Installation Guide

Get OpenClaw (formerly Moltbot, Clawdbot) up and running on your system

New to OpenClaw? For a hands-on, beginner-friendly tutorial with step-by-step guidance, check out our Getting Started Tutorial. This page is a comprehensive reference guide covering all installation methods.

Requirements

Recommended Installation (Onboarding Wizard)

The preferred setup is to run the onboarding wizard. It walks through gateway, workspace, channels, and skills. The CLI wizard is the recommended path and works on macOS, Linux, and Windows (via WSL2).

Installation Command 
npm install -g openclaw@latest
# or: pnpm add -g openclaw@latest
openclaw onboard --install-daemon

The wizard installs the Gateway daemon (launchd/systemd user service) so it stays running.

Quick Start (TL;DR)

Quick Start Commands 
openclaw onboard --install-daemon
openclaw gateway --port 18789 --verbose
# Send a message
openclaw message send --to +1234567890 --message "Hello from OpenClaw"
# Talk to the assistant
openclaw agent --message "Ship checklist" --thinking high

One-Liner Installation

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

Works on macOS, Windows & Linux. The one-liner installs Node.js and everything else for you.

From Source (Development)

Prefer pnpm for builds from source. Bun is optional for running TypeScript directly.

Development Setup 
git clone https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.git
cd openclaw
pnpm install
pnpm ui:build  # auto-installs UI deps on first run
pnpm build
pnpm openclaw onboard --install-daemon
# Dev loop (auto-reload on TS changes)
pnpm gateway:watch

Note: pnpm openclaw ... runs TypeScript directly (via tsx). pnpm build produces dist/ for running via Node / the packaged openclaw binary. Legacy: clawdbot remains available as a compatibility shim.

Docker Installation

OpenClaw supports Docker-based installations. You can run OpenClaw in a Docker container for isolated execution.

Docker installation is particularly useful for:

Quick Docker Install:

Docker Install 
docker run -d --name openclaw \
  -v ~/.openclaw:/root/.openclaw \
  -p 18789:18789 \
  ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:latest

For detailed Docker setup instructions, Docker Compose examples, and Unraid configuration, see the Docker deployment guide.

Serverless Deployment (Moltworker)

For users who prefer not to manage hardware or servers, Moltworker enables you to run OpenClaw on Cloudflare Workers without any physical infrastructure.

Moltworker is ideal for:

  • Running AI agents without hardware requirements
  • Automatic scaling and serverless architecture
  • Pay-per-use pricing model
  • Global edge distribution for low latency

    • Learn more about deploying OpenClaw with Moltworker on Cloudflare Workers.

    Development Channels

    OpenClaw offers different release channels:

  • stable: Tagged releases (vYYYY.M.D or vYYYY.M.D-<patch>), npm dist-tag latest.
  • beta: Prerelease tags (vYYYY.M.D-beta.N), npm dist-tag beta (macOS app may be missing).
  • dev: Moving head of main, npm dist-tag dev (when published).

    • Switch channels: openclaw update --channel stable|beta|dev

    Note: The CLI command is now openclaw. Both moltbot and clawdbot remain available as compatibility aliases for backward compatibility.

    Updating

    To update OpenClaw to the latest version:

    Update Command 
    openclaw update

    After updating, run openclaw doctor to check for issues and verify your configuration.

    Next Steps