OpenClaw and Ollama: Linux setup with Telegram

This tutorial walks through installing OpenClaw and Ollama on Linux, then controlling the agent through Telegram. The demonstrated setup uses Ollama Cloud for inference. The speaker says users can later point it at a local LLM instead, so the walkthrough should not be read as an offline configuration.

The instructions target Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Pop!_OS and Zorin, with a Linux VM suggested for other operating systems. The speaker says an older laptop is sufficient for this cloud-backed setup and recommends a separate computer with limited access because the agent can take unexpected actions.

Setup covers the presenter's installation script, Ollama sign-in, a Telegram bot token from BotFather and a Brave Search API key. OpenClaw onboarding selects MiniMax M2.7 through Ollama, followed by Telegram pairing. The browser gateway provides another way to chat with the agent.

After pairing, the speaker asks OpenClaw to configure local nomic embed text embeddings for memory. An email example uses the Himalaya plugin to read messages and draft a reply. Later discussion covers scheduled tasks and coding through SSH. These are presented as the speaker's examples and proposed uses, rather than guarantees. The tutorial closes with practical limits: models interpret instructions differently, configuration changes can fail, and users should back up openclaw.json.