OpenClaw Quickstart Setup

Production-tested setup flow for OpenClaw/Moltbot. Every step comes from real deployments — not theory.

Prerequisites Check

node --version  # Needs 22.16+ (24 recommended)
npm --version

If Node is too old: nvm install 24

Step 1: Install & Initialize

npm i -g openclaw
openclaw init

Step 2: Security Hardening (DO THIS FIRST)

Bind to localhost (prevent public exposure)

// openclaw.json
{
  "gateway": {
    "bind": "127.0.0.1"
  }
}

Why: CVE-2026-25253 ("Clawbleed") exploited default 0.0.0.0 binding. 63% of 42K+ exposed instances had zero auth. This is literally 30 seconds of work.

Enable authentication

{
  "gateway": {
    "auth": true
  }
}

For remote access: Use Tailscale. Never expose directly.

Step 3: Cost-Effective Model Routing

The biggest money-saver. Route simple tasks to cheap models, reserve expensive ones for complex reasoning:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "primary": "deepseek/deepseek-chat",
        "fallbacks": ["nvidia/nemotron-nano-12b-v2"]
      },
      "imageModel": {
        "primary": "moonshotai/kimi-k2.5"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cost comparison (monthly for moderate use):

• All Claude Opus: ~$420/month
• All GPT-5.4: ~$300/month
• Routed (DeepSeek + Kimi + fallback): ~$15-30/month
• Savings: 70-90%

Task-based routing in prompts

For simple tasks (formatting, lists, translations): use default model
For complex reasoning (debugging, architecture, analysis): use /model command to switch
For vision/image tasks: uses imageModel automatically

Step 4: Channel Connection

Telegram (most popular)

1. Message @BotFather on Telegram
2. /newbot → get API token
3. Configure:

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "adapter": "telegram",
      "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"
    }
  }
}

WhatsApp (via WA CLI)

openclaw skills install wacli

Follow WA CLI skill instructions for QR code pairing.

Discord

{
  "channels": {
    "discord": {
      "adapter": "discord",
      "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN"
    }
  }
}

Step 5: Starter Workflows

Daily Brief (cron)

{
  "cron": [{
    "name": "daily-brief",
    "schedule": {"kind": "cron", "expr": "0 8 * * *", "tz": "UTC"},
    "sessionTarget": "main",
    "payload": {"kind": "systemEvent", "text": "DAILY BRIEF: Check email, calendar, weather. Summarize priorities."}
  }]
}

Email Triage (via Maton)

# Install Maton skill for Gmail/Outlook access
openclaw skills install maton

Heartbeat (periodic self-check)

{
  "cron": [{
    "name": "heartbeat",
    "schedule": {"kind": "every", "everyMs": 1800000},
    "sessionTarget": "main",
    "payload": {"kind": "systemEvent", "text": "HEARTBEAT: Read HEARTBEAT.md. Execute priority tasks."}
  }]
}

Step 6: Memory Setup

MEMORY.md (long-term memory)

• Keep under 20K chars (silently truncated above that)
• Distilled wisdom, not raw logs

Daily notes (raw logs)

memory/YYYY-MM-DD.md

Compaction warning

Default compaction mode "safeguard" silently fails above 180K tokens. Enable active memory if you want automatic context pulls.

Common Issues & Fixes

ClawHub Safety

⚠️ 20%+ of ClawHub skills are malicious (per the founder). 1,184+ confirmed malicious skills since January 2026. Snyk found 36% have prompt injection patterns.

Protection:

{
  "skills": {
    "allowListOnly": true
  }
}

Only install skills you've verified. Check publisher GitHub repos. Never paste install commands from SKILL.md without reading them first.

Verification

After setup, confirm everything works:

openclaw gateway status    # Should show "running"
openclaw skills list       # Should show installed skills

Send a test message through your connected channel. If the agent responds — you're live.