Week 17: OpenClaw Basics — Your Own AI Agent in the Cloud

You've been building agents on your laptop. Now you deploy one to a real server that runs 24/7.

OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent platform. You give it a personality (SOUL.md), tell it what it can do (skills), connect it to chat channels (like Telegram), and it runs on its own.

This week: get it running, understand the file structure, and write your first skill.

Step 1: Deploy OpenClaw on DigitalOcean

Get a parent for this step — you'll need a credit card for DigitalOcean ($12/month).

Go to https://marketplace.digitalocean.com/apps/openclaw
Click Create Droplet
Choose your settings:
- Region: Pick the datacenter closest to you (e.g., New York, San Francisco, London)
- Size: The cheapest option ($12/mo) is fine
- Authentication: Choose SSH Key (more secure than password)
  - If you don't have an SSH key, click "New SSH Key" and follow the instructions
  - Or choose Password if your parent prefers (make it strong)
Click Create Droplet
Wait about 1 minute for it to provision
Copy the IP address from your DigitalOcean dashboard

Step 2: SSH into Your Server

Open your terminal and connect:

ssh root@YOUR_IP_ADDRESS

Replace YOUR_IP_ADDRESS with the actual IP from Step 1.

If it asks about fingerprint authenticity, type yes.

Stuck? If SSH doesn't work, paste the error into Claude: "I'm trying to SSH into my DigitalOcean droplet and got this error: [paste]"

Step 3: Run the OpenClaw Setup

Once you're SSH'd in, run the setup wizard:

/opt/openclaw-tui.sh

This opens a text menu. Follow the prompts:

Pick your AI provider: Choose Anthropic
Paste your API key: The same sk-ant-... key you've been using
Set a name: Give your agent a name (e.g., "Atlas", "Nova", whatever you want)

Test it with a message:

openclaw chat "Hello, are you working?"

You should get a response. Your agent is alive.

Step 4: Understand the Workspace Files

Your OpenClaw agent lives in /opt/openclaw/workspace/. Let's look at what's there:

ls /opt/openclaw/workspace/

Key files:

`SOUL.md`

This is your agent's personality and core instructions. It's like the system prompt but permanent. OpenClaw reads this file every time it handles a message.

cat /opt/openclaw/workspace/SOUL.md

`IDENTITY.md`

Your agent's name, who it is, how it should introduce itself.

cat /opt/openclaw/workspace/IDENTITY.md

`TOOLS.md`

Documents what built-in tools the agent has access to.

cat /opt/openclaw/workspace/TOOLS.md

Skills folder

Skills are modular abilities you add to your agent. Each skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file.

ls /opt/openclaw/workspace/skills/

Step 5: Write Your First Skill

A skill is just a markdown file that tells OpenClaw how to do something. Let's make one.

Pick a topic you know about — a school subject, a hobby, a game, anything.

Create the skill folder:

mkdir -p /opt/openclaw/workspace/skills/my_first_skill

Create the skill file:

nano /opt/openclaw/workspace/skills/my_first_skill/SKILL.md

Use this template (also available in this repo as my_first_skill/SKILL.md):

# My First Skill: [Topic Name]

## Purpose
Answer questions about [your topic] clearly and accurately.

## When to Use
When the user asks about [your topic].

## Behavior
- Answer in a friendly, clear way
- If you're not sure about something, say so
- Give examples when they help

## Knowledge
[Write 5-10 facts or pieces of information about your topic here.
The agent will use these when answering questions.]

1. ...
2. ...
3. ...

Save the file (in nano: Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X).

Test it:

openclaw chat "Tell me about [your topic]"

Step 6: Edit the Soul

Make your agent yours. Open the SOUL.md:

nano /opt/openclaw/workspace/SOUL.md

Add some personality:

How should it talk? (casual, formal, funny?)
What does it care about?
What should it refuse to do?

Save and test:

openclaw chat "Who are you and what can you help with?"

Tasks

Deploy OpenClaw following the steps above.
Write your first skill about a topic you choose.
Customize SOUL.md with a personality you like.
Test at least 5 messages with your agent.
Fill in reflection.md.

Deliverables

Screenshot of openclaw chat working
Your SKILL.md file (copy it to this folder in your repo too)
reflection.md filled in

Stuck?

"I'm setting up OpenClaw on DigitalOcean. I got to [step] and [what happened]. The error is: [paste]. How do I fix this?"

Also check the OpenClaw docs: https://github.com/openclawai/openclaw

README.md