Quickstart in 3 Minutes

Prefer a goal-first path? See the bilingual OpenClaw Beginner Setup Map.

0) Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 22
• npm available in terminal
• Telegram account
• One model API key (sk-...)

Check local environment:

node --version
npm --version

1) Install OpenClaw

npm install -g openclaw@latest
openclaw --version

2) Onboard and start gateway

openclaw onboard --install-daemon
openclaw status
openclaw health

You should see Gateway: running.

3) Connect Telegram bot

1. Open Telegram and search @BotFather
2. Send /newbot
3. Copy the returned bot token
4. Run openclaw onboard again and paste token when prompted

4) Add allowlist user ID

1. Search @userinfobot in Telegram
2. Click Start
3. Copy your numeric user ID
4. Put it into allowlist in onboarding flow

5) Verify end-to-end

• Send one test message to your bot
• Confirm reply in 10~20 seconds
• Run:

openclaw status
openclaw health

6) If it fails

• 401: wrong API key or missing model permission
• No reply: wrong token, missing allowlist, or gateway not running
• Slow response: downgrade model tier first

For full click-by-click Chinese guide, read: /zh-cn/docs/quickstart/