Install OpenClaw on Ubuntu 24

OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent platform that runs on your own infrastructure. In this guide, we'll walk through installing OpenClaw on an Ubuntu 24.04 VPS — from creating a dedicated user to pairing your first Telegram bot.

Prerequisites

Step 1: Create a Non-Root User

First, create a dedicated user for OpenClaw and grant sudo access:

adduser openclaw-admin
usermod -aG sudo openclaw-admin

Then switch to the new user and update the system:

su - openclaw-admin
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y curl git unzip build-essential

Step 2: Install Node.js v22

OpenClaw requires Node.js v22 or later. The easiest way is using nvm:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.4/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc
nvm install 22
nvm use 22
node --version

Step 3: Install OpenClaw

Run the official installation script:

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

Verify the installation:

openclaw status

Step 4: Configure Your AI Model

Set a default AI model for your agent:

openclaw models set openai/gpt-4o-mini

Step 5: Pair Telegram Bot

Launch the dashboard to generate a pairing code:

openclaw dashboard

# For remote servers, tunnel the port:
ssh -N -L 18789:127.0.0.1:18789 user@your-server-ip -v

Then approve the pairing from your terminal:

openclaw pairing approve telegram 

Conclusion

You now have OpenClaw running on your Ubuntu server. Your AI agent is ready to help with tasks, answer questions, and automate workflows directly from Telegram.

For more details, visit the official OpenClaw documentation.