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Quickstart

Deploy your first OpenClaw instance in under 10 minutes. This guide walks through the complete workflow from installation to a running claw.

Prerequisites​

  • Clawrium installed (Installation Guide)
  • A target machine (physical or VM) with:
    • Ubuntu 22.04/24.04
    • SSH access with sudo privileges
    • Network connectivity from your management machine

Install Clawrium​

Install on your control machine:

uv tool install clawrium

Step 1: Initialize Clawrium​

First, initialize Clawrium on your management machine:

clm init

This creates the configuration directory and validates dependencies.

Step 2: Prepare a Host​

Initialize the target host. Clawrium will generate a unique keypair and set up the xclm management user:

clm host init 192.168.1.100 --user myuser

Replace:

  • 192.168.1.100 with your target host's IP or hostname
  • myuser with a user that has sudo privileges on the target

If auto-setup succeeds, you'll see a success message. If it fails, follow the manual setup instructions shown in the output.

Step 3: Add the Host​

Add the initialized host to your fleet:

clm host add 192.168.1.100 --alias homelab

The --alias flag gives your host a friendly name. Clawrium will:

  1. Connect using the keypair from host init
  2. Prompt you to accept the host key (first connection)
  3. Detect hardware capabilities
  4. Save the host to your configuration

Verify with:

clm host list

Step 4: Browse Available Claws​

See what claw types are available:

clm registry list

Example output:

Available Claws:
  openclaw    Open-source AI assistant framework

Get details about OpenClaw:

clm registry show openclaw

Step 5: Configure Secrets​

OpenClaw requires provider credentials. Check what secrets are needed:

clm secret list oc-homelab

Set the required secrets:

# For openclaw - set provider credentials
clm secret set oc-homelab OPENAI_API_KEY

clm secret set oc-homelab ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

The secret value is entered via masked prompt (not visible on screen).

Step 6: Install the Claw​

Install OpenClaw on your host:

clm install --claw openclaw --host homelab

Clawrium will:

  1. Check host compatibility
  2. Verify required secrets are set
  3. Deploy the claw to the host
  4. Start the claw service

Step 7: Check Status​

Verify your fleet status:

clm status

You should see your host with the claw running.

What's Next?​

Troubleshooting​

Permission denied during host init​

Your SSH user doesn't have sudo privileges or the password was incorrect. Verify you can run sudo whoami on the target host.

Host not compatible with claw​

The claw's manifest doesn't support your host's OS, version, or architecture. Run clm registry show <claw> to see supported platforms.

Missing required secrets​

Run clm secret list <claw-name> to see which secrets are missing. Set them before running clm install.