Installation

This guide takes you from zero to a running BabyClaw instance with a working Telegram bot.

Quick install (recommended)

The fastest way to get started — a single command that checks your environment, installs BabyClaw, and walks you through the setup wizard:

curl -fsSL https://babyclaw.org/install.sh | bash

The installer will:

• Verify Node.js >= 20 is present (and help you install it if not)
• Install the babyclaw CLI globally via npm
• Launch the interactive setup wizard
• Run diagnostics to confirm everything works

Once it finishes you can skip ahead to Send your first message.

Manual install

If you prefer to install manually, or want to develop on BabyClaw itself, follow the steps below.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20 or newer -- check with node --version
• pnpm -- install with npm install -g pnpm if you don't have it

1. Install via npm

npm install -g babyclaw

Or, to build from source:

git clone https://github.com/babyclaw/babyclaw.git
cd babyclaw
pnpm install
pnpm build

2. Create a Telegram bot

1. Open Telegram and message @BotFather
2. Send /newbot and follow the prompts
3. Copy the bot token (looks like 123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrsTUVwxyz)

You'll need this token in the next step.

3. Run the setup wizard

pnpm babyclaw config init

This creates a config file at ~/.config/babyclaw/config.json with placeholder values. Next, configure your AI provider interactively:

pnpm babyclaw model configure

Or edit the config file directly -- the minimum you need is a Telegram bot token and one AI provider:

{
  "version": 1,
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "botToken": "123456789:ABCdefGHIjklMNOpqrsTUVwxyz"
    }
  },
  "ai": {
    "providers": {
      "anthropic": { "apiKey": "sk-ant-..." }
    },
    "models": {
      "chat": "anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-20250514"
    },
    "aliases": {}
  }
}

See AI Providers for how to configure other providers.

4. Start the gateway

pnpm babyclaw service start

Or run it directly in the foreground:

node packages/gateway/dist/main.js

5. Send your first message

Open Telegram and message your bot. On the first conversation, the agent will go through a bootstrap process -- it'll ask your name, pick its own identity, and set up the workspace files. This is normal and only happens once.

6. Verify everything works

pnpm babyclaw doctor

This runs diagnostics and checks that your config, database, and Telegram connection are healthy.

Next steps

• Workspace -- learn about the workspace files and how to customize your agent
• Configuration overview -- understand the full config file
• Telegram -- more on how the Telegram integration works