OpenClaw + Trello

Prerequisites

• OpenClaw running (see our deployment guide)
• A Trello account (free or paid)
• Access to boards you want to manage

Step 1: Get Your Trello API Key

1. Go to trello.com/app-key
2. Log in to your Trello account
3. Copy your API Key (visible at the top)

Step 2: Generate an API Token

1. On the same page, click Token link or manually generate:

   https://trello.com/1/authorize?expiration=never&scope=read,write&response_type=token&name=OpenClaw&key=YOUR_API_KEY

2. Click Allow to grant permissions
3. Copy the generated Token

Permission scopes:

• read — View boards, lists, cards
• write — Create and update cards

Configuration

Add the Trello channel to your OpenClaw config:

# In your openclaw config
channels:
  trello:
    enabled: true
    api_key: "YOUR_API_KEY"
    api_token: "YOUR_API_TOKEN"

Or via environment variables in your docker-compose.yml:

environment:
  - TRELLO_ENABLED=true
  - TRELLO_API_KEY=your_api_key
  - TRELLO_API_TOKEN=your_api_token

Step 3: Restart OpenClaw

docker compose restart openclaw

Verification

Try asking OpenClaw to interact with Trello:

"List my Trello boards"
"Show cards in my 'Inbox' list"
"Create a new card in 'To Do' called 'Review PR'"
"Add a comment to card 'Bug fix'"

Check logs for API calls:

docker compose logs -f openclaw | grep -i trello

Common Issues

Board not found: Ensure your token has access to the board. Team boards require team membership with the same account used to generate the token.

Permission denied: Regenerate your token with write scope if you need to create or modify cards.

Rate limits: Trello allows 300 requests per 10 seconds per API key. OpenClaw handles rate limiting automatically.

Token expiration: If you used expiration=never, your token won't expire. For temporary tokens, regenerate when they expire.