OpenClaw setup checklist: six critical steps for new users

If you installed OpenClaw recently, a Reddit post from r/clawdbot provides a six-step checklist to configure your setup correctly before building anything. The author reports helping 50+ users fix preventable issues that take minutes to address initially but hours to resolve later.

Step 1: Change your default model

If you haven't modified this setting, you're likely running Opus, the most expensive model available. While excellent for complex work, it's overkill for 90% of tasks. Switch to Sonnet instead:

{
  "ai": {
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929"
  }
}

One user was spending $47/week unknowingly; after this change, their next week cost $6 for the same agent and tasks.

Step 2: Lock your gateway

If running OpenClaw on a VPS, check your configuration:

openclaw config get | grep host

If it shows 0.0.0.0 or no host setting, your agent is accessible to anyone on the internet. Fix it:

{
  "gateway": {
    "host": "127.0.0.1"
  }
}

Access through SSH tunnel: ssh -L 18789:localhost:18789 user@your-vps

Step 3: Set up SOUL.md first

Your first message should be: "Read BOOTSTRAP.md and walk me through it" to establish your agent's identity. If you skipped this, create a SOUL.md manually starting with:

you are [agent name]. you assist [your name]. be direct. no filler. match my tone. if I ask a question, answer it first. then elaborate only if needed. never say "absolutely", "great question", or "I'd be happy to." if you don't know something, say so. don't guess. if a task will cost significant tokens, tell me before doing it.

Edit it over the next week when your agent does something annoying. "Never do X" lines work better than "try to be Y" lines.

Step 4: Don't install any skills yet

Despite ClawHub having 13,000 skills, avoid installing any during your first week because:

• Some loop silently and burn tokens in the background
• Some inject into every conversation and bloat your context window
• VirusTotal flagged hundreds as malicious (infostealers, backdoors)
• You should learn stock capabilities first

After week 1, add one skill at a time, testing each for a few days.

Step 5: Don't create a second agent

Every new agent is an independent token consumer, needs its own channel binding, and complicates debugging. Get one agent working perfectly for 2 weeks before considering another.

Step 6: Learn the /new command

Every message in a session gets included in future API calls. After a week of chatting, you're sending thousands of tokens of old conversation with each new message, increasing costs and slowing responses. Type /new to start a fresh session.