OpenClaw setup tips from a user's experience: Gmail MCP, profile flags, and networking issues
OpenClaw setup experience: specific issues and workarounds
A user running OpenClaw for several weeks documented their setup process and encountered issues that cost significant troubleshooting time. They used UTM on a Mac with an Ubuntu VM and bridged networking, implementing Telegram, Slack, Gmail integration, and cron jobs for automated tasks.
Key configuration problems and solutions
The user identified several specific issues:
- The Gmail MCP server ignores the body parameter when sending emails, resulting in blank messages. The workaround is to use html_body instead, which isn't documented.
- Without the --profile prod flag, OpenClaw loads a dev profile with a hardcoded C-3PO identity, causing the agent to ignore user configuration.
- API keys must be placed in auth-profiles.json using the paste-token command. Environment variables, service files, and other config files don't work, leading to cron jobs failing silently with "model not allowed" errors.
- UTM's NAT networking drops HTTPS connections when the Mac sleeps. Switching to bridged networking immediately resolved this issue.
The user noted encountering about 20 similar undocumented issues during setup and documented their experience as a guide with prompts for using ChatGPT or Claude as a deployment assistant.
📖 Read the full source: r/openclaw
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