Your Complete Getting Started Guide
From brand new to fully operational. This guide walks you through everything: account setup, deployment, channel connections, and your first automated workflows.
Quick Start: Up and Running in 10 Minutes
Create Your Account and Deploy
Sign up at RunTheAgents.com. Enter your Anthropic or OpenAI API key. Click deploy. Your instance is live in about 60 seconds. If you do not have an API key yet, follow the links in the dashboard to get one from your preferred provider.
Connect a Messaging Channel
Pick your most-used messaging platform and follow the guided connection setup. WhatsApp is most popular for client communication. Slack works best for team use. Telegram and Discord are popular for personal and community use.
Have Your First Conversation
Message your assistant and explore its capabilities. Ask it to research something, summarize information, or help plan a task. This initial conversation helps you understand what it can do and how it communicates.
Understanding How Your Assistant Thinks
Your AI assistant is not a rigid program following scripts. It is a reasoning system that understands natural language, plans approaches to tasks, and adapts to your needs over time.
When you give it a task, it breaks it down into steps, determines the best approach, and executes. If it needs clarification, it asks. If it encounters an obstacle, it tries alternative approaches. If it cannot complete a task, it explains why and suggests what you could do differently.
The key to getting great results is providing clear context. Tell your assistant about your business, your preferences, the types of tasks you want it to handle, and how you want it to communicate. The more context it has, the better it performs.
Think of the first week as an onboarding period for a new team member. You would not expect a new hire to know everything on day one. Similarly, your AI assistant improves as you provide more guidance and feedback.
Key Concepts to Understand
Channels Are Communication Bridges
Each connected messaging platform is a channel. Your assistant maintains separate conversation contexts per channel but can reference information across them. Connect channels based on who you want your assistant to communicate with.
Browser Automation Is Your Assistant's Superpower
Your assistant can browse any website, fill forms, take screenshots, and extract data. This capability is what separates it from a simple chatbot. Use it for research, monitoring, data gathering, and web-based task completion.
Instructions Shape Behavior
The instructions you provide define how your assistant behaves. Be specific about tone, priorities, and boundaries. Good instructions lead to good results. Vague instructions lead to generic responses.
Your API Key Controls AI Costs
The $25/month hosting fee covers infrastructure. AI model usage (the calls to Anthropic or OpenAI) is billed directly to your API key. Set spending limits with your provider to control costs.
Your First Week: Suggested Activities
Day 1: Basic Exploration
Send 10-15 different types of messages to understand capabilities. Ask factual questions. Request web research. Ask it to draft an email. Try a scheduling request. Observe how it responds to each type.
Day 2-3: Configure for Your Needs
Write detailed instructions for your assistant. Include your name, business context, preferred communication style, and key tasks you want it to handle. Test how the instructions improve its responses.
Day 4-5: Add Channels and Expand
Connect additional messaging platforms. Start directing real tasks to your assistant: answering a client question, researching a topic for a meeting, monitoring a website for updates.
Day 6-7: Optimize and Refine
Review the week's activity in your dashboard. Identify areas where your assistant could improve. Refine instructions based on real interactions. By the end of the week, your assistant should feel like a valuable team member.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Pages
Ready to get started?
Deploy your own OpenClaw instance in under 60 seconds. No VPS, no Docker, no SSH. Just your personal AI assistant, ready to work.
Starting at $39.95/month. Everything included. 3-day money-back guarantee.