Getting Started with OpenClaw

This guide walks through installing OpenClaw on a VPS and getting the gateway running. Once set up, you can connect messaging channels like Telegram and interact with your agent from anywhere.

1. Prerequisites

• A VPS running Ubuntu 20.04+ or Debian 10+
• Node.js 24 (recommended) or Node 22.16+ LTS
• An API key from your preferred AI provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.)

2. Install Node.js

# Install Node.js 24 via nvm
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
nvm install 24
nvm use 24
node --version

3. Install OpenClaw

npm i -g openclaw

yarn global add openclaw

pnpm add -g openclaw

bun add -g openclaw

deno add npm:-g openclaw

Verify the installation:

openclaw --version

4. Run the onboarding wizard

The onboarding wizard configures your API keys, gateway auth, and messaging channels in one go:

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

The wizard will ask for:

• Your AI provider and API key
• A gateway auth token (auto-generated if you skip)
• Which messaging channels to connect (you can skip these and add them later)

5. Start the gateway

If you skipped daemon install, start the gateway manually:

openclaw gateway start

Check status:

openclaw gateway status

The dashboard runs at http://127.0.0.1:18789/. Access it via SSH tunnel if you’re on a remote server:

# On your local machine
ssh -L 18789:127.0.0.1:18789 user@your-vps-ip

Then open http://127.0.0.1:18789/ in your browser.

6. Configure AI provider

If you want to change or add a provider after onboarding, edit ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

{
  "agents": {
    "main": {
      "model": {
        "provider": "anthropic",
        "id": "claude-sonnet-4-5-20251001"
      }
    }
  }
}

Set your API key as an environment variable or add it to the config:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Restart the gateway after any config change:

openclaw gateway restart

7. Key directories

Next steps

• Connect Telegram to chat with your agent from your phone
• Custom Plugins to extend the agent with your own tools