LAST UPDATED: FEBRUARY 13, 2026
OpenClaw is the fastest-growing open-source AI agent framework in history — 188,000 GitHub stars in two months. Here's how to go from installation to a working agent with skills, a wallet, and a verifiable identity.
Soulbound identity on Base. Can't be sold or transferred.
OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent that connects to any major language model — Claude, GPT, DeepSeek, Gemini, Llama, and others — and runs across desktop, mobile, and terminal environments. It started as Clawdbot, became Moltbot, and rebranded to OpenClaw as the project scaled. The GitHub repository crossed 188,000 stars faster than almost any open-source project in history.
What makes OpenClaw different from ChatGPT or Claude is extensibility. Out of the box, it's a conversational AI. But through a skill file system, you can give it new capabilities — web scraping, financial analysis, smart contract interaction, file management, API integrations — without writing custom code. Skills are modular, community-built, and installable in seconds.
The ecosystem around OpenClaw now includes wallets for financial transactions, launchpads for token creation, social networks for agent-to-agent communication, and enterprise integrations. Peter Steinberger, the creator, discussed the vision in detail on the Lex Fridman podcast. The short version: OpenClaw wants to be the operating system for AI agents.
OpenClaw runs locally on your machine, which means you need a few things before you start:
Mac, Windows, or Linux. OpenClaw runs on all three. If you're on Mac, Homebrew makes installation easiest. On Windows, you'll want WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) for the smoothest experience, though a native installer exists.
OpenClaw doesn't include a language model — it connects to one. You'll need an API key from at least one provider: Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (GPT), or any of the other supported providers. Most offer free trial credits. Alternatively, ClawRouter lets you pay per-request using x402 micropayments on Base — no monthly subscription, and the project claims up to 78% savings on LLM costs.
You don't need to be a developer, but you'll need to type a few commands. If you can copy-paste into a terminal and hit enter, you have enough. The OpenClaw docs walk you through each step.
OpenClaw moves fast — installation steps change with new releases. Rather than printing commands here that may be outdated by next week, head to the official documentation for current instructions. The process takes about five minutes on a clean machine.
The general flow: install the OpenClaw CLI, configure your LLM API key, and launch the agent. On Mac, it's typically a Homebrew install followed by a configuration command. On Linux, it's a shell script. Desktop apps are also available if you prefer a GUI over the terminal.
One important note on security: the default configuration exposes your agent on a local port. If you're running OpenClaw on a server or shared network, review the security documentation before going further. SecurityScorecard found over 135,000 exposed OpenClaw instances running with default configs — don't be one of them.
Once installed and configured, launch OpenClaw and start talking. Out of the box, your agent can do anything its underlying LLM can do — answer questions, write code, analyze text, brainstorm ideas. It's essentially a local, private interface to whatever model you've connected.
The difference from using Claude or ChatGPT directly is that OpenClaw runs on your machine. Your conversations stay local. Your files stay local. And you can extend the agent's capabilities with skills — which is where things get interesting.
Try giving your agent a task that involves multiple steps: "Research the top five competitors in [your industry], summarize their pricing, and create a comparison table." This is where the agentic behavior starts to show — the agent plans the steps, executes them in sequence, and delivers a structured result. The quality depends heavily on which LLM you're using (Claude and GPT-4 tend to handle complex multi-step tasks best), but even smaller models can handle straightforward workflows.
Skills are what turn a generic conversational AI into a specialized agent. A skill file is a standardized document — typically named SKILL.md — that tells your agent what it can do, what tools it needs, and how to perform the task. Think of skills as plugins: install one, gain a capability.
ClawHub is the main skill marketplace, hosting over 5,700 community-built skills. You can browse by category, search by function, and install skills directly from the OpenClaw interface. The ClawHub documentation covers the installation process in detail.
A critical warning on security: not all skills are safe. The ClawHavoc report identified 341 malicious skills on ClawHub, and Snyk's ToxicSkills research found that 13.4% of scanned skills had critical issues. Before installing any skill, check the publisher's reputation, read the permissions it requests, and verify its VirusTotal scan status. Our complete guide to AI skill files walks through exactly what to look for.
An AI agent with a wallet can participate in commerce — paying for services, receiving payments, and interacting with blockchain-based systems. Several wallet integrations exist for OpenClaw, each with a different approach:
ClawRouter uses the x402 payment protocol on Base to let agents pay for LLM inference per-request. Instead of maintaining monthly API subscriptions, your agent pays only for what it uses. It's the most OpenClaw-native wallet integration and the one most agents start with.
Coinbase's Agentic Wallets give agents programmable wallets that can hold and transfer crypto assets. The integration is designed for agents that need to interact with DeFi protocols, make payments, or manage on-chain assets. Coinbase handles the key management, which simplifies setup but adds a dependency on their infrastructure.
The Circle Wallet skill connects your agent to USDC — a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. This is useful for agents that need to handle payments without the volatility of other crypto assets. The skill is available on ClawHub.
BankrBot adds DeFi trading capabilities to OpenClaw agents — token swaps, liquidity provision, yield farming. This is the most advanced financial integration and is aimed at agents operating in decentralized finance.
The wallet you choose depends on what your agent needs to do. If it just needs to pay for LLM access, ClawRouter is sufficient. If it needs to participate in on-chain commerce, Coinbase or Circle make more sense. If it's a DeFi agent, BankrBot is the obvious choice.
Your agent can now talk, use skills, and hold a wallet. But can anyone verify who it is?
This is the gap that matters most as agents start transacting with real money. An agent with a wallet but no identity is like a bank account with no name on it — technically functional, practically untrustworthy. Other agents, platforms, and users have no way to distinguish your legitimate agent from a malicious one impersonating it.
ERC-8004 is the emerging standard for AI agent identity on Ethereum, backed by Coinbase, Google, and MetaMask. It provides a universal registry where agents declare their identity, capabilities, and reputation. Over 30,000 agents have registered since the standard launched in January 2026.
RNWY adds a soulbound layer on top. When you register your agent, a non-transferable token is minted to your wallet — permanent proof that you control this agent. Unlike a standard NFT, it can't be sold or traded. Your reputation accrues to that identity over time, and anyone can verify your agent's history through the RNWY Explorer.
Think of it like a diploma: it proves something about you, it's permanently associated with you, and anyone can check it. The difference is that this diploma gets more valuable over time as your agent builds a track record of legitimate behavior.
Once your agent is running with skills, a wallet, and an identity, the ecosystem opens up. You can connect it to Moltbook to interact with other agents (though be aware of the security considerations). You can build custom skills — the Agent Skills standard is open and well-documented at agentskills.io. You can deploy your agent as a service and start building reputation through real interactions.
The OpenClaw ecosystem is growing fast — wallets, launchpads, social networks, security tools. Understanding the full landscape helps you make better decisions about which integrations your agent needs and which risks to watch for.
The most important thing to understand about building AI agents in 2026 is that capability is no longer the bottleneck. Anyone can spin up a powerful agent in an afternoon. What separates agents that thrive from agents that get ignored — or compromised — is trust. Skills define what your agent can do. Identity defines whether anyone should let it.
Your OpenClaw agent has skills, a wallet, and capabilities. RNWY gives it the one thing the ecosystem is still missing: a verifiable identity that proves who built it, how long it's been operating, and what reputation it has earned. Soulbound, transparent, on-chain.
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Soulbound identity on Base. Transparent reputation. The trust layer your agent is missing.
Register your agent →