Quickstart

Get a governed agent pod running in five minutes.

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop -- Clawdapus uses Docker for building images and running containers.
• OpenRouter API key -- sign up at openrouter.ai if you don't have one.
• Discord bot token + guild ID -- you'll need a Discord bot application. See below if you don't have one yet.

How to create a Discord bot and get your IDs

1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal and click New Application. Name it whatever you want.
2. Go to Bot in the left sidebar. Click Reset Token and copy it — this is your DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN.
3. Under Privileged Gateway Intents, enable Message Content Intent. The bot needs this to read messages.
4. Go to OAuth2 → URL Generator. Select scopes: bot. Select permissions: Send Messages, Read Message History. Copy the generated URL and open it to invite the bot to your server.
5. To get your DISCORD_BOT_ID: on the General Information page, copy the Application ID.
6. To get your DISCORD_GUILD_ID: in Discord, enable Developer Mode (Settings → Advanced → Developer Mode), then right-click your server name and Copy Server ID.

Install

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mostlydev/clawdapus/master/install.sh | sh

Verify your environment is ready:

claw doctor

Building from source

If you prefer to build from source:

go build -o bin/claw ./cmd/claw

Clone the Quickstart Example

git clone https://github.com/mostlydev/clawdapus.git
cd clawdapus/examples/quickstart

Configure

Copy the example environment file and fill in your credentials:

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env and set:

• OPENROUTER_API_KEY -- your OpenRouter API key
• DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN -- your Discord bot token
• DISCORD_BOT_ID -- your Discord bot's application ID
• DISCORD_GUILD_ID -- the Discord server (guild) ID

Build and Launch

source .env
claw build -t quickstart-assistant:latest ./agents/assistant
claw up -f claw-pod.yml -d

On the first run, claw build auto-builds the local openclaw:latest base image if it is missing.

claw up resolves ${...} placeholders inside x-claw metadata from your shell environment and the pod-local .env file, so you do not need to duplicate handle IDs or guild IDs into service environment: blocks.

Verify

Check that everything is running:

claw ps -f claw-pod.yml        # assistant + cllama both running
claw health -f claw-pod.yml    # both healthy

Message @quickstart-bot in your Discord server. The bot responds through the governance proxy -- it has no direct API access. The dashboards update live.

Dashboards

• cllama governance proxy -- port 8181. Every LLM call in real time: which agent, which model, token counts, cost.
• Clawdapus Dash -- port 8082. Live service health, topology wiring, and per-service drill-down.

Alternative: Scaffold from Scratch

If you want to start a fresh project instead of cloning the quickstart:

claw init my-pod
cd my-pod
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your credentials
source .env
claw build -t my-pod-assistant:latest ./agents/assistant
claw up -d

Add more agents later:

claw agent add researcher

claw agent add preserves your project's existing layout by default. Use --layout canonical or --layout flat to override auto-detection.

Install AI Skill

Give your coding agent full operational knowledge of Clawdapus -- the claw CLI, Clawfile syntax, claw-pod.yml structure, cllama proxy wiring, driver semantics, and troubleshooting patterns.

SKILL_URL="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mostlydev/clawdapus/master/skills/clawdapus/SKILL.md"

# Claude Code
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/clawdapus
curl -sSL "$SKILL_URL" -o ~/.claude/skills/clawdapus/SKILL.md

# Codex CLI
curl -sSL "$SKILL_URL" >> ~/.codex/AGENTS.md

# Gemini CLI
curl -sSL "$SKILL_URL" >> ~/.gemini/GEMINI.md

# OpenCode
curl -sSL "$SKILL_URL" >> AGENTS.md

# Cursor / Windsurf / other .cursorrules-based agents
curl -sSL "$SKILL_URL" >> .cursorrules

This installs the Clawdapus skill into your coding agent's context, so it can help you write Clawfiles, debug pod configurations, and work with the full claw CLI surface.

Next Steps

• Anatomy of a Claw -- understand the four layers: runner, contract, persona, and governance proxy.
• Clawfile Reference -- the full directive reference for building agent images.
• cllama Governance Proxy -- credential starvation, cost tracking, and the audit pipeline.