How to install OpenClaw on Mac or Linux

OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant that runs on your own machine — you message it from WhatsApp, Telegram, or its browser UI, and it reads files, browses the web, and runs code locally. Your data stays with you. The full backstory is covered here; this is the short, safe path to a working install. No coding experience needed, about 20 minutes.

You'll need a Mac (macOS 12+) or Linux machine, plus an Anthropic API key from console.anthropic.com with $5–10 loaded. Since January 2026, an API key is the only way to connect OpenClaw to Claude — there's no Claude.ai account login — which is better anyway: transparent costs, no account risk.

The essential path:

1. Create the API key in the Anthropic console and store it in a password manager.
2. In Terminal, run curl -fsSL https://install.openclaw.ai | bash — it installs Node.js if needed and starts the onboarding wizard.
3. In the wizard: choose Quickstart, pick Anthropic, paste your key, select Claude Sonnet as the default model, and say yes to installing the background service. The Control UI opens at http://localhost:3000.
4. Before anything else, fix the one security setting that matters: OpenClaw binds its web interface to 0.0.0.0 by default, reachable from other devices on your network. Open ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json and set the gateway "bind" to "loopback", then restart from the Control UI.
5. Optionally connect Telegram (create a bot via BotFather, paste the token under Channels) and install a skill or two from ClawHub — check who made a skill before installing it, and treat broad permission requests with suspicion.

On cost: agents burn more tokens than chats, because one task can mean 5–10 API calls that each re-send context. Moderate personal use lands around $3–15 a month. Three habits keep it there: start fresh sessions regularly, stay on Sonnet (Opus costs roughly 1.7× for the same workload), and set a monthly spend cap in the Anthropic console.

Run openclaw doctor to confirm everything is green; the official docs cover every common error. One note on the project itself: founder Peter Steinberger joined OpenAI in February 2026, and the community has kept development moving with new maintainers — nothing about your installation is affected.

Prefer it done for you — hardened, with custom skills, on a private server? That's a service we run.