The Rundown

In this guide you’ll learn how to install and set up your own autonomous agent using OpenClaw (formerly Clawdbot). OpenClaw gets smarter as you use it each day. After just three days our OpenClaw taught itself to generate images, respond to emails and deploy its own websites.

Note: This project was called "Moltbot" when we made this guide. It's since changed to "OpenClaw". When in doubt, you should check out the official docs here.

Who This Is Useful For

• Anyone with a laptop and an AI subscription
• Tinkerers trying to learn more about custom agents
• Those who want a proactive AI assistant

What You Will Build

My OpenClaw bot (named Botthew) designed and deployed this website where I can monitor his status. It even portrayed its sub-agents “Sandstorm” and “Crawler” without me asking it to do so.

What You Need to Get Started

• ChatGPT Plus (recommended) - $20/month
• • OR Google AI Pro (for Gemini + Nano Banana) - $20/month
  • OR Claude Pro - $20/month
• A Macbook (you can use Linux/Windows but Moltbot is tailored to Mac)

Security note: This is experimental, open source code. Do NOT install this on your primary computer. Ideally you should install Moltbot on a backup computer that’s been wiped clean. You don’t need to buy a Mac Mini, but we don’t want you to lose or expose important documents. If you ignore this warning and install to your primary Macbook, do a full time machine backup before you start.

Step 1

Before we get started grab these keys and add them to a notes file. You will need them during setup.

• Go register a free account with Brave and grab an API key. This will let your bot use search.
• Grab a fresh API key from OpenAI/Claude/Gemini.

Next, search for the user "BotFather" on Telegram and start a new chat.

Click “Create a New Bot” and give it a name and a handle that ends with “bot”.

Copy the unique key. Save it to your notes. You will need this during onboarding.

Step 2

Make sure you have Node installed and up to date. You will need node version 22 or higher to use Moltbot CLI.

Install the Moltbot CLI with:

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

Run the onboarding wizard with:

sudo openclaw onboard --install-daemon

Our Config Suggestions:

• Select “Quickstart”
• Select your AI provider and paste in your token
• Say yes to Brave search when prompted and paste your API key
• We recommend selecting Telegram as your “channel”. This is where you will message your bot.
• You can skip the Google places API info. That’s for things like weather updates.
• Select all the hooks. This helps the bot develop its memory each day.

Pro tip: Don’t get distracted. Skip all the frills and only install one skill at a time.

Step 3

After setup you will be taken right into the introduction wizard. You’re now talking with your OpenClaw bot!

Step 4

Search your bot’s username in Telegram. Send it a message. It will give you a pairing code.

Open up terminal and run this command with your pairing code in place of <CODE>:

openclaw pairing approve telegram <CODE>

Now you will be able to message your bot via Telegram!

Pro tip: You may have to try the clawdbot or moltbot command if openclaw doesn't work. That happened to us when we recorded this guide.

Going Further

• Give Moltbot a Gemini key from AI Studio. Ask it to use Nano Banana Pro to generate an avatar you can use in Telegram.

Here’s what we got!

• Tell it to give you a report at 7AM each morning with the weather and what its goal for the day is. Botthew also sends me a link to a new jazz fusion song each morning!
• You can connect your Gmail to have OpenClaw bot monitor your inbox, but we found it easier to set it up with a free agentmail inbox and forward mail to it!
• Once your Moltbot has an email you can sign it up for Github. This unlocks the ability for it to deploy websites via Github Pages!