Your First 24 Hours with OpenClaw

#You've Installed OpenClaw — Now What?

Congratulations! You have OpenClaw running. But a fresh install is like a new phone with no apps, functional but not very useful yet. This guide walks you through the essential first steps to turn your agent from a blank slate into a genuinely helpful assistant.

#The Plan

#Hour 1: Craft Your SOUL.md

SOUL.md is your agent's personality file, it defines who your agent is. Without it, you get generic ChatGPT-style responses. With a good SOUL.md, you get an assistant that feels personal.

#Where Is It?

# Your workspace directory
ls ~/.openclaw/workspace/SOUL.md

#Write Your First SOUL.md

Open it in your favorite editor:

nano ~/.openclaw/workspace/SOUL.md

Here's a great starter template:

# SOUL.md — Who You Are
## Core Identity
- You are my personal AI assistant
- Be direct and concise — skip the fluff
- Have opinions when asked
- If you can figure something out yourself, do it before asking me
## Communication Style
- Casual but competent
- Use emoji sparingly, not excessively
- Be honest when you don't know something
- Keep responses short unless I ask for detail
## About Me
- Name: [Your name]
- Timezone: [Your timezone]
- Work: [What you do]
- Interests: [Key interests]
## Boundaries
- Don't send emails or public messages without asking first
- Don't share my personal info in group chats
- Ask before taking any action that can't be undone

#Test It

After saving SOUL.md, restart your gateway:

openclaw gateway restart

Then send your agent a message and see if the personality shines through.

#Hour 2: Connect a Messaging Channel

You need a way to talk to your agent outside of the terminal. Telegram is the easiest to set up.

#Option A: Telegram (Recommended)

1. Create a bot: Message @BotFather on Telegram
2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts
3. Copy the bot token (looks like 123456:ABC-DEF1234ghIkl-zyx57W2v1u123ew11)
4. Add it to your OpenClaw config:

There is no openclaw setup telegram. The documented command writes the token for you:

openclaw channels add --channel telegram --token <bot-token>

5. Start a chat with your bot on Telegram and send "Hello!"

#Option B: Discord

There is no openclaw setup discord either, and Discord is not an interactive sign-in channel: it authenticates with a bot token, the same shape as Telegram above. Create the bot in the Discord Developer Portal, then hand OpenClaw the token:

openclaw channels add --channel discord --token "<token>"

The Discord setup page keeps the token out of the config file instead, exporting DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN and applying a patch that stores an env SecretRef with openclaw config patch --file ./discord.patch.json5.

#Option C: Other Channels

OpenClaw supports WhatsApp, Slack, iMessage, and more. See our Messaging Channels guide for full setup instructions.

#Verify It Works

Send a message to your agent. You should get a response within a few seconds. Try asking:

• "What time is it?"
• "Tell me about yourself" (tests SOUL.md)
• "What can you help me with?"

#Hour 3: Install Your First Skill

Skills teach your agent new capabilities. Let's install one.

#Browse Available Skills

# See what's popular on ClawHub
openclaw skills search weather
# Or browse categories
openclaw skills search --category productivity

#Install the Weather Skill

A great first skill, simple, useful, and satisfying to see work:

openclaw skills install weather

Now test it by messaging your agent:

"What's the weather like in New York?"

Your agent should fetch real weather data and respond.

#Install a Few More Essentials

# Google Workspace (Gmail + Calendar)
openclaw skills install gog
# GitHub integration
openclaw skills install github
# Web search
openclaw skills install web-search

#Hour 4: Set Up Your First Cron Job

Cron jobs make your agent proactive, doing things on a schedule without you asking.

#The Morning Briefing

The most popular first cron job: a daily morning briefing delivered to your messaging channel.

openclaw cron create \
  --schedule "0 8 * * *" \
  --task "Check my calendar for today's events, check for important unread emails, and get the weather forecast. Send me a brief morning summary." \
  --channel telegram

This will run every day at 8:00 AM and send you a summary.

#A Few More Useful Cron Jobs

# Reminder to take a break (every 2 hours during work)
openclaw cron create \
  --schedule "0 10,12,14,16 * * 1-5" \
  --task "Send a brief, friendly reminder to take a 5-minute break. Be creative with it." \
  --channel telegram
# Weekly project check-in
openclaw cron create \
  --schedule "0 9 * * 1" \
  --task "Review any GitHub notifications and give me a Monday morning project status update." \
  --channel telegram

#Verify Cron Jobs

# List all cron jobs
openclaw cron list
# Check recent runs
openclaw cron runs --limit 5

#Exploring Further

You've got the basics! Here's what to explore next:

#Quick Wins

• MEMORY.md: Create ~/.openclaw/workspace/MEMORY.md for things you want your agent to always remember
• Heartbeat checks: not a workspace file. OpenClaw "no longer creates HEARTBEAT.md in new workspaces or reads it at runtime", and those instructions now live in monitor scratch: find the job id with openclaw automations list --all, then edit it with openclaw automations scratch <jobId>
• Custom commands: Teach your agent project-specific knowledge

#Recommended Next Guides

• SOUL.md Mastery, Advanced personality crafting
• Understanding Skills, Deep dive into the skill system
• Heartbeat & Cron Configuration, Optimize scheduling
• Cost Optimization, Keep API bills manageable
• Top 20 Must-Have Skills, Curated skill recommendations

#Common Day-1 Mistakes to Avoid

1. Installing too many skills: start with 3-5 and add as needed
2. Writing a novel for SOUL.md: keep it concise; your agent reads it every message
3. Setting heartbeat too frequent: every 30 minutes is fine; every 5 minutes burns tokens
4. Not setting up a messaging channel: terminal-only usage misses the point