openclaw/docs/start/quickstart.md

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Install OpenClaw, onboard the Gateway, and pair your first channel.	You want the fastest path from install to a working Gateway	Quick start

OpenClaw requires Node 22 or newer.

Install

```bash npm install -g openclaw@latest ``` ```bash pnpm add -g openclaw@latest ```

Onboard and run the Gateway

```bash openclaw onboard --install-daemon ``` ```bash openclaw channels login ``` ```bash openclaw gateway --port 18789 ```

After onboarding, the Gateway runs via the user service. You can still run it manually with openclaw gateway.

Switching between npm and git installs later is easy. Install the other flavor and run `openclaw doctor` to update the gateway service entrypoint.

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
openclaw onboard --install-daemon

If you do not have a global install yet, run onboarding via pnpm openclaw ... from the repo.

Multi instance quickstart (optional)

OPENCLAW_CONFIG_PATH=~/.openclaw/a.json \
OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR=~/.openclaw-a \
openclaw gateway --port 19001

Send a test message

Requires a running Gateway.

openclaw message send --target +15555550123 --message "Hello from OpenClaw"