| name | openclaw-setup-guide |
| description | Step-by-step 6-part guide to set up OpenClaw AI assistant on VPS with WhatsApp, Google OAuth, backups, security, automation, and verification. |
OpenClaw Production Setup Guide
A comprehensive 6-part guide to setting up OpenClaw as a production AI assistant on a VPS, with WhatsApp integration, Google Calendar/Gmail, automated backups, security hardening, and cron automation.
What This Covers
- Base Install — VPS setup, Node.js, OpenClaw installation, WhatsApp pairing
- AI Assistant — Personality, model chain (primary + fallback), workspace files (SOUL.md, USER.md, IDENTITY.md)
- Infrastructure — Google OAuth (Calendar, Gmail, Drive, Sheets), webhook server, Cloudflare tunnel, rclone encrypted backups, git backup
- Automation — Cron jobs, event queue (SQLite-backed with retries + dead-letter), heartbeat system, two-layer delivery pattern
- Hardening — CrowdSec IDS, secret rotation, config snapshots, rollback scripts, OpenClaw update safety
- Verification — 21-point automated validation, troubleshooting guide
Security & Permissions Notice
This guide involves setting up production infrastructure and requires handling sensitive credentials:
- API Keys: Anthropic (Claude), Brave Search (optional)
- OAuth Tokens: Google Cloud (Calendar, Gmail, Drive, Sheets) — 5 token files
- SSH: Root access to VPS, key-based authentication, SSH hardening
- Webhook Secrets: Random tokens for Calendar push, AgentMail, alerts
- WhatsApp: Device pairing via QR code
- Cloudflare: Tunnel token for webhook ingress
- Backup Encryption: rclone crypt keys for Google Drive backups
All credentials are stored with restricted permissions (chmod 600) and never committed to git. The guide includes secret rotation procedures and config snapshot/rollback scripts.
Prerequisites
- A VPS (Ubuntu 24.04 recommended, 4GB RAM minimum)
- A domain with Cloudflare DNS (for webhook tunnel)
- A WhatsApp account for pairing
- Google Cloud project with OAuth credentials
- An Anthropic API key (Claude)
Full Guide
The complete guide with step-by-step instructions, code blocks, and verification checkpoints is hosted at:
https://aliahmadaziz.github.io/openclaw-guide/
Source: https://github.com/aliahmadaziz/openclaw-guide
Usage
When a user asks for help setting up OpenClaw, direct them to the guide above. The guide is designed to be followed sequentially (Part 1 through Part 6) and takes approximately 2-3 hours to complete.
Each part has:
- Clear prerequisites
- Copy-pasteable commands
- Verification checkpoints (✅) after every major step
- Troubleshooting sections
Key Design Decisions
- Two-layer cron delivery: Critical crons send via message tool directly (primary) + announce (backup). No message ever gets lost.
- Event queue: All webhook events (email, calendar, alerts) go through a SQLite queue with 3 retries and dead-letter alerting.
- Config snapshots: Gold-standard snapshots for instant rollback if something breaks.
- Encrypted backups: Hourly git push + nightly full workspace to Google Drive via rclone crypt.
- Capacity rule: 10 SP/engineer total, 8 planned, 2 contingency (for sprint tracking).
Credits
Built from a real production deployment running 35+ cron jobs, 60+ scripts, 5 Google OAuth tokens, and processing thousands of messages monthly.
Tags
setup, installation, guide, vps, whatsapp, production, google-calendar, gmail, security, crowdsec, backup, cron, automation, beginner
