5 Tips to Get More Out of OpenClaw

The 5 Tips

1. Load Context7's compressed OpenClaw docs. Go to Context7, grab the compressed OpenClaw documentation, and drop it into your agent's context. The next time something breaks, Claude will have a live troubleshooting reference rather than relying solely on its training data — which is always lagging behind the latest releases.
2. Create agents.soul and user.md identity files. Three files shape every interaction: agents.soul defines behavior (what the agent does), the soul file defines personality (how it communicates), and user.md holds information about you. Because these files load into every session, they compound — the more precisely you define them, the better every single output gets.
3. Segment Telegram into separate groups with dedicated system prompts. Don't use one Telegram group for everything. Create separate groups for different domains (work tasks, personal projects, research) and give each group its own system prompt. This way the agent always knows what context it's operating in, rather than trying to infer purpose from a mixed message history.
4. Discover built-in skills with openclaw skills list. Most users don't know what comes pre-installed. Run openclaw skills list to see everything available: link summarisation, audio transcription, Notion integration, and more. You may already have capabilities you're manually doing elsewhere.
5. Treat your agent like a new employee: minimal access by default. Don't hand it the keys to everything on day one. Create separate accounts with limited scope — a Gmail address just for the agent, a read-only API key where write isn't needed. An agent with full access to every account is a significant security surface. Expand access incrementally as trust is established.

Related on OpenClawDatabase

• SOUL.md Guide — deep dive into the soul file and identity configuration
• OpenClaw Security — full guide to access control and safe agent setup
• Skills Guide — using and building OpenClaw skills
• Telegram Integration — setting up and segmenting Telegram channels