Mobile Development 5 min read

Deploy OpenClaw on Android via Termux and ADB – A Step‑by‑Step Guide

This guide walks through installing Termux, Ubuntu, and OpenClaw on a Xiaomi Android phone, configuring developer options, connecting via ADB, installing the burner‑phone skill, capturing screenshots, and attempting click actions, while highlighting limitations when click debugging is unavailable.

BirdNest Tech Talk

Feb 22, 2026

Deploy OpenClaw on Android via Termux and ADB – A Step‑by‑Step Guide

Environment Setup

Install ADB on Ubuntu

Open a terminal and run the package manager commands to install the Android Debug Bridge:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install android-tools-adb

Configure a Xiaomi phone for ADB

Open Settings → My Device → All parameters and tap the MIUI/澎湃 OS version repeatedly until Developer mode is enabled.

Navigate to Settings → More Settings → Developer options .

Toggle USB debugging on.

Enabling USB debugging also grants permission for mock‑click debugging, which is required for OpenClaw’s click actions.

Connect the phone via USB and select the File Transfer (MTP) mode.

Connection and Verification

In the terminal execute adb devices. The phone displays a dialog asking to authorize the computer; tap OK .

If the command output contains a line ending with device, the ADB link is active.

Verify the connection by listing a few installed packages:

adb shell pm list packages | head -5
package:com.android.camera
package:com.miui.daemon
package:com.iflytek.inputmethod.miui
package:com.android.updater
package:com.miui.powerkeeper

OpenClaw Operations on the Phone

Install the Android‑ADB skill

Start OpenClaw’s text UI and install the skill from its GitHub repository:

openclaw tui
install skill: https://github.com/SouthpawIN/burner-phone

If OpenClaw cannot install directly from a URL, use the CLI helper:

npx skills install https://github.com/SouthpawIN/burner-phone
cp -r ~/.agents/skills/burner-phone .openclaw/skills/

For safety, perform these steps on a retired device that contains no personal data.

Using ADB for Screenshots

Capture the current screen and pipe the image to OpenClaw for visual analysis: adb exec-out screencap -p > screen.png Upload screen.png to OpenClaw; the model returns a description of the UI elements.

Analyzing the Screenshot and Attempting a Click

The user tried to issue a natural‑language command such as “click ‘Two girls help an elderly …’” to retrieve a news article. The screenshot was parsed correctly, but the phone could not execute the click because the Xiaomi device lacked a SIM card, which prevented the system‑level “click debugging” feature from being enabled. Consequently, the click action failed while the visual analysis succeeded.

Opening Applications via OpenClaw

OpenClaw can launch apps without requiring click debugging. For example, the following command opened the Douyin app and returned a screenshot of the running UI:

Other apps, such as Pinduoduo, can also be opened. The screenshot below shows a search for a regional food item (a type of mantou) in the e‑commerce app. Because click debugging remained disabled, no further interaction (e.g., selecting a result) was possible.