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

Run the Operator Loop

source .env

# 1. Pull pinned runtime infra, registry-backed pod services, and runner bases
claw pull

# 2. Build this pod's local build: services
claw build

# 3. Compile the pod and launch it
claw up -d

Clawdapus keeps the operator loop explicit:

• claw pull fetches pinned runtime infra, registry-backed pod services, and refreshes built-in local runner bases such as openclaw:latest
• claw build builds pod services that declare build:
• claw up compiles the pod and launches it
• claw down tears the pod back down

claw up stays strict by default and tells you which command to run when something is missing. claw up --fix -d can pull/build missing infra and service images, but runner refresh still happens through claw pull. Use claw pull --no-runners when you only want the fast pinned-infra and registry-image path.

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        # assistant + cllama both running
claw health    # 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.

When you're done:

claw down

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, per-service drill-down, and agent context inspection. The Agents view shows compiled contracts, redacted runtime manifests, and the latest live context snapshot captured by cllama.

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 pull
claw build
claw up -d

That scaffolded project follows the same operator loop: claw pull, claw build, claw up, and claw down.

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.

# Recommended: installs to ~/.claude/skills/ and ~/.agents/skills/
# Auto-updates whenever you update the claw binary.
claw skill install

Or install manually:

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

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

# Codex CLI / Gemini CLI / OpenCode (shared .agents/skills/ convention)
mkdir -p .agents/skills/clawdapus-cli
curl -sSL "$SKILL_URL" -o .agents/skills/clawdapus-cli/SKILL.md

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

This gives your coding agent full context on Clawfiles, pod configurations, and the full claw CLI surface. When installed via claw skill install, the skill auto-updates on every claw invocation.

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.