Ever wonder what happens when you send a message to your AI assistant? Let's peek behind the curtain and explore the elegant architecture that makes OpenClaw tick.
The Big Picture
When you send a message to OpenClaw, it travels through a carefully orchestrated pipeline. Here's what that journey looks like:
The Gateway is the brain of the operation—it receives your message, enriches it with context from memory and skills, routes it to the appropriate AI model, and then delivers the response back through your messaging channel. All of this happens in seconds, creating the illusion of a seamless conversation.
Building Blocks
OpenClaw is built from five fundamental components, each serving a distinct purpose in the system. Understanding these helps you unlock the full potential of your assistant.
The heart of OpenClaw. This daemon process runs 24/7 on your server, managing all connections, routing messages, and orchestrating the AI. It's the control plane that ties everything together—channels connect to it, nodes report to it, and all conversations flow through it.
Always RunningExtend OpenClaw's reach to any device. A Node is a lightweight agent that runs on your phone, laptop, or other computers, giving OpenClaw access to local files, cameras, screens, and device-specific capabilities. Want OpenClaw to take a photo with your phone camera? That's Nodes at work.
Multi-DeviceYour communication bridges. Channels are plugins that connect OpenClaw to messaging platforms—Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, and more. Each channel handles the platform-specific details: authentication, message formatting, media handling, and real-time updates.
Messaging IntegrationsOpenClaw's superpowers. Skills are modular capabilities that extend what your assistant can do: web search, email access, calendar management, code execution, browser control, and more. You enable the skills you need, and OpenClaw learns when to use them contextually.
ExtensiblePersistence that matters. OpenClaw stores context, conversations, and learned preferences in simple Markdown files. This means your assistant remembers what you discussed yesterday, knows your preferences, and can reference past interactions. And because it's just files, you can read and edit them yourself.
Markdown-BasedUnder the Hood
OpenClaw is built on proven, modern technologies that prioritize reliability, performance, and developer experience. Here's what powers it:
Why Node.js? The event-driven, non-blocking architecture is perfect for handling multiple concurrent conversations and real-time messaging. Plus, npm's vast ecosystem means easy integration with virtually any service or API.
One of OpenClaw's clever features is its use of Tailscale for secure device-to-device communication. When you connect Nodes (your phone, laptop, etc.) to the Gateway, they communicate over an encrypted mesh network. No port forwarding, no firewall headaches—just secure connections that "just work" from anywhere in the world.
The Brains
OpenClaw is model-agnostic. You choose the AI that fits your needs—whether it's the latest cloud models or something running privately on your own hardware.
Most users go with Claude Sonnet—it hits the sweet spot of intelligence and cost-effectiveness. For complex reasoning tasks, you might escalate to Opus. And if privacy is paramount or you want zero API costs, local models via Ollama or LM Studio are fully supported.
The beautiful thing? You can switch models mid-conversation or set up different models for different use cases. Need GPT-4 for coding tasks but prefer Claude for writing? You can do that.
Stay Connected
Talk to OpenClaw wherever you already spend your time. Each channel is a plugin that handles the platform-specific integration, so you get a native experience on every platform.
Telegram is the most popular choice—it's free, works great on all devices, and has excellent bot support. WhatsApp is perfect if that's already your primary messaging app. For work contexts, Slack and Discord integrate seamlessly with team workflows.
Voice notes work everywhere. Instead of typing, just send a voice message. OpenClaw transcribes it, understands the request, and responds—often faster than you could have typed it.
In Practice
Let's trace exactly what happens when you ask OpenClaw to help with a real task. You send: "Research Stripe and tell me their main competitors."
You tap send in Telegram. The Telegram channel plugin receives your message via webhook and forwards it to the Gateway. The message includes your user ID, timestamp, and any metadata (like if it was a voice note).
→ Gateway receives: "Research Stripe and tell me their main competitors."
The Gateway loads your conversation history, reads relevant memory files, and checks which skills are available. It assembles a rich context package: who you are, what you've discussed before, what tools the AI can use.
→ Context: User profile, recent messages, available skills: [web_search, web_fetch]
The assembled prompt goes to Claude (or your chosen model). The AI reasons about the request, decides it needs to search the web, and calls the web_search skill. It might make several searches, visit company pages, and synthesize findings.
→ AI: "I'll search for Stripe competitors..." → Calls web_search → Reads results
The AI's response flows back through the Gateway, which formats it appropriately for Telegram (handling markdown, message length limits, etc.), and delivers it to you. The conversation is saved to memory for future reference.
→ Response: "Stripe's main competitors are PayPal, Square, Adyen, and Braintree..."
This entire flow—from tap to response—typically takes 3-10 seconds depending on the complexity of the request and which tools the AI needs to use. For simple conversational messages, it's often under 2 seconds.
Design Philosophy
Unlike cloud AI services, OpenClaw runs on infrastructure you control. Your conversations, your memories, your files—they stay on your server. The only external call is to the AI API, and even that can be replaced with local models if you prefer complete privacy.
Every component is a plugin. Don't use Discord? Don't enable the Discord channel. Need calendar access? Enable that skill. This modularity keeps the system lean and lets you customize exactly what your assistant can do.
Configuration is YAML. Memory is Markdown. Logs are plain text. There's no proprietary database to decode—you can SSH in and read exactly what OpenClaw knows, thinks, and does. This transparency builds trust and makes debugging trivial.
The skill system is designed for growth. Want to connect a new API? Write a skill. Need a custom workflow? Skills can call other skills. The architecture anticipates that your needs will evolve, and it's built to evolve with you.
Now that you understand how OpenClaw works, you're ready to build one. The setup takes about 30 minutes and doesn't require coding experience.
Start the Setup Guide