AI Assistants

OpenClaw Setup Guide for Beginners

OpenClaw (formerly known as Clawdbot and Moltbot) is the open-source AI assistant with 153k+ GitHub stars. This beginner-friendly guide gets you running in under an hour.

Updated January 2026 • Latest OpenClaw version

Aravind Srinivas

Founder & CEO, HyperNest Labs

What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is an AI assistant that runs on your machine (or cloud) and connects to everything: email, calendar, chat apps, browser, and more. Think of it as ChatGPT that can actually do things - schedule meetings, draft emails, order groceries.

You might have heard of it as Clawdbot (the original name) or Moltbot (December 2025). It was renamed to OpenClaw in January 2026 due to trademark considerations.

Step 1: Prerequisites

Step 2: Install OpenClaw

Open your terminal and run:

npm install -g @anthropic/openclaw

This installs OpenClaw globally so you can run it from anywhere.

Step 3: Run Setup Wizard

openclaw init

The wizard will guide you through:

  1. 1.Entering your Anthropic API key
  2. 2.Setting your name and timezone
  3. 3.Choosing which integrations to enable

Step 4: Start OpenClaw

openclaw start

That's it! OpenClaw is now running. Connect your chat apps to start talking to your AI assistant.

Next Steps

Connect WhatsApp →

Chat with OpenClaw from your phone.

Connect Gmail & Calendar →

Manage email and schedule meetings.

Build Custom Skills →

Extend OpenClaw for your workflow.

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