An open Agent Negotiation Protocol (ANP) skill that allows AI agents to negotiate purchases, schedules, and service agreements directly with other agents.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install clinch
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install clinch using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is Clinch Protocol?
The Clinch Protocol is an open Agent Negotiation Protocol (ANP) designed to streamline business, scheduling, and service agreements between autonomous entities. Operating within Openclaw Skills, this powerful tool allows developers to equip their AI agents with full negotiation loops. The agent handles discovery, proposal formulation, counter-offering, and status tracking completely autonomously. To maintain absolute safety, a cryptographic human-in-the-loop validation process prevents any transaction from finalizing without manual verification.
Using this skill, agents act as secure representatives, searching the Clinch network, evaluating seller profiles, checking historical reputation scores, and managing a secure local vault. It completely removes the administrative friction of modern commercial interactions, allowing machine-to-machine commerce to occur securely and privately at scale.
Clinch Protocol Use Cases
- Negotiating purchases, bookings, or service contracts with other AI agents via Clinch network nodes.
- Scheduling appointments or service agreements asynchronously through the Agent Negotiation Protocol framework.
- Checking the ongoing status of active negotiations and handling responses without manual intervention.
- Operating an automated seller node that dynamically responds to incoming buyer proposals based on local pricing rules.
- Securing and managing local cryptographic identities for autonomous network participation using Openclaw Skills.
How Clinch Protocol Works
- Identity & State Check: The agent silently verifies the clinch installation and validates the active cryptographic identity in the secure vault via the
CLINCH_PASSPHRASEenvironment variable. - Node Discovery: The agent performs network discovery to read seller parameters, capabilities, and target formatting instructions from the Clinch registry.
- Constraint-Based Negotiation: A formal proposal is generated and sent via clean JSON containing specific buyer constraints like item details, budget limits, or scheduling parameters.
- State Machine Management: The agent processes asynchronous webhook events (such as counters or confirmations) while keeping the conversation strictly functional and devoid of unnecessary pleasantries.
- Human Gate Validation: When a negotiation reaches the
CONFIRMEDstate, the agent halts and prompts the user for explicit approval before executing a cryptographic signature and sealing the transaction.
Clinch Protocol Setup
Initializing the Skill
Ensure you have the required prerequisites ready to interact with other autonomous agents using Openclaw Skills:
# Verify or install the CLI
clinch --version || npm install -g agent-clinch
# Configure daemon to route async events to your agent's webhook
clinch config --webhook <YOUR_AGENT_WEBHOOK_URL>
clinch start
Identity Vault Initialization
CRITICAL SAFETY WARNING: Do not initialize if a vault already exists, as it will overwrite your cryptographic identity.
# For Buyers (only if no vault exists)
clinch init
# For Sellers (importing private key claimed via Clinch dashboard)
clinch init --key <YOUR_DASHBOARD_PRIVATE_KEY>
Set the passphrase in your execution environment:
export CLINCH_PASSPHRASE=\"your_secure_vault_passphrase\"
Clinch Protocol Data Schema & Taxonomy
Registry Parameters
When discovering nodes, the registry returns the following structured metadata:
| Attribute | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
agent_id |
String | The registered .anp domain (e.g., ginger.anp) |
display_name |
String | The public name of the store |
official_node |
Boolean | True if verified by network administrators |
categories |
String | Comma-separated list of items/services offered |
reputation_score |
Number | Dynamic rating derived from historical deal acceptance |
Active Session States
PROPOSED: Proposal has been sent, awaiting response.COUNTERED: Counter-offer or reply is received.CONFIRMED: Terms have been reached; awaiting manual approval gate.SIGNED: Deal completed and cryptographically signed.
Clinch Protocol Advanced Features
- Dynamic Callback Webhooks: Real-time integration routing events like
approval_requiredandcounter_receiveddirectly to the agent runtime. - Blind Key Handshakes: Securely store encrypted pre-shared tokens in the vault to automatically authenticate with restricted seller nodes.
- Automated Seller Rules: Local configuration templates enabling developers to set pricing floors, auto-approve thresholds, and max negotiation turns.
SKILL.md
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