OpenClaw Advanced Playbook

Move from command usage to production-grade automation with multi-agent orchestration.

OpenClaw is best used as a self-hosted AI operations hub: browser RPA, cron scheduling, hooks, plugins, and agent teams in one control plane.

Three-Layer Upgrade Path

Layer 1: Core runtime (gateway, config, security, diagnostics)

Layer 2: Capability modules (channels, skills/plugins, models, memory)

Layer 3: Automation extensions (browser RPA, cron, hooks, webhooks, multi-agent swarm)

5-Min Baseline

Bootstrap daemon and dashboard

$openclaw onboard --install-daemon

Run gateway with observable logs

$openclaw dashboard

Edit baseline config and enable browser/cron/hooks

$openclaw gateway start --port 18789 --verbose

Use separate profiles for dev/prod isolation

$openclaw config edit

Core Advanced Stack

Channels + Message

Put your agent online to Telegram/IM channels.

$openclaw channels add telegram --account alerts --name "AI Assistant" --token $YOUR_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN

$openclaw message send --to @yourname --message "Morning brief is ready"

Skills / Plugins

Use marketplace capabilities for rapid extension.

$openclaw skills search browser

$openclaw skills install browser-rpa

$openclaw plugins marketplace list

$openclaw plugins install <plugin@marketplace>

Browser RPA

Automate full browser workflows with snapshots and exports.

$openclaw browser open https://mail.google.com

$openclaw browser snapshot --interactive

$openclaw browser click 12 --double

$openclaw browser screenshot --full-page --out ~/daily-report.png

Cron + Hooks

Schedule and trigger event-driven automations.

$openclaw cron add "0 9 * * *" clean_email --name "daily-mail-clean"

$openclaw cron run <id> --force

$openclaw hooks list

$openclaw webhooks gmail setup --account work

Multi-Agent

Build role-based teams for research, writing, and execution.

$openclaw agents add researcher --model claude-sonnet-4.6 --workspace ~/agents/research

$openclaw agents bind --agent researcher --bind telegram:alerts

$openclaw agent researcher --message "Start daily analysis"

Production Workflows

News scrape → summarize → push

$openclaw browser open https://news.ycombinator.com

$openclaw skills run summarize-page

$openclaw message send --to @me --message "$(cat summary.txt)"

Safe update + restart

$cp ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json.backup

$openclaw update

$openclaw gateway restart

Template Strategy

1.Start with ready-made SOUL.md templates and customize role prompts.

2.Define team rules in AGENTS.md for cross-agent coordination.

3.Keep one baseline profile for stable jobs and one sandbox profile for experiments.

Critical Safety Rules

1.Run browser/cron in sandbox or isolated system user.

2.Use secrets management for all API keys.

3.Install skills/plugins from trusted sources and dry-run first.

4.Prioritize 10-15 high-frequency commands; use dashboard for the rest.

Global Resources

Official CLI Docs Browser Tooling Automation Docs OpenClaw GitHub Awesome Agent Templates