OpenClaw 🦞 — Your assistant, on your devices, in your chats

# OpenClaw 🦞 — Your assistant, on your devices, in your chats

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OpenClaw is an open-source AI assistant that runs on your own computer and meets you in the channels you already use: Discord, iMessage, Slack, Teams, Telegram, WhatsApp, and 20+ more, plus native apps for macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux. One Gateway runs it as a personal assistant on a laptop or as a shared [team deployment](https://docs.openclaw.ai/start/teams); configuration is the only difference.

**Yours, with no catch.** State, memory, and credentials live on your hardware. Models and agent harnesses (Claude, Codex, local models) are plugins you can swap without changing anything else. Your prompts go to the model provider and chat platforms you configure, plus any diagnostics export you enable yourself; by default OpenClaw itself phones home for nothing but a daily version check, anonymous feature statistics are opt-in, and `update.checkOnStart: false` disables both ([what OpenClaw sends](https://docs.openclaw.ai/gateway/telemetry)). OpenClaw is stewarded by the [OpenClaw Foundation](https://openclaw.org), an independent 501(c)(3), and has no paid tier, hosted service, or token. The architecture case — trusted gateway, untrusted execution, deterministic policy — is in [Why OpenClaw](https://docs.openclaw.ai/start/why-openclaw).

[Website](https://openclaw.ai) · [Docs](https://docs.openclaw.ai) · [Getting started](https://docs.openclaw.ai/start/getting-started) · [Why OpenClaw](https://docs.openclaw.ai/start/why-openclaw) · [FAQ](https://docs.openclaw.ai/help/faq) · [Vision](VISION.md) · [DeepWiki](https://deepwiki.com/openclaw/openclaw)

## Install

The installer supports macOS, Linux, and Windows. It provisions a supported Node.js runtime when needed.

```bash
# macOS / Linux / WSL2
curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash
```

```powershell
# Windows PowerShell
iwr -useb https://openclaw.ai/install.ps1 | iex
```

Already manage Node.js? Install the published package instead (Node 24.16+ or 26.1+; Node 26 recommended):

```bash
npm install -g openclaw@latest --allow-scripts=openclaw
```

That command is for npm 12 or npm 11.16+. On npm 11.15 and earlier, omit
`--allow-scripts=openclaw`. See the
[installation guide](https://docs.openclaw.ai/install) for the lifecycle script
contract, Docker, Nix, and other deployment paths.

## Quick start

On a fresh install, the installer scripts start onboarding automatically.
Complete the wizard they open. If you installed the package directly with npm,
pnpm, or Bun, run:

```bash
openclaw onboard --install-daemon
```

After onboarding:

```bash
openclaw gateway status
openclaw dashboard
```

Onboarding verifies model access, creates the workspace, and configures the Gateway. The last command opens the Control UI; send a message there to confirm the assistant is working. See the [getting started guide](https://docs.openclaw.ai/start/getting-started) for channel setup and troubleshooting.

## How it fits together

- The [Gateway](https://docs.openclaw.ai/gateway) is the local control plane for sessions, tools, events, and channel connections.
- The [Control UI](https://docs.openclaw.ai/web/control-ui), CLI, and [TUI](https://docs.openclaw.ai/web/tui) connect to the Gateway.
- [Channels](https://docs.openclaw.ai/channels) bring the assistant to WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Google Chat, Signal, iMessage, and other messaging services.
- [Companion apps and nodes](https://docs.openclaw.ai/platforms) add voice, Canvas, camera, screen, and device-local actions on supported platforms.

OpenClaw works with hosted and local [model providers](https://docs.openclaw.ai/concepts/model-providers). Its [tools](https://docs.openclaw.ai/tools), [skills](https://docs.openclaw.ai/

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