Guide 09 · OpenClaw Quickstart (EN)

OpenClaw Quickstart

Install OpenClaw, connect a model (Anthropic/OpenAI), and run your first session in 10–15 minutes.

⏱ 10–15 min 💻 macOS / Linux 🚀 First run

🦞

Using Saga via Seven Consult? Sven can handle the full installation for you. You don’t need to follow this guide — but it’s useful to understand what’s installed.

Prerequisites

🟢

Node.js 22+

Check: node --version

💻

macOS / Linux

Windows via WSL2

🔑

API key

Anthropic or OpenAI

Quickstart

Install Node.js 22

Check if you already have the right version with node --version. If it shows v22.x.x or higher, you’re good. Otherwise:

macOS (via Homebrew)

brew install node@22
node --version   # should show v22.x.x

Linux (via nvm (recommended))

# Install nvm
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.0/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc   # or ~/.zshrc

# Install and activate Node 22
nvm install 22
nvm use 22
node --version   # should show v22.x.x

Install OpenClaw

Use the install script — it’s the easiest method:

macOS / Linux (recommended)

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

Or via npm

npm install -g openclaw@latest

ℹ️

Verify the installation: openclaw --version

Run the onboarding wizard

OpenClaw has an interactive wizard that configures everything — API key, gateway, channels, and autostart:

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

The wizard will ask about:

🔑 API key — Anthropic (Claude) anbefales. See Guide 04
📁 Workspace directory — standardmappe er fint (~/.openclaw/workspace)
💬 Channels — Telegram and/or WhatsApp
⚙️ Daemon — install as a service (recommended — starts automatically)

Check that the gateway is running

openclaw gateway status

✓ Expected output

Gateway: running
Port: 18789
Uptime: just started

Open the web dashboard

OpenClaw includes a local web dashboard:

openclaw dashboard

Or open manually: http://127.0.0.1:18789/

🎉

If the dashboard opens, your gateway is running and ready. You can already chat with your assistant in the browser.

Useful commands

# Status
openclaw gateway status

# Restart gateway
openclaw gateway restart

# Follow logs
openclaw logs --follow

# Reconfigure
openclaw configure

# Run diagnostics
openclaw doctor

Configuration file

All configuration is stored in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json. You can edit it directly, but it’s easier to use openclaw configure.

⚠️

Security: Din API key gemmes i denne fil. Never commit this file to git. OpenClaw sørger automatisk for at filen kun kan læses af dig (chmod 600).

Autostart (service)

If you installed the service during onboarding, OpenClaw will start automatically. You can check/control it with:

# Linux (systemd)
systemctl --user status openclaw-gateway
systemctl --user restart openclaw-gateway

# macOS (LaunchAgent)
launchctl list | grep openclaw

← Previous

What is OpenClaw?

Connect Telegram