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Setting Up Your First ClawNaut Agent: A Complete Guide

ClawNaut Team··7 min read

You've heard about AI agents. Maybe you're curious, maybe you're skeptical. Either way, the best way to understand what they can do is to deploy one yourself. This guide walks you through setting up your first ClawNaut agent from scratch — in about 5 minutes.

What You're Building

By the end of this guide, you'll have a personal AI agent that:

No DevOps knowledge required. No servers to configure. Just deploy and start talking.

Step 1: Create Your Account

You have two options:

Option A: Telegram (fastest)

Open @ClawNautBot on Telegram and tap Start. The bot will walk you through account creation right in the chat. Your Telegram account gets automatically linked — no codes, no copy-pasting.

Option B: Web Dashboard

Go to clawnaut.ai/signup and create an account with your email. You'll get a verification code, enter it, and you're in. You can link your Telegram later from the dashboard.

Both paths end up in the same place. Choose whichever you prefer.

Step 2: Deploy Your First Node

A "node" in ClawNaut terms is your agent's home — the infrastructure it runs on. Each node hosts one agent.

Via Telegram: Type /deploy in your chat with @ClawNautBot. The bot will ask you a few questions — what you want your agent to do, what name you'd like, and which channels to connect. Answer them, and your node deploys automatically.

Via Web: From the dashboard at clawnaut.ai/dashboard, click "Deploy New Node." Fill in the basics:

Hit deploy. Your agent spins up in about 60–90 seconds.

Step 3: Connect Your Channels

Your agent needs a way to talk to you. Telegram is connected by default if you signed up via the bot. For other channels:

Telegram: If you signed up on web, go to Dashboard → Your Node → Channels → Connect Telegram. You'll get a link to add your agent to your Telegram.

Discord: Generate a Discord bot token from the Discord Developer Portal. Paste it into the channel configuration. Your agent joins your Discord server.

WhatsApp: Connect via the WhatsApp Business API integration in your dashboard.

You can connect multiple channels simultaneously. Your agent maintains a single memory and personality across all of them.

Step 4: Customize Your Agent

Your agent works out of the box, but customization is where it gets powerful. There are a few key files you can edit (your agent stores these on its own filesystem):

SOUL.md — Your agent's personality. Tell it how to behave, what tone to use, what to prioritize. "Be concise and direct" or "Use humor and be casual" — it adapts to whatever you define.

USER.md — Information about you. Your name, timezone, preferences, projects. The more context you give it, the more useful it becomes.

Tools — Configure what your agent can access. Email accounts, calendar integrations, API keys, SSH connections. Each tool extends what your agent can do.

You don't need to configure all of this upfront. Start talking to your agent, and customize as you go. Many users just tell their agent directly: "Remember that I prefer short emails" or "My timezone is EST" — and it updates its own memory.

Step 5: Start Using It

Now for the fun part. Here are some things to try with your freshly deployed agent:

Daily briefing: "Set up a daily briefing for me at 8 AM — calendar events, weather, and any important emails."

Research: "Research the top 5 competitors in the AI agent space and summarize their pricing and features."

Email drafting: "Draft an email to the team about pushing the deadline to next Friday. Keep it casual but clear."

Code help: "Review this function and suggest improvements" — then paste your code.

Group moderation: Add your agent to a Telegram group and tell it: "Moderate this group. Remove spam, welcome new members, and answer questions about our project."

The key insight: talk to your agent like you'd talk to a capable human assistant. Don't write prompts. Don't use special syntax. Just tell it what you need.

Understanding Your Dashboard

The web dashboard gives you full visibility into your agent:

What's It Cost?

ClawNaut is $25/month per agent node. That includes:

Usage beyond included credits is billed automatically. Additional storage is $5/GB/month. No hidden fees, no tiers, no annual commitments.

$25/month per agent. $10 AI credits and 1GB storage included. No hidden fees.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Agent

Be specific about what you want. "Help me with emails" is vague. "Check my inbox every 2 hours and flag anything from clients or marked urgent" is actionable.

Give it context. The more your agent knows about your work, projects, and preferences, the better it performs. Don't be stingy with information.

Let it fail and correct it. Your agent will occasionally get things wrong. That's fine. Correct it, and it learns. "No, I meant the other project" or "Make the tone more formal" — it adapts.

Check in regularly at first. For the first week, interact with your agent daily. This builds up the memory and context it needs to become truly useful.

Explore use cases gradually. Start with one thing — daily briefings, email management, or group moderation. Once that's running smoothly, add more responsibilities.

You're Live

That's it. You have a personal AI agent running on dedicated infrastructure, connected to your preferred messaging platforms, with persistent memory and real tool access. It's working for you 24/7.

Welcome to the future of personal productivity. Deploy your agent now and start putting it to work.

Ready to deploy your own AI agent?

Get started in under 2 minutes. $25/month per agent. No commitment.

Start via Telegram →Sign Up on Web
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