OpenClaw

OpenClaw is a personal AI assistant that runs on your own devices. It bridges messaging services (WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, iMessage, and more) to AI coding agents through a centralized gateway.

Quick start

ollama launch openclaw

Ollama handles everything automatically:

1. Install — If OpenClaw isn't installed, Ollama prompts to install it via npm
2. Security — On the first launch, a security notice explains the risks of tool access
3. Model — Pick a model from the selector (local or cloud)
4. Onboarding — Ollama configures the provider, installs the gateway daemon, sets your model as the primary, and enables OpenClaw's bundled Ollama web search
5. Gateway — Starts in the background and opens the OpenClaw TUI

<Note>OpenClaw requires a larger context window. It is recommended to use a context window of at least 64k tokens if using local models. See Context length for more information.</Note>

<Note>Previously known as Clawdbot. ollama launch clawdbot still works as an alias.</Note>

Web search and fetch

OpenClaw ships with a bundled Ollama web_search provider that lets local or cloud-backed Ollama setups search the web through the configured Ollama host.

ollama launch openclaw

Ollama web search is enabled automatically when launching OpenClaw through Ollama. To configure it manually:

openclaw configure --section web

<Note>Ollama web search for local models requires ollama signin.</Note>

Configure without launching

To change the model without starting the gateway and TUI:

ollama launch openclaw --config

To use a specific model directly:

ollama launch openclaw --model kimi-k2.5:cloud

If the gateway is already running, it restarts automatically to pick up the new model.

Recommended models

Cloud models:

• kimi-k2.5:cloud — Multimodal reasoning with subagents
• qwen3.5:cloud — Reasoning, coding, and agentic tool use with vision
• glm-5.1:cloud — Reasoning and code generation
• minimax-m2.7:cloud — Fast, efficient coding and real-world productivity

Local models:

• gemma4 — Reasoning and code generation locally (~16 GB VRAM)
• qwen3.5 — Reasoning, coding, and visual understanding locally (~11 GB VRAM)

More models at ollama.com/search.

Non-interactive (headless) mode

Run OpenClaw without interaction for use in Docker, CI/CD, or scripts:

ollama launch openclaw --model kimi-k2.5:cloud --yes

The --yes flag auto-pulls the model, skips selectors, and requires --model to be specified.

Connect messaging apps

openclaw configure --section channels

Link WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, or iMessage to chat with your local models from anywhere.

Stopping the gateway

openclaw gateway stop