OpenClaw 101: The Ultimate Setup Guide for New Users

User adamb0mbNZ created one of the most comprehensive OpenClaw guides ever. With 363 upvotes, it became the reference material for newcomers. Here are the key insights.

Hardware & Hosting

• Recommended: Mini PC with 16GB RAM, N97 processor (~$200)
• Alternative: VPS ~$20/month for testing
• OS: Works on Windows too (despite Linux preference)
• Required: Python

API Strategy: Brain & Muscles

Different models for different tasks:

Task	API/Model	Cost
Initial setup	Claude Opus	$30-50 one-time
Daily use	Kimi 2.5 (Nvidia)	Free
Heartbeat	Claude Haiku	<$1/month
Coding	DeepSeek Coder v2	~$20/month
Voice	OpenAI Whisper	~$3/month
Images	Gemini / Banana Pro	~$10/month
TTS	ElevenLabs	$22/month

Total: ~$60/month with Nvidia free tier

Critical Setup Steps

1. Tailscale for Security

Secure remote access without exposing ports.

2. Deep Onboarding

Spend time telling the bot about yourself:

• Work habits
• Personal habits
• Goals
• Interests, food, sports

3. Memory Configuration

Enable memory flush before compaction
Set compaction.memoryFlush.enabled to true
Set memorySearch.experimental.sessionMemory to true

Real Use Cases

1. Email Scanning: 6 accounts, hourly filtering and summarization
2. Task Monitoring: Dart integration, daily briefings
3. Morning Brief: Audio summary with ElevenLabs
4. Lead Scraping + CRM: Brave → Apify → Pipedrive
5. Basic Coding: DeepSeek for prototypes

Key Takeaways

• Invest in onboarding—$30-50 on Opus pays off
• Use the right models for each task
• Memory requires attention
• Sub-agents > direct cron jobs
• Security is a must

---

Source: u/adamb0mbNZ on r/clawdbot