openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Feature] MCP server auth: expose custom-header configuration in openclaw.json (some servers require x-api-key, not Bearer) [1 comments, 2 participants]

TL;DR

Support for arbitrary authHeaders in MCP server configuration is needed to fix the authentication issue with non-Authorization: Bearer schemes.

Guidance

• Review the OpenClaw documentation to see if there's an existing configuration option for custom authentication headers that might have been missed.
• Consider modifying the openclaw.json configuration file to include an authHeaders map, as shown in the provided example, to declare custom authentication headers for the MCP server.
• If the issue persists, investigate the possibility of adding support for arbitrary authHeaders in the MCP server config, as requested.
• Verify that the mcp-lightrag package is correctly patched and that the cron job is running as expected to ensure temporary workaround stability.

Example

The provided openclaw.json configuration example demonstrates how to declare custom authentication headers:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "lightrag": {
        "url": "http://172.17.0.1:9621",
        "authHeaders": { "x-api-key": "${LIGHTRAG_API_KEY}" }
      }
    }
  }
}

Notes

The current workaround using a cron job to patch the mcp-lightrag package is not ideal and may introduce maintenance and compatibility issues.

Recommendation

Apply workaround by modifying the openclaw.json configuration file to include custom authentication headers, as this is a more targeted and less invasive solution than patching the downstream package.