Official Tutorials15 minIntermediate

Personal Assistant Setup

OpenClaw is a WhatsApp + Telegram + Discord + iMessage gateway for Pi agents. Plugins add Mattermost. This guide is the "personal assistant" setup: one dedicated WhatsApp number that behaves like your always-on agent.

⚠️ Safety first

You're putting an agent in a position to:

  • run commands on your machine (depending on your Pi tool setup)
  • read/write files in your workspace
  • send messages back out via WhatsApp/Telegram/Discord/Mattermost (plugin)

Start conservative:

  • Always set channels.whatsapp.allowFrom (never run open-to-the-world on your personal Mac)
  • Use a dedicated WhatsApp number for the assistant
  • Heartbeats now default to every 30 minutes. Disable until you trust the setup by setting agents.defaults.heartbeat.every: "0m"

Prerequisites

  • Node 22+
  • OpenClaw available on PATH (recommended: global install)
  • A second phone number (SIM/eSIM/prepaid) for the assistant
npm install -g openclaw@latest
# or: pnpm add -g openclaw@latest

From source (development):

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 link --global

The two-phone setup (recommended)

You want this:

Your Phone (personal)
WhatsApp +1-555-YOU
Second Phone (assistant)
Assistant WA +1-555-ASSIST
Your Mac
(openclaw) Pi agent

If you link your personal WhatsApp to OpenClaw, every message to you becomes "agent input". That's rarely what you want.

5-minute quick start

1. Pair WhatsApp Web (shows QR; scan with the assistant phone)

openclaw channels login

2. Start the Gateway (leave it running)

openclaw gateway --port 18789

3. Put a minimal config in ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json

{
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      allowFrom: ["+15555550123"]
    }
  },
}

4. Now message the assistant number from your allowlisted phone

When onboarding finishes, we auto-open the dashboard with your gateway token and print the tokenized link. To reopen later:

openclaw dashboard

Give the agent a workspace (AGENTS)

OpenClaw reads operating instructions and "memory" from its workspace directory.

By default, OpenClaw uses ~/.openclaw/workspace as the agent workspace, and will create it (plus starter AGENTS.md, SOUL.md, TOOLS.md, IDENTITY.md, USER.md) automatically on setup/first agent run. BOOTSTRAP.md is only created when the workspace is brand new (it should not come back after you delete it).

Tip:Treat this folder like OpenClaw's "memory" and make it a git repo (ideally private) so your AGENTS.md + memory files are backed up. If git is installed, brand-new workspaces are auto-initialized.

openclaw setup

Full workspace layout + backup guide: Agent workspace | Memory workflow: Memory

Optional: choose a different workspace

with agents.defaults.workspace (supports ~)

{
  agent: {
    workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace",
  },
}

If you already ship your own workspace files from a repo, you can disable bootstrap file creation entirely:

{
  agent: {
    skipBootstrap: true,
  },
}

The config that turns it into "an assistant"

OpenClaw defaults to a good assistant setup, but you'll usually want to tune:

  • SOUL.md persona/instructions
  • thinking defaults (if desired)
  • heartbeats (once you trust it)
{
  logging: { level: "info" },
  agent: {
    model: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-5",
    workspace: "~/.openclaw/workspace",
    thinkingDefault: "high",
    timeoutSeconds: 1800,
    // Start with 0; enable later.
    heartbeat: { every: "0m" },
  },
  channels: {
    whatsapp: {
      allowFrom: ["+15555550123"],
      groups: {
        "*": { requireMention: true },
      },
    },
  },
  routing: {
    groupChat: {
      mentionPatterns: ["@openclaw", "openclaw"],
    },
  },
  session: {
    scope: "per-sender",
    resetTriggers: ["/new", "/reset"],
    reset: {
      mode: "daily",
      atHour: 4,
      idleMinutes: 10080,
    },
  },
}

Sessions and memory

Session files: ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/{SessionId}.jsonl

Session metadata (token usage, last route, etc): ~/.openclaw/agents/<agentId>/sessions/sessions.json(legacy: ~/.openclaw/sessions/sessions.json)

  • /new
    or /reset starts a fresh session for that chat (configurable via resetTriggers). If sent alone, the agent replies with a short hello to confirm the reset.
  • /compact [instructions]
    compacts the session context and reports the remaining context budget.

Heartbeats (proactive mode)

By default, OpenClaw runs a heartbeat every 30 minutes with the prompt: Read HEARTBEAT.md if it exists (workspace context). Follow it strictly. Do not infer or repeat old tasks from prior chats. If nothing needs attention, reply HEARTBEAT_OK. Set agents.defaults.heartbeat.every: "0m" to disable.

  • If HEARTBEAT.md exists but is effectively empty (only blank lines and markdown headers like # Heading), OpenClaw skips the heartbeat run to save API calls.
  • If the file is missing, the heartbeat still runs and the model decides what to do.
  • If the agent replies with HEARTBEAT_OK (optionally with short padding; see agents.defaults.heartbeat.ackMaxChars), OpenClaw suppresses outbound delivery for that heartbeat.
  • Heartbeats run full agent turns — shorter intervals burn more tokens.
{
  agent: {
    heartbeat: { every: "30m" },
  },
}

Media in and out

Inbound attachments

(images/audio/docs) can be surfaced to your command via templates:

  • {{MediaPath}}
  • {{MediaUrl}}
  • {{Transcript}} (if audio transcription is enabled)

Outbound attachments from the agent

include MEDIA:<path-or-url> on its own line (no spaces). Example:

Here's the screenshot.
MEDIA:https://example.com/screenshot.png

OpenClaw extracts these and sends them as media alongside the text.

Operations checklist

openclaw status# local status (creds, sessions, queued events)
openclaw status --all# full diagnosis (read-only, pasteable)
openclaw status --deep# adds gateway health probes (Telegram + Discord)
openclaw health --json# gateway health snapshot (WS)

Logs live under /tmp/openclaw/ (default: openclaw-YYYY-MM-DD.log)

Next Steps

Now that you've set up your personal assistant, explore more OpenClaw features and configuration options.

Pairing & SecuritySecurity Guide