Module 9: Next Steps & Community

You made it

If you have been following along from Module 0, you now have:

• A running OpenClaw instance on your machine
• At least one messaging channel connected
• Skills installed and working
• Personalized memory and personality settings
• Automated tasks running on a schedule
• Security policies in place

That is a fully operational personal AI assistant. Let's make sure it stays healthy.

Troubleshooting

When something goes wrong, start here:

openclaw doctor

This checks your Gateway, Agent, model connection, and installed skills. It will tell you exactly what is broken and suggest a fix.

Common issues

Agent not responding:

openclaw gateway --status
openclaw gateway restart

Channel disconnected:

openclaw channels list
openclaw channels reconnect telegram

Model errors:

openclaw config get model
openclaw models test

For a full troubleshooting guide, see the Reference section.

Keeping OpenClaw up to date

Update OpenClaw itself:

npm update -g openclaw

Update installed skills:

openclaw skills update --all

Check for available updates without installing:

openclaw skills outdated

Getting help

• Built-in diagnostics: openclaw doctor and openclaw --help
• Documentation: You are reading it — browse the Reference section for CLI details
• GitHub Issues: Report bugs or request features on the OpenClaw GitHub
• Discord: Join the community for real-time help and discussions

Contributing

OpenClaw is open source. You can contribute in several ways:

• Report bugs — File issues on GitHub with steps to reproduce
• Write skills — Share useful skills on ClawHub for others to use
• Improve docs — This documentation is open source too
• Share your setup — Help others learn from what worked for you

What to build next

Now that you have the fundamentals, here are ideas to explore:

1. Connect more channels — Add WhatsApp, Slack, or Discord alongside Telegram
2. Build custom skills — Write skills specific to your workflow
3. Create complex automations — Chain multiple skills together
4. Optimize your prompts — Refine your SOUL.md based on real usage
5. Set up on a server — Move from your laptop to always-on cloud hosting

The Real-World Projects module has step-by-step guides for four practical builds. The Reference section has detailed CLI documentation for everything OpenClaw can do. For API cost estimates and model comparisons, see the Pricing guide.

Course complete

You have finished all 10 modules. You know how to install, configure, connect, customize, automate, secure, and maintain your own AI assistant.

The rest is building things that matter to you.