OpenClaw Setup Guide: A Clear Tutorial for Beginners

OpenClaw has been taking over the internet and I’ll show you how as beginners you can set this up with no Mac needed, no Mac mini. We’re going to be running Maltbot on a VPS. A VPS is just a device that lives on the internet that you don’t need to own, but you can rent it for a very small fee.

What’s great about DigitalOcean is they’ve already set everything up for you. This is perfect for beginners. You don’t need to enter so many fancy commands. It’s literally plug and play. I was running the Moltbot for around an hour yesterday or half an hour just to test things, and my total usage came to around 40. Don’t worry about the prices. It’s not expensive at all, and you’re saving money because you don’t need to purchase a Mac Mini.

OpenClaw Setup Guide: A Clear Tutorial for Beginners

Create your DigitalOcean account

• Create an account on DigitalOcean and add a credit card.
• You’re paying a tiny amount per hour. Regular droplets are around 0.3 cents per hour. The slightly higher tier is around 0.4 cents per hour.

Create your droplet

• Click Create and select droplet.
• Choose a region close to you. For example, I’m in London in the UK, so that’s my location.
• Maltbot is already loaded, so you don’t need to select anything extra here.
• For the plan, you can pick Regular to keep costs at around 0.3 cents per hour.
• Set a strong password. I suggest using a password manager to generate a super secure password. Copy it and write it down because you may need it in the future if you want to access this from your own terminal. As a beginner, you probably won’t do this, but write it down just in case.
• Click Create droplet. It takes around 1 to 2 minutes to boot up.

Open the console

• When it says it’s ready, click the droplet, then click Console.
• Give it a few seconds the first time it boots up.

Select the API provider

• One of the first things it asks is to select your API provider. Currently it has Anthropic.
• Enter 3 and press Enter.

Generate your Anthropic API key

• Go to Anthropic to grab your API key. If you Google Anthropic API, sign in to the claw developer platform.
• If you’re not signed in, sign in. Then click Create API key.
• Name the key (for example, Maltbot video) and click Add.
• Copy the key.

Add your key to OpenClaw

• In the console, paste the key and press Enter.
• You should see: anthropic key configured successfully. Restarting the clawbot services.

Start the agent

• Enter the command it shows you in the console. Copy it, paste it, and press Enter.
• Clawbot should load up. You’ll see a greeting like: I’ll butter your workflow like a lobster roll. Messy, delicious, effective.
• Say hello to confirm it’s responsive.

Give your agent memory and context

Build a memory profile

• In the setup phase, give it the information you want the bot to have.
• I grab a memory template from my free community and paste it into an AI that has memory turned on to build out my profile so the agent knows a lot about me. You can say, can you fill this in for me so I can send it to my AI agent?
• This creates a memory profile the AI can easily understand. It stops you from guessing which specific details to include and makes your agent a lot more useful. Do a quick check and edit the details.

Store the memory in the agent

• Copy the completed profile and paste it into the console chat with a message like: I’m going to give you some memory. Store this so you can be my AI agent.
• You should see confirmation like: I got it. I’m storing this data. Clawbot has memory and will store this.

Name your agent and define its role

• Give it a name and purpose. For example: your name is Max and you help me run my business as efficiently as possible.
• It should respond with what it understands about you and what it can do.

Use the dashboard if you don’t like the terminal

• If you’re a beginner and don’t like the terminal, go to the dashboard URL shown in the console.
• Copy that URL and paste it into your browser. You’ll get a chatbot area where you can chat with it in a super easy way.
• Save the link on your phone so you can access it. You can talk to your maltbot from there.

Example tasks you can run

• Ask it what it can do for you based on your profile and goals.
• Set simple automations. For example: send me specific AI agent news every morning at 9:00 a.m.
• You can set this up with Telegram so the agent can reach you on your phone.

Final Thoughts

You can set up OpenClaw on a VPS without owning a Mac. Create a low-cost droplet on DigitalOcean, add your Anthropic key, start the agent, and give it memory so it understands you and your work. If you don’t like the terminal, use the dashboard URL and chat with it in your browser or on your phone. From there, you can start assigning tasks and let the agent support your day-to-day work.