How to Set Up OpenClaw: A Complete Beginner’s Guide

OpenClaw is one of the most exciting AI tools I’ve come across — but getting started can feel a little daunting if you’ve never run something like this before. This guide walks you through the entire setup process from scratch, step by step, no prior experience needed.

By the end, you’ll have OpenClaw running on your machine with an AI assistant you can message from your phone or desktop — that can actually do things on your behalf.

What You’ll Need Before You Start

Before installing OpenClaw, make sure you have the following:

• A computer — Mac, Windows, or Linux all work. Mac is the smoothest experience.
• Node.js installed — Node 24 is recommended. Check if you have it by opening a terminal and typing node --version. If nothing comes back, you’ll need to install it (free download at nodejs.org).
• An AI provider API key — OpenClaw connects to AI models like Claude (Anthropic), ChatGPT (OpenAI), or Gemini (Google). You’ll need an API key from at least one of these. Anthropic’s Claude is what I use and recommend. Sign up at console.anthropic.com and grab an API key.
• A Telegram account (optional but highly recommended) — It’s the easiest way to chat with your agent from your phone.

Step 1: Install OpenClaw

Open a terminal on your computer (on Mac: press Cmd + Space, type Terminal, hit Enter) and run this single command:

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

Windows users: Open PowerShell and run:

iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex

This downloads and installs the OpenClaw CLI. It only takes a minute or two. You’ll see some output scroll past — that’s normal. Wait for it to finish.

Step 2: Run the Setup Wizard

Once installed, run the onboarding wizard:

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

This is the most important step. The wizard will ask you a few questions:

1. Choose your AI model provider — Select Anthropic (Claude) if you’re following this guide.
2. Enter your API key — Paste the API key you got from Anthropic (or whichever provider you chose). It won’t show as you type — that’s a security feature.
3. Choose a model — Select claude-sonnet-4-5 or the latest recommended option. Claude Sonnet is a great balance of speed and intelligence.
4. Install as a background service — Say yes. This means OpenClaw starts automatically when your computer boots up.

The wizard takes about 2 minutes. Once it’s done, your OpenClaw Gateway is running in the background.

Step 3: Verify It’s Running

Check that everything is working:

openclaw gateway status

You should see something like “Gateway is running on port 18789”. If you see that, you’re in great shape.

Step 4: Open the Dashboard

OpenClaw comes with a web-based Control UI you can open in your browser:

openclaw dashboard

This opens a browser dashboard where you can chat with your AI assistant, manage settings, view sessions, and more. Go ahead and type a message — you should get an AI response within a few seconds. If you do, everything is working!

Step 5: Connect Telegram (So You Can Chat from Your Phone)

The real magic happens when you can message your AI agent from your phone, just like texting a friend. Telegram is the easiest channel to set up.

Create a Telegram Bot

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
2. Send the message: /newbot
3. Give your bot a name (e.g. My AI Assistant)
4. Give it a username ending in bot (e.g. myassistant_bot)
5. BotFather will give you a token — it looks like: 1234567890:ABCDefGhijklMNOpqrSTUvwxYZ. Copy it.

Add the Bot Token to OpenClaw

Open the OpenClaw config file. On Mac/Linux it’s at ~/.openclaw/config.yaml. You can edit it with any text editor. Add your Telegram bot token under the channels section — the onboarding wizard may have already guided you through this, or you can add it manually:

channels:
  telegram:
    token: "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN_HERE"

Save the file, then restart the gateway:

openclaw gateway restart

Now open Telegram, find your bot, and send it a message. You should get a response from your AI agent! 🎉

Step 6: Personalise Your Agent

By default your agent is a general-purpose assistant. But one of OpenClaw’s best features is that you can give your agent a persistent identity, memory, and specific instructions.

In your OpenClaw workspace folder (usually ~/.openclaw/workspace/) you’ll find or can create these files:

• SOUL.md — Define your agent’s personality and tone. Who are they? How should they communicate?
• MEMORY.md — Long-term memory. Write down context you want the agent to always know — your name, your projects, your preferences.
• USER.md — Information about you, the human. Your name, timezone, contact details.

For example, a simple SOUL.md might look like:

# My Agent

You are a sharp, helpful personal assistant.
Be concise. Skip filler phrases like "Great question!"
You help me manage my projects and stay on top of my day.

The more context you give your agent, the more useful it becomes.

Step 7: Explore What It Can Do

Once you’re up and running, here are some things to try asking your agent:

• “Search the web for the latest news on [topic] and summarise it for me”
• “Look at this website and tell me what it does” [paste a URL]
• “Write me a professional email to [person] about [topic]”
• “Read the file at [path] and tell me what’s in it”
• “Check the weather in Sydney tomorrow”

As you get comfortable, you can explore Skills — modular add-ons that extend what your agent can do (GitHub integration, Notion, weather, and more). These are available at clawhub.ai.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

“Command not found: openclaw”

Close your terminal and open a new one. If it still doesn’t work, the install script may not have updated your PATH. Try running npm install -g openclaw@latest as an alternative install method.

“Gateway not running”

Run openclaw gateway start to start it manually. If it fails, check that your API key is correct in your config file.

Telegram bot isn’t responding

Double-check your bot token is correct in the config file. Make sure you restarted the gateway after adding it. Also confirm the gateway is running with openclaw gateway status.

Where to Get Help

The OpenClaw community is active and welcoming. If you get stuck:

• Official docs: docs.openclaw.ai
• Community Discord: discord.com/invite/clawd
• GitHub: github.com/openclaw/openclaw

You’re All Set!

Setting up OpenClaw takes about 10–15 minutes from scratch if you’ve never done anything like this before. Once it’s running, you’ll wonder how you managed without it.

Start simple — just chat with it. Ask it questions, give it tasks. The more you use it, the more you’ll discover what it can do. And if you want to talk about how to get more out of AI tools for your work or business, feel free to reach out — it’s kind of my thing.

— Chris