How to use OpenClaw

Installing OpenClaw takes minutes; learning to use it takes about a week, and most of that week is discovering which of its parts matter for you. Here is the first week as the docs describe the pieces, in the order they tend to become useful: a first message, a channel, a memory, a skill, an automation, and the moment you stop watching it.

Day one: the first message

Onboarding ends in the Control UI with a chat box; a message there proves the model route works. The terminal UI and the dashboard command are the two ways back in. OpenClaw setup, step by step is the five steps that get you here.

Day two: a channel

Telegram is the fastest, a bot token and nothing else; WhatsApp links your number by QR. Both default to pairing, which means the first message from a new sender creates a request you approve, and both gate groups behind a mention. OpenClaw on Telegram and OpenClaw on WhatsApp are the two setups, with the silences explained.

Day three: memory

Tell it something to remember and it writes a Markdown file in its workspace; over the week the daily notes are distilled into long-term memory by a background sweep. How OpenClaw memory works explains the four files, the budget, and why it sometimes forgets.

Day four: a skill

Skills are instructions plus scripts, installed from a public registry with a security scan you should read. The best OpenClaw skills to install first is a starting list where the review came back clean, and What is ClawHub explains the registry’s audit statuses.

Want to chat from your phone instead? The fastest channel to set up is Telegram (just a bot token).

Day five: an automation, and the bill

Ask it to do the same thing three times and it will offer to schedule it; that is an automation, and it runs whether you are watching or not. The heartbeat is the other thing that runs unwatched, on your model, on a schedule. OpenClaw automations and The OpenClaw heartbeat explain both, and What OpenClaw costs is the bill they produce.

The moment you stop watching

By the end of the week the agent is answering, remembering, acting on a schedule and spending money, and the question changes from how to use it to who keeps it running. OpenClaw not responding is the guide for the first silent morning, and Hosted OpenClaw on Diali is the version where that question is already answered.

• Message, channel, memory, skill, automation: one a day.
• Pairing and mention gating are why it seems quiet; the heartbeat is why it seems expensive.
• The last lesson of the week is operations.