OpenClaw is a self-hosted private AI assistant that runs by yourself units and communicates by means of the apps you already use—akin to WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, and extra. It may well reply questions, automate duties, work together along with your recordsdata and companies, and even converse or hear on supported units, all whereas retaining you answerable for your information.
Quite than being simply one other chatbot, OpenClaw acts as a real private assistant that matches into your each day workflow. In only a few months, this open-source venture has surged in reputation, crossing 150,000+ stars on GitHub. On this article, we’ll stroll by means of methods to get began with OpenClaw and join it to WhatsApp.
What can OpenClaw do?
OpenClaw is constructed to suit seamlessly into your present digital life. It connects with 50+ integrations, letting you chat along with your assistant from apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, or Discord, whereas controlling and automating duties out of your desktop. You should use cloud or native AI fashions of your alternative, handle notes and duties, management music and sensible residence units, set off automations, and even work together with recordsdata, browsers, and APIs—all from a single assistant you personal.
Past chat, OpenClaw acts as a strong automation and productiveness hub. It really works with widespread instruments like Notion, Obsidian, GitHub, Spotify, Gmail, and Residence Assistants, helps voice interplay and a reside visible Canvas, and runs throughout macOS, Home windows, Linux, iOS, and Android. Whether or not you’re scheduling duties, controlling units, producing content material, or automating workflows, OpenClaw brings all the things collectively beneath one non-public, extensible AI assistant.
Putting in OpenClaw
You possibly can head over to openclaw.ai to entry the code and comply with the short begin information. OpenClaw helps macOS, Home windows, and Linux, and offers a easy one-liner that installs Node.js together with all required dependencies for you:
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/set up.cmd -o set up.cmd && set up.cmd && del set up.cmdAfter operating the command, OpenClaw will information you thru an onboarding course of. Throughout setup, you’ll see security-related warnings explaining that the assistant can entry native recordsdata and execute actions. That is anticipated conduct—since OpenClaw is designed to behave autonomously, it additionally highlights the significance of staying cautious about prompts and permissions.
Configuring the LLM
As soon as the setup is full, the subsequent step is to decide on an LLM supplier. OpenClaw helps a number of suppliers, together with OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Minimax, and others.
After choosing your supplier, you’ll be prompted to enter the corresponding API key. As soon as the bottom line is verified, you’ll be able to select the particular mannequin you need to use. On this setup, we’ll be utilizing GPT-5.1.
Including Abilities
Throughout configuration, OpenClaw additionally allows you to add expertise, which outline what the agent can do past primary dialog. OpenClaw makes use of AgentSkills-compatible ability folders to show the assistant methods to work with totally different instruments and companies.
Every ability lives in its personal listing and features a SKILL.md file with YAML frontmatter and utilization directions. By default, OpenClaw masses bundled expertise and any native overrides, then filters them at startup primarily based in your atmosphere, configuration, and accessible binaries.
OpenClaw additionally helps ClawHub, a light-weight ability registry. When enabled, the agent can mechanically seek for related expertise and set up them on demand.
One other widespread possibility is https://expertise.sh/. You possibly can merely seek for the ability you want, copy the supplied command, and ask the agent to run it. As soon as executed, the brand new ability is added and instantly accessible to OpenClaw.
Configuring the Chat Channel
The ultimate step is to configure the channel the place you need to run the agent. On this walkthrough, we’ll use WhatsApp. Throughout setup, OpenClaw will ask to your cellphone quantity after which show a QR code. Scanning this QR code hyperlinks your WhatsApp account to OpenClaw.
As soon as related, you’ll be able to message OpenClaw from WhatsApp—or every other supported chat app—and it’ll reply instantly in the identical dialog.
As soon as the setup is full, OpenClaw will open an area net web page in your browser with a novel gateway token. Be sure that to maintain this token protected and helpful, as will probably be required later.
Operating OpenClaw Gateway
Subsequent, we’ll begin the OpenClaw Gateway, which acts because the management airplane for OpenClaw. The Gateway runs a WebSocket server that manages channels, nodes, periods, and hooks.
To start out the Gateway, run the next command:
As soon as the Gateway is operating, refresh the sooner native net web page that displayed the token. This can open the OpenClaw Gateway dashboard.
From the dashboard, navigate to the Overview part and enter the Gateway token you saved earlier to finish the connection.
As soon as that is performed, you can begin utilizing OpenClaw both from the chat interface within the Gateway dashboard or by messaging the bot instantly on WhatsApp.
Word that OpenClaw responds to messages despatched to your self on WhatsApp, so ensure you’re chatting with your personal quantity when testing the setup.
I’m a Civil Engineering Graduate (2022) from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and I’ve a eager curiosity in Knowledge Science, particularly Neural Networks and their software in numerous areas.
