OpenClaw's installer is deceptively simple. One command, a handful of prompts, and you have a working AI assistant connected to Telegram. But getting there cleanly — especially if you haven't done it before — involves a few steps that trip people up.

This guide walks through the full process: installation, model configuration, Telegram connection, web search, and file access. Based on the official setup flow as of February 2026.

What You'll Need Before Starting

  • A Telegram account (to chat with your bot)
  • Node.js installed on your system (v22+)
  • Terminal access
  • An API key for your preferred AI provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, or Gemini)

You don't need to clone a repository, configure YAML files manually, or understand Docker. The installer handles the complexity.

Step 1: Install OpenClaw

Open your terminal and run:

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

The installer detects your operating system, verifies requirements, and handles everything automatically. When it finishes, you'll see a confirmation screen with your version details — and OpenClaw will launch an interactive terminal UI (TUI) for the setup process.

Step 2: Choose QuickStart Onboarding

The TUI will ask for your onboarding mode. Select QuickStart using the spacebar, then press Enter. This applies safe defaults so you can focus on getting the bot working rather than configuring every option.

Step 3: Select Your AI Model

OpenClaw supports multiple AI providers. At this step, you'll be asked to choose:

  • Anthropic (Claude) — Recommended for most users. Requires an API key from console.anthropic.com. Claude Sonnet is the default model.
  • OpenAI (GPT-4o) — Good fallback option.
  • Google Gemini — Available via OAuth login (no API key needed, but check Gemini's current ToS for third-party tool usage before selecting this).

For Claude: select Anthropic, paste your API key when prompted, and choose your model. The installer will show available models based on your API tier.

Step 4: Connect Telegram

After model setup, the installer will prompt you to configure a chat interface. Select Telegram.

Then:

  1. Open Telegram on your phone
  2. Search for @BotFather and start a chat
  3. Send /newbot and follow the prompts to name your bot
  4. Copy the bot token BotFather gives you
  5. Paste the token into the OpenClaw terminal prompt

Your OpenClaw instance is now connected to a Telegram bot you own.

Step 5: Configure Skills (Skip for Now)

The installer will ask about Skills — a folder of tools your bot can use for specific tasks. For a first setup, press spacebar on "Skip for now" and press Enter. You can add skills later once the base setup is working.

Step 6: Skip API Keys and Hooks

The next prompts ask about additional API keys (for things like web search) and hooks. Skip both for now — select No for API keys and skip hooks. We'll add web search separately in a moment.

Step 7: Choose Your Interface

OpenClaw offers two ways to interact:

TUI (Terminal User Interface) — Stays in your command line. Best for first-time setup because you get immediate feedback as your bot configures itself.

Control UI (Browser-Based) — A web dashboard that opens in your browser. Available at the URL shown in your terminal.

For first setup, choose Hatch in TUI. The bot will ask you a few personality questions: what it should call itself, what it should call you. Answer these and your bot confirms its setup with a personalized response.

Step 8: Connect via Telegram

Your bot is now running. To access it from your phone:

  1. Open the Telegram bot you created in Step 4
  2. Send /start
  3. Copy the configuration details the bot provides
  4. Paste them back into the conversation as instructed

Once confirmed, you can chat with your bot from Telegram — which means accessing it from anywhere, not just your terminal.

Test it with a simple message. Your bot should respond.

Adding Web Search

Out of the box, your bot can handle many tasks but will struggle with current information. To enable web search:

  1. Go to api.search.brave.com and get a free API key
  2. Ask your bot through Telegram: "How can I set up web search?"
  3. Follow the steps it provides — it will walk you through connecting the Brave Search API

Once configured, your bot can search the web in real-time. Test it by asking for recent news on any topic.

File Access

OpenClaw can read from and write to your filesystem. This is how you get it to research a topic and save the output, create markdown files, summarize documents, and more.

To test it, send a message like: "Research [topic] and save your findings to a markdown file." The bot will browse the web, compile what it finds, and write a .md file to your working directory — complete with sources.

This is also where the security considerations start to matter. See the next section.

A Note on Security

OpenClaw is powerful because it has real system access. That means it can do useful things like create files and execute commands — but it also means you should think about how you're running it.

A few basics for safe personal use:

Run on a dedicated machine or VPS, not your primary computer. If your bot has access to your main machine, it has access to everything on it. A separate $6/month VPS limits the blast radius if something goes wrong.

Don't connect real accounts initially. Use dedicated burner accounts for anything you connect (Gmail, GitHub, etc.) — accounts you could lose without significant impact. Your primary email, banking services, and work accounts should stay disconnected.

Keep the working directory scoped. Tell OpenClaw explicitly which directories it can use. Don't let it roam your entire filesystem.

Use a Telegram bot, not your personal Telegram. The bot token approach already does this — your personal account isn't exposed.

For a more thorough security setup, see our OpenClaw Security Hardening Guide.

What's Running Where

After setup, your OpenClaw installation:

  • Runs as a local process (or service if you configured a daemon)
  • Connects to Telegram via your bot token
  • Makes API calls to your chosen AI provider
  • Operates on whatever machine you installed it on

For 24/7 availability — so your bot keeps running when you close your laptop — you need either a VPS with the process running as a systemd service, or a managed deployment. That's where Remote OpenClaw comes in.

Links:

Want this running 24/7 without managing a server? Remote OpenClaw handles the VPS, systemd configuration, Telegram connection, and initial hardening — ready in under an hour. See the packages.