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The Complete OpenClaw Tutorial: From Install to Full Automation in 30 Minutes

Stop reading about what OpenClaw can do. This is the hands-on guide where you actually build automations -- email triage, calendar briefings, messaging bots, and custom workflows. Follow along and have a working AI agent in 30 minutes.

This tutorial takes you from a fresh OpenClaw install to a working personal AI agent with email triage, calendar briefings, messaging automation, and a custom workflow. No theory. No "what if." Just step-by-step commands you can copy and run right now.

By the end, you'll have an agent that summarizes your email every morning, tells you what's on your calendar, responds to messages on WhatsApp or Telegram, and runs a custom automation you designed yourself.

Jump to: Quick Refresher · Prerequisites · Email Triage · ClawHub Skills · Messaging Setup · Custom Workflows · Cost Breakdown · What People Build · Common Mistakes · Community Tips · Next Steps

What Is OpenClaw? (60-Second Refresher for Beginners)

OpenClaw is a free, open-source AI agent that runs on your machine and connects to your messaging apps, email, calendar, and 50+ other services. You talk to it in plain language -- through WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, or the CLI -- and it executes tasks using whichever AI model you choose (Claude, GPT, Gemini, or free local models via Ollama).

It has 180,000+ GitHub stars, 5,700+ community skills on ClawHub, and a 60K-member Discord. Created by Peter Steinberger (of PSPDFKit fame), it's now run by an independent foundation (like Linux) and is fully MIT licensed. Peter recently joined OpenAI to "bring agents to everyone," but OpenClaw remains open-source and community-governed.

Who this tutorial is for: Anyone comfortable running commands in a terminal. You don't need to be a developer -- but you need to be okay with copy-pasting terminal commands and editing config files. If that sounds fine, let's go.

OpenClaw Setup Guide: Prerequisites and Installation

Before we build anything, you need OpenClaw running with an AI model connected. If you already have OpenClaw installed, skip to Email Triage.

What you need

• A computer -- Mac, Linux, or Windows with WSL2
• Node.js 22+ -- the installer handles this if you don't have it
• An AI API key -- from Anthropic, OpenAI, or OpenRouter. Or use Ollama for free local models
• 10-15 minutes for the install, then 15-20 minutes for your first automation

Quick install

# Install OpenClaw (Mac/Linux)
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

# Run the onboarding wizard
openclaw onboard --install-daemon

# Verify everything works
openclaw doctor

The onboarding wizard will ask for your AI model provider and API key. Pick Anthropic with Claude Sonnet 4.5 if you're unsure -- it's the best balance of quality and cost (~$15-25/month for moderate use).

OpenClaw Automation Tutorial: Email Triage and Calendar Briefing

This is the single most popular OpenClaw automation -- and for good reason. Users consistently report saving 30-45 minutes per day on email alone. Community members on the OpenClaw Discord call this the "killer app" that makes the entire setup worthwhile.

Step 1: Connect your email

OpenClaw connects to any email provider via IMAP. You'll need your email address, IMAP server, and an app-specific password (not your regular password).

# Add your email account
openclaw channel add email \
  --imap-host imap.gmail.com \
  --imap-port 993 \
  --smtp-host smtp.gmail.com \
  --smtp-port 587 \
  --email you@gmail.com \
  --password "your-app-password"

Step 2: Connect your calendar

# Add Google Calendar
openclaw skill install google-calendar
openclaw config set skills.google-calendar.credentials "path/to/credentials.json"

The Google Calendar skill uses OAuth2. Run openclaw skill configure google-calendar and follow the browser-based authentication flow.

Step 3: Set up the morning briefing

Now the magic. Create a cron job that runs every morning at 7 AM and delivers your briefing to whatever channel you prefer:

# Create a morning briefing cron job
openclaw cron add morning-briefing \
  --schedule "0 7 * * *" \
  --prompt "Check my email inbox. Summarize any unread messages, flag anything urgent, and list my calendar events for today. Be concise -- bullet points, not paragraphs." \
  --channel telegram

That's it. Tomorrow at 7 AM, you'll receive a Telegram message with your email digest and calendar for the day.

📧 Email Summary (6 unread)

🔴 URGENT:
• Client invoice overdue — Sarah Kim, needs response today
• Server alert — disk usage 92% on prod-3

📋 Normal:
• Weekly standup notes from Dev team
• Newsletter from Stratechery
• GitHub: 2 PRs awaiting your review
• Shipping confirmation — Amazon order

📅 Today's Calendar:
• 09:00 — Team standup (Google Meet)
• 11:30 — Lunch with David @ Café Central
• 14:00 — Product review, Conference Room B
• 16:30 — Dentist appointment

Step 4: Add on-demand email commands

The cron handles your morning briefing, but you'll also want to check email throughout the day. Just message your agent:

• "Any urgent emails?" -- scans for high-priority messages
• "Summarize emails from Sarah" -- filters by sender
• "Draft a reply to the invoice email -- tell them we'll pay by Friday" -- composes a response for your approval
• "What's on my calendar tomorrow?" -- pulls upcoming events

OpenClaw's persistent memory means it remembers context. Ask "reply to that invoice email" an hour later and it knows which one you mean.

Adding Skills from ClawHub

ClawHub is OpenClaw's skill marketplace -- 5,700+ plugins that extend what your agent can do. Think of skills as apps for your AI agent. For a deep dive, see our ClawHub Skills Guide.

Finding skills

# Search for skills by keyword
openclaw skill search "weather"
openclaw skill search "news digest"
openclaw skill search "home assistant"

# Browse popular skills
openclaw skill list --sort popular --limit 20

Installing skills

# Install a skill
openclaw skill install weather
openclaw skill install news-digest
openclaw skill install web-search

# Verify installed skills
openclaw skill list --installed

Recommended starter skills

After installing skills, they're immediately available. Send your agent "what's the weather in Lisbon?" or "summarize this article: [URL]" and the relevant skill activates automatically.

Connecting Messaging: WhatsApp, Telegram, and Discord

This is where OpenClaw becomes genuinely useful in daily life. Instead of opening a terminal every time you want something, you message your agent from your phone -- the same way you'd text a friend.

Telegram (fastest setup -- 2 minutes)

1. Open Telegram, search for @BotFather
2. Send /newbot, pick a name and username
3. Copy the token BotFather gives you
4. Run:

openclaw channel add telegram --token "YOUR_BOTFATHER_TOKEN"

Send your bot a message. It should respond within seconds.

WhatsApp (5 minutes)

openclaw channel add whatsapp

A QR code appears in your terminal. Open WhatsApp on your phone → Linked Devices → Scan the QR code. Done. Your WhatsApp number now routes through OpenClaw.

Discord (5 minutes)

1. Create a bot at the Discord Developer Portal
2. Copy the bot token
3. Generate an invite URL with bot and applications.commands scopes
4. Invite the bot to your server, then:

openclaw channel add discord --token "YOUR_DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN"

Multi-channel is the real power

With multiple channels connected, your agent maintains context across all of them. Start a conversation on WhatsApp during your commute, continue it on Discord when you're at your desk, and check results on Telegram before bed. OpenClaw's persistent memory keeps the thread alive across platforms.

This is what the OpenClaw community calls the "messaging-first" advantage. As one Discord member put it:

"The moment it clicked for me was when I realized I could manage my entire digital life from WhatsApp. Email, calendar, research, reminders -- all from the app I already have open 16 hours a day."

Building Your First Custom Workflow

Now for the part that separates casual users from power users: building your own automations. We'll create a daily research digest -- a workflow that monitors topics you care about and delivers a summary every evening.

The workflow: Daily Research Digest

Every day at 6 PM, your agent will:

1. Search the web for news on topics you specify
2. Read and summarize the top 5 articles
3. Deliver the digest to your preferred channel

Step 1: Make sure web-search is installed

openclaw skill install web-search

Step 2: Create the cron job

openclaw cron add research-digest \
  --schedule "0 18 * * *" \
  --prompt "Search the web for the latest news on these topics: AI agents, OpenClaw updates, personal automation. Find the 5 most interesting articles from today. For each article, give me: the headline, source, a 2-sentence summary, and why it matters. Format as a clean numbered list." \
  --channel telegram

Step 3: Test it immediately

Don't wait until 6 PM. Trigger it manually:

openclaw cron run research-digest

You should receive a formatted research digest on your Telegram within 30-60 seconds.

Customizing the workflow

The power of cron + prompts is that you can build almost anything:

• Competitor monitoring: "Search for news about [company name] and summarize any product launches, funding rounds, or hiring trends"
• Social media digest: "Check Hacker News front page and summarize the top 10 posts with their comment counts"
• Price tracking: "Check the price of [product] on Amazon and tell me if it dropped below $X"
• Weather briefing: "What's the weather forecast for Lisbon this weekend? Should I plan outdoor activities?"

Chaining skills together

For more complex workflows, you can reference multiple skills in a single prompt. OpenClaw's agent loop automatically invokes the right skill based on what the prompt asks for:

openclaw cron add weekly-review \
  --schedule "0 17 * * 5" \
  --prompt "Generate my weekly review: 1) Summarize all emails I received this week grouped by sender. 2) List all calendar events I had. 3) Check the weather forecast for next week. 4) Search for any news about [my industry] from this week. Format everything as a clean report." \
  --channel whatsapp

That single cron job uses the email skill, calendar skill, weather skill, and web search -- all orchestrated by the AI model without you wiring anything together manually.

OpenClaw Cost Breakdown: What You'll Actually Pay

OpenClaw itself is free. Your only cost is the AI model API. Here's what real users report spending monthly (as of February 2026):

What People Actually Build with OpenClaw

The OpenClaw community catalogues a wide range of real-world agent setups. Here's what people are actually running in production — not demos, but daily workflows:

Email and inbox management

• Backlog cleanup: auto-unsubscribe from spam, categorize by urgency, draft replies
• Persistent rules: "Always flag emails from my boss" — the agent remembers and applies these going forward

Calendar and timeblocking

• Smart scheduling: score tasks by priority, resolve conflicts, protect deep work blocks
• Meeting prep: automatic briefing documents generated before calendar events

Content pipelines

• Daily content scanning: monitor competitor RSS feeds, trending topics, and news sources
• Draft and schedule: generate social posts, blog outlines, and newsletter sections on autopilot

3AM autopilot (DevOps)

• Incident response: Sentry fires an alert → agent pulls logs → opens a GitHub issue → proposes a fix → creates a PR
• PR review: reads diffs for missing tests, risky changes, and security issues

Business operations

• Real estate CRMs, recruiting pipelines, client onboarding
• Weekly SEO reporting, invoicing, and proposal generation

Personal automation

• Morning briefs: weather, meetings, health stats, reminders — all in one message
• Receipt OCR, package tracking, birthday reminders

A key insight from the community: the best agents produce artifacts, not just chat. Diffs, checklists, reports, PRs, spreadsheet rows — things you can review, approve, and trust. As one power user put it: "Governed agents compound because they create assets you can trust."

Common Mistakes When Setting Up OpenClaw

These come directly from community troubleshooting threads. Save yourself the headaches:

1. Skills without YAML frontmatter are invisible

This is the #1 gotcha. If you create custom skills (or migrate them from another tool), they must have proper YAML frontmatter with name and description fields. Without it, OpenClaw won't load them — they'll exist on disk but be completely invisible at runtime.

# ✅ Correct SKILL.md format
---
name: my-custom-skill
description: Searches our internal CRM for customer data
---

# My Custom Skill
Instructions for the agent...

# ❌ Missing frontmatter — skill won't load!
# My Custom Skill
Instructions for the agent...

One Reddit user migrated 42 skills from Claude Code and discovered this the hard way: "The serial/generalist behavior was not because OpenClaw can't do teams — converted specialist skills were not fully activated." Always verify with openclaw skills list --json.

2. Not setting up routing for multiple agents

If you have multiple skills or agents, OpenClaw needs to know which one to use when. Build an explicit routing policy in your AGENTS.md with intent maps. Without routing, your agent defaults to generalist behavior and won't use specialist skills effectively.

3. No spending limits on API keys

A runaway cron job or verbose prompt can burn through $50+ in a single day. Set hard spending caps with your AI provider before you start experimenting.

4. Trying to build everything on day one

Start with email triage. Use it for a week. Then add calendar. Then messaging. The users who succeed build incrementally. The users who quit tried to set up 10 automations in one sitting.

Real Tips from the OpenClaw Community

The OpenClaw Discord (60K+ members) and various forums are full of practical wisdom from people who've been running agents for months. Here are the most repeated tips:

1. "Cheap model for triage, expensive model for thinking"

Power users configure model routing -- use Claude Haiku or Gemini Flash for quick lookups and simple tasks, then route complex research or analysis to Claude Opus or GPT-4.5. This can cut your API costs by 50-70% without noticeable quality loss on routine tasks.

openclaw config set model.routing.default "claude-haiku-4.5"
openclaw config set model.routing.complex "claude-sonnet-4.5"

2. "Invest 30 minutes in your SOUL.md"

OpenClaw uses a SOUL.md file to define your agent's personality and behavior. Users who spend time crafting this file report dramatically better results. Tell the agent who you are, what you do, how you like information delivered, and what your priorities are.

"I spent 30 minutes writing my SOUL.md and it was the single biggest quality improvement I've made. My agent went from 'generic assistant' to 'someone who actually knows me.'"

3. "Docker for peace of mind"

After the CVE-2026-25253 security incident, many community members switched to running OpenClaw in Docker for an extra layer of isolation. Even if you installed via the one-line method, consider migrating:

"Running in Docker made me stop worrying about rogue skills. Even if one goes bad, it can't touch my actual machine."

4. "Don't skip the memory guide"

OpenClaw's persistent memory is what makes it feel like a real assistant rather than a stateless chatbot. But it needs training. Users recommend spending your first week actively teaching the agent your preferences:

• "I prefer bullet points over paragraphs"
• "When I say 'urgent,' I mean respond immediately"
• "My work hours are 9-6, don't message me after that unless it's critical"
• "For email summaries, always include the sender name and subject line"

See our OpenClaw Memory Guide for the full breakdown on persistent memory configuration.

5. "Set spending alerts on day one"

API costs are the #1 complaint from new users. Set up spending alerts with your AI provider immediately:

• Anthropic: Set a monthly budget limit in the Anthropic Console
• OpenAI: Set a hard cap in Usage Limits
• OpenRouter: Set credit limits in your dashboard

Start with a $20/month cap. You can always raise it once you understand your usage patterns.

6. "The real test is week two"

Many people get excited during initial setup, use OpenClaw heavily for 3-4 days, then abandon it. The community consensus is that the real value reveals itself in week two -- after the novelty fades and you start using it for actual daily workflows rather than experimentation.

"Everyone's excited on day one. The people who stick around are the ones who found that one workflow -- usually email -- that saves them real time every day. Build that first, then expand."

Next Steps: Where to Go from Here

You now have a working OpenClaw agent with email triage, calendar briefings, community skills, messaging channels, and a custom workflow. Here's the roadmap for going deeper.

This week

• Use your morning briefing for 5 days straight. Notice what's missing, then adjust the prompt.
• Teach your agent about you. Spend 15 minutes writing preferences into SOUL.md or telling the agent directly through chat.
• Try 2-3 more ClawHub skills. The Skills Guide has curated recommendations by use case.

This month

• Connect a second messaging channel. The multi-channel experience is where OpenClaw really shines.
• Build 2-3 more cron automations. Weekly reviews, competitor monitoring, or social media digests.
• Explore browser automation. OpenClaw can navigate websites, fill forms, and extract data.
• Set up model routing. Cheap model for quick tasks, expensive model for complex ones.

Advanced use cases

Once you're comfortable with the basics, there's a whole world of advanced automations. Our 15 Best OpenClaw Use Cases guide covers:

• Smart home control via Home Assistant integration
• Code review from your phone -- GitHub PR summaries delivered to Telegram
• Meeting preparation -- automatic briefing documents before calendar events
• Social media monitoring -- track mentions, competitors, and trends
• Personal CRM -- track relationships, follow-ups, and birthday reminders
• Multi-agent workflows -- coordinate multiple OpenClaw agents for complex tasks

Frequently Asked Questions About OpenClaw

How much does OpenClaw cost to run?

OpenClaw itself is free and open-source (MIT licensed). Your only cost is the AI model API. Budget setups using MiniMax run around $10/month. Mid-range setups with Claude Sonnet cost $20–30/month. Heavy usage with Claude Opus can reach $50–100/month. You can also use free local models via Ollama for zero ongoing cost. See the full cost breakdown above.

Can I use cheap models with OpenClaw?

Yes. OpenClaw works with any AI provider including budget options like MiniMax ($10/month), Ollama (free local models), and OpenRouter (pay-per-token). One community member runs their entire influencer marketing workflow on MiniMax's $10/month plan. For routine tasks like email triage and calendar summaries, cheaper models work surprisingly well.

Does OpenClaw work on Windows?

OpenClaw runs on Windows via WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux). Install WSL2 first, then run the standard OpenClaw installer inside your WSL terminal. Community members confirm this works reliably for production workflows. See our install guide for step-by-step WSL2 instructions.

How do I add skills to OpenClaw?

Run openclaw skill install <skill-name> from the command line. Browse 5,700+ skills at ClawHub (clawhub.dev). For custom skills, make sure they have proper YAML frontmatter with name and description fields — without it, skills are invisible at runtime. Verify with openclaw skills list --json.

Is it safe to give OpenClaw access to my email?

OpenClaw runs locally on your machine — your data never passes through third-party servers (except the AI model API call itself). For extra security, run OpenClaw in Docker for full isolation. Use app-specific passwords (not your main password), and configure the agent to draft replies for your approval rather than sending automatically.

How long does it take to set up OpenClaw?

Basic installation takes 10–15 minutes. Setting up your first automation (email triage + calendar briefing) takes another 15–20 minutes. A full multi-channel setup with custom workflows takes 1–2 hours. This tutorial covers the first 30 minutes to get you productive.