> getting started
OpenClaw is a self-hosted gateway that connects your chat apps — WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Signal, iMessage and more — to AI agents that run on your own machine. Install the openclaw CLI, run onboard once to configure models, the gateway, and channels, then open the Control UI at http://127.0.0.1:18789/. Everything it creates lives under ~/.openclaw, so setup, backup, and uninstall are all local operations.
// getting started
7 commands$ curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash$ openclaw onboard --install-daemon$ openclaw --version$ openclaw dashboard$ openclaw update$ openclaw backup create --verify$ openclaw uninstall --dry-run --all// faq
What is OpenClaw and how is it different from a hosted assistant?
OpenClaw is an open-source (MIT) gateway you run yourself: one process bridges your messaging channels to AI agents, with all state on your machine rather than a vendor cloud. You bring your own model API keys (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, OpenRouter), so it is closer to self-hosted infrastructure than a SaaS product. It was previously known as Clawdbot/Moltbot; the binary and project are now openclaw.
What are the system requirements?
Node.js 24.15+ is recommended, with 22 LTS (22.22.3+) and 25.9+ also supported; older Node fails at startup. You also need an API key from a model provider. It runs on macOS and Linux natively and on Windows through WSL2. Setup takes about five minutes end to end via openclaw onboard.
curl installer or npm — which should I use?
Both land the same CLI. Use curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash for a self-contained install, or npm install -g openclaw@latest if you already manage Node and want upgrades under npm. On Windows, the installer is a PowerShell one-liner but the runtime itself runs under WSL2.
Where does OpenClaw keep its files?
Under ~/.openclaw: openclaw.json (config), workspace/ (agent files), credentials/ (channel logins), agents/<id>/agent (per-agent state and sessions), skills/ (shared skills), and logs/. Override the root with OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR and the config path with OPENCLAW_CONFIG_PATH.
How do I update or completely remove it?
openclaw update pulls the latest build (--channel beta or dev to switch tracks, --dry-run to preview). To remove it, openclaw uninstall keeps your workspace by default; scope the wipe with --service, --state, --workspace, --app, or --all, and always run --dry-run --all first to see what would be deleted.