GoPlaces — OpenClaw Skill

What This Skill Does

The GoPlaces skill gives your OpenClaw agent access to the Google Places API (New) through the goplaces CLI. Your agent can search for businesses and points of interest using natural language queries, filter results by minimum rating or open-now status, get detailed place information including reviews, resolve ambiguous location names to specific places, and output everything as human-readable text or structured JSON.

This is especially useful for personal assistant workflows. Ask your agent to find the best-rated coffee shops near your office, check if a restaurant is open right now, read reviews for a dentist you're considering, or compare pizza places within walking distance. The CLI supports geographic biasing with latitude, longitude, and radius parameters, so results are always relevant to your location.

GoPlaces uses the modern Google Places API (New), which offers improved search quality over the legacy API. It pairs well with the Food Order skill for placing orders at discovered restaurants, and the Slack skill for sharing recommendations with teammates.

Example Prompts

Find the top 5 coffee shops near downtown Austin that are open right now and rated 4+ stars

Get the details and reviews for the Italian restaurant called "Carbone" in New York

Search for co-working spaces within 2km of my office at 40.7,-73.9

Resolve "Soho, London" and show me the top 5 matching places

Find sushi restaurants near me and give me the results as JSON so I can compare prices

What are the highest-rated veterinarians in Houston? Show me their ratings, addresses, and hours

Requirements

Binary dependency: goplaces

• macOS: brew install steipete/tap/goplaces
• API key: GOOGLE_PLACES_API_KEY environment variable (required)
• Google Cloud: Enable the Places API (New) in your Google Cloud Console

Setup on KiwiClaw

GoPlaces is pre-installed on all KiwiClaw tenant machines. Add your GOOGLE_PLACES_API_KEY in the KiwiClaw dashboard under environment variables. The agent will immediately be able to search for places, get details, and read reviews.

Setup Self-Hosted

1. Install GoPlaces: brew install steipete/tap/goplaces
2. Get a Google Places API key from the Google Cloud Console
3. Enable the Places API (New) in your project
4. Set the key: export GOOGLE_PLACES_API_KEY="your-key-here"
5. Test: goplaces search "coffee" --limit 3

Related Skills

• Food Order -- order food from restaurants discovered via GoPlaces
• Weather -- check weather conditions at locations you're researching
• Slack -- share place recommendations with your team
• Bear Notes -- save restaurant and venue research to Bear

FAQ

What can the GoPlaces skill do in OpenClaw?

GoPlaces lets your OpenClaw agent search for businesses and places using text queries, filter by rating and open-now status, get detailed place information including reviews, resolve ambiguous location names, and output results as JSON for further processing.

Does GoPlaces require a Google API key?

Yes. GoPlaces requires a GOOGLE_PLACES_API_KEY environment variable. You can get one from the Google Cloud Console by enabling the Places API (New). See our self-hosting cost guide for API pricing details.

Can GoPlaces search near a specific location?

Yes. Use the --lat, --lng, and --radius-m flags to bias search results toward a specific geographic area. This is useful for finding restaurants, shops, or services near a particular address.

Is the GoPlaces skill safe to use?

The GoPlaces skill has been security-vetted by KiwiClaw. It only makes read-only queries to the Google Places API. Your API key is stored locally and never shared with third parties.