---
summary: "How session ownership and presence work when several people operate one agent"
read_when:
  - You share one OpenClaw agent with other operators
  - You need to understand session owner and presence indicators
  - You are deciding whether one shared agent provides enough isolation
title: "Multi-user mode"
---

Multi-user mode lets several trusted people operate the same OpenClaw agent. It adds session ownership, live presence, and creator filtering so a team can tell who started work and who is currently watching it.

## Trust boundary

Everyone who can operate an agent can make it do anything that agent can do. Session ownership, visibility in the sidebar, and presence indicators are usability features, not security boundaries.

If people must not access each other's sessions, tools, credentials, or files, give them separate agents or separate gateway/host trust boundaries. Do not rely on owner avatars or filters for isolation.

## Ownership and presence

New sessions record a write-once `createdActor` when the creation path can prove who caused it. Authenticated people use their durable Gateway profile id; requesting agents and system paths use the same actor field. Sessions created without a proven actor remain unattributed.

Human display names are resolved from the current Gateway profile when session rows are returned. OpenClaw does not store labels on session entries, so changing a profile name updates the ownership UI without rewriting session history.

The web app keeps ownership and presence visually distinct:

- A solid owner avatar is permanent for the lifetime of that session.
- Ringed or translucent presence avatars show people who are currently connected or watching.
- The sidebar's person filter shows sessions created by one identity while preserving the existing custom groups.

When fewer than two distinct creators appear in the loaded session list, OpenClaw hides all ownership and person-filter chrome. A single-user gateway therefore looks unchanged.

## Identity-scoped convenience state

When a connection has a durable Gateway profile, new-session preferences and picker recents follow that person across browsers. Preferences remain per agent, while recents are derived only from sessions that person created. Connections without a durable identity keep browser-local preferences and derive recents from the loaded session roster.

This state improves continuity; it is not an authorization or isolation boundary. Operator scopes still control actions, and a shared Gateway remains one trust domain for sessions, tools, credentials, and files.

## Drafts

Start a session as a draft to keep work in progress out of teammates' sidebars until you publish it. Drafts are never hidden from admins, who see other people's drafts with a faded ghost marker. This is a coordination feature, not a security boundary.

## Turn attribution

Turn sender attribution is best-effort. Steering can merge input into an active turn, so the transcript cannot always represent each person's contribution as a separate turn.

## Related

- [The main session](/concepts/main-session)
- [Session management](/concepts/session)
- [Presence](/concepts/presence)
- [Gateway security](/gateway/security)
