Getting Began with OpenClaw and Connecting It with WhatsApp

OpenClaw is a self-hosted private AI assistant that runs by yourself units and communicates via the apps you already use—resembling WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, and extra. It could possibly reply questions, automate duties, work together along with your information and providers, and even converse or hear on supported units, all whereas conserving you accountable for your knowledge.

Slightly 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 undertaking has surged in reputation, crossing 150,000+ stars on GitHub. On this article, we’ll stroll via the best way 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 utilize cloud or native AI fashions of your selection, handle notes and duties, management music and good residence units, set off automations, and even work together with information, 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 stay 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 every little thing collectively below 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 fast begin information. OpenClaw helps macOS, Home windows, and Linux, and supplies 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.cmd

After 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 information 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 following step is to decide on an LLM supplier. OpenClaw helps a number of suppliers, together with OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Minimax, and others.

After deciding on your supplier, you’ll be prompted to enter the corresponding API key. As soon as the secret is verified, you possibly can select the precise mannequin you wish to use. On this setup, we’ll be utilizing GPT-5.1.

Including Expertise

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 talent folders to show the assistant the best way to work with totally different instruments and providers.

Every talent 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 out there binaries.

OpenClaw additionally helps ClawHub, a light-weight talent registry. When enabled, the agent can mechanically seek for related expertise and set up them on demand.

One other widespread choice is https://skills.sh/. You possibly can merely seek for the talent you want, copy the supplied command, and ask the agent to run it. As soon as executed, the brand new talent is added and instantly out there to OpenClaw.

Configuring the Chat Channel

The ultimate step is to configure the channel the place you wish to run the agent. On this walkthrough, we’ll use WhatsApp. Throughout setup, OpenClaw will ask on your telephone quantity after which show a QR code. Scanning this QR code hyperlinks your WhatsApp account to OpenClaw.

As soon as linked, you possibly can message OpenClaw from WhatsApp—or another supported chat app—and it’ll reply straight in the identical dialog.

As soon as the setup is full, OpenClaw will open a neighborhood internet web page in your browser with a singular gateway token. Make sure that to maintain this token secure and useful, as it will likely be required later.

Operating OpenClaw Gateway

Subsequent, we’ll begin the OpenClaw Gateway, which acts because the management aircraft for OpenClaw. The Gateway runs a WebSocket server that manages channels, nodes, classes, and hooks.

To begin the Gateway, run the next command:

As soon as the Gateway is operating, refresh the sooner native internet web page that displayed the token. It will 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 achieved, you can begin utilizing OpenClaw both from the chat interface within the Gateway dashboard or by messaging the bot straight on WhatsApp.

Notice that OpenClaw responds to messages despatched to your self on WhatsApp, so be sure you’re chatting with your personal quantity when testing the setup.