Skip to main content
OpenClaw is an extremely popular open-source command-line AI coding agent. It aims to provide capabilities similar to Claude Code while remaining fully open-source and supporting custom API access.

​
Installation

Make sure you have Python 3.10+ installed: 
pip install openclaw

​
Configuration & Launch

OpenClaw can be configured via environment variables or an interactive setup. 
echo 'export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-your-api-key"' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'export OPENAI_API_BASE="https://api.elkapi.com/v1"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

​
Option 2: Interactive Setup

Run openclaw directly, and the program will guide you through the API configuration:
  • API Key: Enter your ElkAPI API Key
  • Base URL: Enter https://api.elkapi.com/v1
  • Model: Recommended gpt-4o or claude-opus-4-5-20251101

​
Key Features

FeatureDescription
Autonomous CodingDescribe a task in natural language, and OpenClaw will read code, modify files, and run tests
Multi-Model SupportPerfectly compatible with OpenAI and Anthropic protocol models
Security SandboxRequests user confirmation before executing potentially dangerous commands
Context AwarenessAutomatically analyzes project structure to locate relevant code

​
Common Commands

Inside the OpenClaw interactive session:
  • help: Show all available commands
  • clear: Clear current conversation history
  • exit: Exit the program
Use CaseRecommended Model
Complex logic developmentclaude-opus-4-5-20251101
General coding tasksgpt-4o
Fast fixes and queriesgpt-4o-mini
As a powerful agent, OpenClaw performs significant context reading and model calls, leading to faster token consumption. We recommend using a Tier 2 account for a more stable experience.