How to set up OpenClaw/Moltbot on Mac mini (full tutorial)

If you've been seeing ClawdBot everywhere and are wondering how to set it up.

In this video, we're going to cover exactly how to set up ClawdBot.

Or as it's now called MoltBot, from scratch.

We'll cover whether you should run it on a Mac Mini or a VPS, we'll go through every single terminal command that you have to run in order to get this thing going.

And then we'll talk about some ways people are using it right now to deliver insane value, whether you are an individual or a company.

And I'll try to focus specifically on ones that are non-obvious or go past the basic AI use cases.

If you've always wanted your own always on AI agent, this is one of the best ways to do it.

And if you're not familiar with ClawdBot, it is an AI agent that you run yourself, it can run 24/7, you basically set it up, connect it to an LLM, connect it to a chat, and then you message it and it can take a ton of different actions for you.

It's like another employee that's working 24/7 to do whatever you want it to do.

There's even a marketplace called ClawdHub where you can get different tools and plugins that other people have now built for ClawdBot.

It's really powerful.

With that, let's jump in.

Now, before we install anything, you have two different places that you can run this.

You can run it on a VPS or a virtual private server, which is on the cloud.

Or you can run it yourself locally with something like a Mac Mini.

It doesn't have to be a Mac Mini, it could be a Mac Studio.

Some other computer like that, but most people are using Mac Minis.

Now, some pros for a VPS, it is always on.

That's great.

You can access it from anywhere.

And it's got a little bit cleaner separation from your personal computer.

But there is more setup complexity, you have to be a little bit more technically skilled to set that up.

There's also a monthly cost, which isn't super high, but if you're going to use this for a long time, it does add up.

Especially if you want to pay for more advanced ones with better security features, which you probably will if you're using it at the highest level.

It's also typically a bit less secure.

You are now putting everything in the hands of someone else and they have security protocols.

But by nature, you have to do a little bit more to secure it.

A lot of people like Mac Mini because it's all right there, you own it locally.

It's not connected to the cloud.

Now, for Mac Minis, some pros.

The setup is definitely going to be easier.

It's great for testing and learning.

And you own it locally, so again, it is more secure.

It will cost more up front, so just keep that in mind.

But depending on how long you're going to run this, it could work out.

You also get to own it, so you have everything in house.

Which a lot of people think is cool.

Also, if you want a discount on a Mac Mini at Upgraded, right now we are giving away 5.25% off all Mac Minis with the code ClawdBot.

But Mac Minis aren't perfect.

Some of the cons are just with the uptime.

If there's some sort of outage or the machine goes to sleep, then you do lose uptime.

All right, now let's jump into actually setting it up.

I'm going to go to my computer and walk you through it.

In order to install ClawdBot, there are just a few commands that we need to run in terminal.

So, we'll do command space.

Open terminal.

Now we're here.

So, I'll tell you what these are, I'll also list them in the description.

So, you can just copy and paste because it's pretty annoying to have to type all of these out.

Another way to do it is just to ask ChatGPT what commands to run.

Which is what I did here.

So, I'll copy them from there.

So, first, we need to install Homebrew, which just allows you to install more stuff.

I already have these installed because I've set it up.

Um, but just to show you what the process is.

So, here you have to type in your password.

It might make you do this, it might not.

For me, it does because I'm like a secondary account on here.

Boom.

Return to enter.

And then it's loading.

Cool.

Now that is set up.

Second thing is we are going to install Node.js.

So, again, just copy and paste that.

For me, it's already installed, you might get a slightly different message.

If you want to check if, uh, if you've installed it correctly and it's working, you can just do Node -v.

That'll tell you the version.

Then we're going to install PNPM.

And then for the last part, we're going to go to ClawdBot's website.

It has a new name, it's called MoltBot.

Um, people still kind of call it both.

They had to change it because Anthropic was not happy that it sounded so similar to Claude.

Which, honestly, is fair.

All right, so we've got that.

We're going to go back to terminal.

Paste that.

And it will install.

This could take a little bit, so just let it run through.

It will ask you to go through a couple different selections.

Now, when you are selecting what model to use, you can choose any model.

Obviously, you're going to get better performance with the higher models.

I am going to choose a lower model to save a little bit of money on compute costs.

One thing to note though, is that if you're using OpenAI, to use any of the reasoning models, you have to have your account verified in order to use them.

If you don't, it won't work.

So, if you haven't done that before, make sure that you do it or just choose a different model like GPT-4 or GPT-40.

Those aren't reasoning models.

And then it'll work right away.

The verification can take a little bit, so if you're trying to move quick, it's best to just avoid that.

All right, so now what we're going to do is go and create a new secret key.

Here again, I'm in OpenAI, but you can use a different LLM if you want.

ClawdBot key.

We will create our secret key.

So, now I'm going to copy this, obviously, I'll blur it so you guys don't steal my stuff.

But you're going to take that and you're going to enter it here.

Then you're going to select your channel.

So, this is how you are going to message the bot.

What I would recommend, what most people would recommend for getting started, is going to be Telegram.

They have the easiest bot setup.

You don't need any sort of long approval process or things like that.

So, if I were you, I'd start with Telegram, then you could add in something like a WhatsApp or Discord or iMessage.

But it can be complicated.

So, I've selected Telegram, now it's going to ask me for my Telegram bot token.

These are pretty easy to get.

Um, you'll just open up Telegram.

I'm just going to download it for Mac.

So, I've got Telegram here.

I'm just going to search for BotFather.

Open.

And now I have bot from some other project, but I'm going to create a new one here.

Call this ClawdBot.

We'll call it Ben's ClawdBot.

Cool.

And that is created.

I will copy my secret key.

And then we're going to go back into terminal.

We'll enter that here.

We will select yes for configure skills now.

And then here, when it asks what your preferred node manager for skill installs is.

It doesn't really matter, but if you're new, I would select NPM.

That's the best for beginners.

So then here, it's going to ask if you want to install missing skill dependencies.

So, these are tools that can connect to ClawdBot so that you can use them.

And so this is up to you which ones you want to install.

But any things that you know of that you're thinking of using, I would recommend.

So, for example, I am going to install Apple Notes.

And you just press, you just use the arrow keys, press space to select.

And then enter once you're, once you're ready.

ClawdHub.

Like this is, you can use, um, Eat Sleep, which is cool.

Google Workspace, that's good.

iMessage.

Nano Banana, I'll use.

P.S.I.O.

And now we will let it install.

All right, so we've got those installed.

And it will ask you for API keys for some of them.

I just hit no just to make it quick, if you have those, you want to set them up right away, you can.

Otherwise, you can add it in later.

Then it will ask about hooks, which lets you automate actions when certain commands are issued.

You can always change these later.

So, it's not really a big deal right now.

I enable the one for session memory, so that when you do slash new, it stores the session memory.

Just so you have that for later.

Now we're getting towards the end of this part.

So, it's asking how you want to hatch your bot.

I would hatch in TUI.

So, just to make sure everything is running correctly, I'm going to run this command ClawdBot help.

And then this sort of stuff should pop up, which shows you different commands that you can use.

Options, things like that.

Now you know this is working, it's set up.

So, now you can see that the chatbot is responding.

ClawdBot is set up, ready to go.

So, now we can message our bot on Telegram.

I have this set up here.

So, I just say, "Hi, what are some cool things you can help me with?

I'm a content marketer."

And now it is responding.

Now, for use cases.

Instead of talking through each one, I'm going to throw up a list here of some of the top use cases that we're seeing.

But the cool thing is you can get really creative here.

Like I said, there's this thing called ClawdHub, which is a marketplace for people building different connections, different tools, different plugins that you can use with ClawdBot.

So, this is expanding very quickly.

And we're going to see a lot more innovation here.

If you have any more questions, feel free to drop them in the comments.

You can also check out the official ClawdBot Discord, there's tons of people helping there.

I'll try to help as well in the comments.

Overall, this is a really cool new piece of technology that's coming out.

I'm expecting to see a lot of exciting stuff being done with it.

It's very new, people just started talking about it like a few days ago.

And so we have a lot of room to grow here.