database, objects, and agent context.

npx denchclaw --profile work   # Starts on port 19001
npx denchclaw --profile personal  # Starts on port 19002

Each profile has its own:

• DuckDB database
• Object schema
• Memory files
• Telegram/WhatsApp connections
• Skills configuration

Power users run a work profile for their sales and customer CRM, and a personal profile for life admin (contacts, projects, reading list).

6. The Browser Agent Can Export Any Authenticated Site#

Beyond scraping and form-filling, the browser agent can handle full export workflows for any site you're logged into. This is more powerful than it sounds.

• "Log into Notion, go to my Sales Contacts database, and export it to CSV" → import to DenchClaw
• "Open HubSpot Companies, select all, export to CSV" → one-time migration
• "Go to my Intercom conversation list and export all conversations from Acme Corp to a text file"
• "Log into my bank and download the last 3 months of transactions as CSV"

The browser agent acts as a universal data exporter for every authenticated site you use. For one-time data migrations, it's faster than finding and configuring an official integration.

7. Inline Agent Commands in Table Cells#

In table view, you can prefix a cell value with !agent: to trigger an agent action instead of saving a literal value. This is an undocumented power-user pattern:

• In an email field: !agent:find email for Sarah Chen at Stripe → the agent looks up the email and fills it in
• In a notes field: !agent:summarize last 3 interactions with this company → the agent writes a summary
• In a custom field: !agent:calculate deal score based on company size and industry → the agent computes and fills

This turns table editing into a collaborative human-AI workflow where you're directing the agent cell by cell.

8. Workspace Docs as Agent Context#

The docs/ directory in your workspace isn't just storage — the agent reads files from it when they're relevant to a task.

Create files like:

• docs/icp.md — your ideal customer profile
• docs/pricing.md — your pricing tiers and packages
• docs/email-templates.md — standard email templates
• docs/outreach-playbook.md — your outreach sequence playbook

When you ask the agent to draft an outreach email, it reads docs/icp.md and docs/email-templates.md automatically. When you ask it to qualify a lead, it checks docs/icp.md against the lead's data.

Your workspace docs become the agent's working knowledge of your business.

9. Session Export for Team Sharing#

Agent conversations are stored as session files in ~/.openclaw-dench/workspace/.openclaw/. You can export a specific session — including all the context the agent gathered — and share it with a colleague.

openclaw session export --id [session-id] --output ~/Desktop/context-dump.json

A colleague who imports this context gets the full conversation history, the CRM state at that point in time, and any analysis the agent produced. Useful for:

• Handing off an account to a colleague
• Sharing a complex analysis workflow
• Onboarding a new team member with existing CRM context

10. The Workspace .env File for Configuration#

DenchClaw reads a .env file from your workspace root for configuration overrides. Most users don't know it exists.

# ~/.openclaw-dench/workspace/.env
 
# Custom port
OPENCLAW_PORT=19001
 
# Custom model for the agent
OPENCLAW_MODEL=anthropic/claude-3-5-sonnet-latest
 
# Webhook secret for security
WEBHOOK_SECRET=your-secret-here
 
# Custom workspace name shown in UI
WORKSPACE_NAME="My Sales CRM"
 
# Auto-backup location
BACKUP_PATH=/Users/you/Dropbox/denchclaw-backup/

The .env file is particularly useful for:

• Running on a non-default port (if 19001 is taken)
• Switching between different AI models for cost optimization
• Configuring backup behavior
• Setting environment variables that your action field scripts consume

Frequently Asked Questions#

How do I find other undocumented features?#

The most reliable path: read the OpenClaw source code on GitHub, browse the Discord #dev channel, or just experiment. The agent also knows about features you might not — ask it: "What are some less-known DenchClaw features I might not be using?"

Are these features stable or subject to change?#

The .object.yaml format, widget mode, and multi-profile support are core features that are stable. The inline !agent: cell prefix is more experimental. The session export format may evolve. Generally, features documented in the manifesto are stable; experimental patterns may change.

Can I contribute undocumented features I've discovered to the docs?#

Yes — the DenchClaw GitHub repo welcomes documentation contributions. Open a PR updating the relevant docs page or posting in the Discord #docs channel. The best documentation comes from users who discovered something useful and wrote it down.

Do any of these features require a specific DenchClaw version?#

Most require DenchClaw 1.0+. Widget mode and the workspace docs context feature were added in recent releases. Run npx denchclaw --version to check your version, and npx denchclaw@latest to upgrade to the newest release.

Ready to try DenchClaw? Install in one command: npx denchclaw. Full setup guide →