OpenClaw Quick Start: First Success in 5 Minutes

What this quick start gives you

Use this page if you are setting up OpenClaw for the first time and want the shortest safe path to a working local dashboard.

By the end, you will have:

• the OpenClaw CLI installed globally
• the local daemon installed via onboarding
• a dashboard session you can open and use

Before you start

• Node.js 22 LTS installed (recommended baseline)
• a terminal session with permission to install global packages
• about 5 minutes for first setup

Check your Node version first:

node --version

If the major version is lower than 22, update Node before continuing.

Step 1: Install OpenClaw globally

Choose one package manager:

# npm
npm install -g openclaw@latest

# pnpm
pnpm add -g openclaw@latest

Quick check:

openclaw --version

Step 2: Run onboarding (installs daemon)

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

This creates ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json and installs a per-user Gateway service.

Step 3: Open the dashboard

openclaw dashboard

Fallback URL: http://127.0.0.1:18789/

If you see unauthorized, run openclaw dashboard again and open the tokenized link printed in your terminal (?token=...).

Verify your first success

You are done when all of these are true:

• openclaw --version returns normally
• onboarding completed without errors
• the dashboard opens and loads your local session

If setup fails

• Node version issue: run node --version; move to Node 22 LTS, then retry onboarding.
• Command not found: reinstall globally, then open a new terminal session.
• Dashboard unauthorized: always launch with openclaw dashboard and use the tokenized URL.
• Still blocked: check Troubleshooting for deeper fixes.

What to do next

• Browse guides and tutorials
• Use the configuration generator
• Explore troubleshooting solutions