Breaking

18-step tutorial for building a minimal OpenClaw agent lands on GitHub

June 30, 2026 at 10:26 EDT

AI Agents
Open Source
Software Dev & Coding

Developer Tom Dörr has published a step-by-step tutorial on GitHub for building a minimal version of the popular autonomous AI agent OpenClaw. Starting from a simple chat loop, it progressively assembles agent capabilities, letting readers learn the core mechanics behind OpenClaw.

Agentic AI · Build-Your-Own Tutorial

Build Your Own OpenClaw: 18 Steps to a Minimal AI Agent

A new open-source tutorial reconstructs the popular autonomous agent OpenClaw from scratch — beginning with a simple chat loop and progressively adding tools, skills, memory, events and multi-agent routing so readers can dissect how agentic AI actually works.

progressive build steps, each with a README + runnable code

major OS supported via a single install one-liner

local-first install: runs on your own device

From a chat loop to a full agent

The tutorial stacks capabilities one layer at a time — each block builds on the one below it.

START

Basic chat loop

FULL AGENT

+ Multi-agent routing

+ Event-driven triggers

+ Persistent memory

+ Skill extensions

+ Tool use

What OpenClaw is

Delivery

Open source · local execution

LLMs

Claude · GPT · DeepSeek

WhatsApp · Telegram · Discord

Sample features

Email · calendar · web · code execution

Why fans like it

"Hackable and on-prem capable"
Context and skills stay on your own machine
Carries out real tasks, not just chat
Reportedly called the "next ChatGPT"

Open concerns

Deep system access & credential handling
Real-world reliability issues for general agents
Setup complexity
Ongoing LLM usage costs

Minimal builds like this draw interest as a way to understand an agent's internals — and to weigh its reliability and security trade-offs before trusting it with real tasks.

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