OpenClaw Onboarding: How to Train Your AI Agent Right

Onboarding is the most important stage of working with OpenClaw. How you "introduce" yourself to the agent determines the quality of all future work. This is a $30-50 token investment that pays off many times over.

Why This Is Critical

"Think of OpenClaw as cheap labor you must train — garbage instructions = garbage output"

The agent is not a ready product—it's a trainable system. The better you train it, the more useful it becomes.

Model for Onboarding

Use Claude Opus

• Gives the agent best "personality"
• Understands nuances
• Costs $30-50 in tokens
• After setup, switch to cheap model

"Not even close for anything else. It will give your bot the most personality."

What to Tell the Agent

About yourself:

• Profession and work area
• Work habits
• Personal habits
• Schedule (when you work, when you sleep)
• Time zone

About interests:

• What content you consume
• What news interests you
• Hobbies
• Sports
• Food

About goals:

• Why you need the agent
• What tasks to automate
• What takes most time
• What annoys you in routine

Q&A Session

Ask the agent to interview you:

"Ask me a very in-depth Q&A about myself, my work habits, my personal habits, what I want to use you for, what things I am interested in, what content I watch, what foods I like, what sports I follow."

Answer as detailed as possible.

Define Personality

Examples:

• Ziggy from Quantum Leap
• JARVIS from Iron Man
• Cortana from Halo
• Your own unique personality

What to define:

• How it addresses you
• Formal / informal
• Humor or seriousness
• Tone of voice
• Emoji usage

After Onboarding

1. Run /compact — clear context
2. Ask to commit to memory
3. Check what was saved
4. Switch to cheap model

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Invest in onboarding—it pays dividends forever.