Building a Personal AI Assistant with OpenClaw (Discord)

Scenarios

With the advancement of AI technologies, personal AI assistants have become essential tools for improving work efficiency and quality of life. In daily online communication, people often need to interact with various AI assistants to obtain information or complete tasks. However, these AI assistants are usually limited to specific platforms or models, and have certain usage restrictions. As a result, users have to frequently switch between different platforms. This increases operation complexity.

OpenClaw (formerly known as Moltbot and clawdbot) is a continuously running AI agent that can invoke multiple large language models. Acting as a gateway, OpenClaw lets you interact with multiple AI models through messaging channels. This eliminates the need to switch between different platforms and streamlines the operation process.

This section describes how to deploy the OpenClaw application image on a FlexusL instance and integrate it with Discord to quickly build a personal AI assistant.

The OpenClaw application image provided by FlexusL is installed using official open-source scripts. Before deploying the image, read and acknowledge the risks described in OpenClaw Risk Notice and Security Suggestions.

The following steps describe how to purchase a FlexusL instance and configure a messaging channel from scratch. If some of the steps have been completed, you can skip them.

Step 1: Deploy a FlexusL Instance with the OpenClaw Application Image

You can deploy the OpenClaw application image on a new or an existing FlexusL instance.

Step 2: Create a Discord Bot

1. Sign in to the Discord development portal and click New Application.

   

2. Enter the custom bot name, read and agree to the terms, and click Create.

   

3. On the Applications page, choose Bot from the left navigation pane and click Reset Token to generate a new token.

   

   If authentication is required, enter the password of your Discord account.

   

   Copy and keep the token secure for subsequent OpenClaw configuration.

   

4. On the bot configuration page, scroll down to Privileged Gateway Intents and enable the following intents as needed:
   • Message Content Intent: Mandatory. This is required for your bot to read messages. If disabled, the bot cannot read or reply to messages.
   • Server Members Intent: Recommended.
   • Presence Intent: Recommended.

   Enable the required intents and click Save Changes.

   

5. In the left navigation pane, choose OAuth2. In the OAuth2 URL Generator module, configure the permissions under Scopes. You are advised to select bot and applications.commands based on the principle of least privilege (PoLP).

   

6. Configure the permissions under Bot Permissions. Select View Channels, Send Messages, Embed Links, Attach Files, Read Message History, and Add Reactions (optional).

   

7. Copy the generated URL at the bottom of the page and open it in a browser.

   

8. In the displayed dialog box, select the Discord server to be added. This requires you to have the administrator permissions of the server.

   

9. (Optional) If you have not created a server, you can create one on the Discord home page.

   

10. After selecting a server, click Continue to perform authorization.

    

11. Check that the server is added successfully. Information shown in the following figure is displayed.

    

Step 3: Configure the OpenClaw Application

1. Log in to the FlexusL console.
2. Click Configure Now on the target FlexusL instance card.

   If Configure Now is not displayed, click the resource card to go to the resource details page and choose Application Management from the left navigation pane.

   

   Some functions of the OpenClaw application image (such as querying gateway status and updating models and application configurations) depend on Cloud Operations Center (COC). You need to enable and authorize COC before using these functions. If the content in the following figure is displayed, enable and authorize COC as prompted.

   

3. In the Application Management card, view the application details and manage the application as needed.

   If the page has not been refreshed for a long time or you need to check whether the gateway status has been changed, click to view the latest version and status.

   

   Table 1 Application details

   Application details	Example	Description
   Version	2026.3.24	OpenClaw version.
   Status	Running	OpenClaw gateway status. Running: The OpenClaw service is working normally. Unknown/Unhealthy: The initial status of the OpenClaw gateway is Loading. If the status changes to Unknown or Unhealthy after several minutes, click Restart. The restart takes some time. After the gateway is restarted successfully, the status changes to Running. NOTE: If the gateway status is still Unknown or Unhealthy after you click Restart, submit a service ticket.

   For details about application management, see OpenClaw application details and management operations.

4. In the model configuration area, configure models and channels and install skills as needed.

   Configure Models

   1. In the Models card, select Custom and enter required model parameters in JSON format in the text box.
      • base_url: The API address of the model.

        Custom models only support OpenAI-compatible API addresses, for example, https://api.openai.com/v1. Obtain the OpenAI-compatible API address from the model provider.

      • api_key: The API key of the model provider.
      • model_id: The unique identifier of the model.
   2. Click Add Model. After the models are added, you can view them in the model list.

      

   3. Manage the models by referring to Table 2.

   Configure Channels

   1. In the Channels card, configure required parameters and click Add Bot.

      Table 2 Bot configuration parameters

      Parameter	Example	Description
      Channels	Discord	Select the channels to be connected.
      Bot details	Bxxxxxxtoken	Token: Enter the token of the bot created in step 2.

   2. After the bot is configured, view it in the connected channels list.

      

      

      You can add more bots as needed. A maximum of 10 bots are allowed for all channels.

   3. Expand bot details and click Role Settings to configure the bot's persona (SOUL.md) and instructions (AGENTS.md). Markdown is supported. You can edit content in the left pane and check the displayed content in the right pane. For example, to create a heading, add number signs (#) in front of a word or phrase. The number of number signs indicates the heading level. Each number sign must be followed by a space.

      We provide templates for role settings. You can click Templates, select a template as needed, and click Apply. After the template is applied, you can modify it as needed. For details, see Example OpenClaw Role Setting.

      

   4. To modify a bot alias, click the edit button next to the alias and specify a new one that is easy to identify.
   5. To delete a bot, click the delete button on the right of the target bot. Once deleted, the bot will be unavailable. Exercise caution when performing this operation.

   Configure Skills (Optional)

   1. In the Skills card, view the installed skills in the installed skills list, including the skills preconfigured in the OpenClaw application image.

      

   2. Install official skills online. For details about the skills, see ClawHub Skills. Click the target skill to go to the skill details page and obtain the skill name from the CLI commands. For example, if you want to install Skill Vetter, obtain the skill name skill-vetter from the CLI commands. If you use Skill Vetter as the skill name, the installation will fail.

      

   3. Enter the name of the skill to be installed in the text box and click Install Skills.

      Confirm the skill name and click OK.

      

   4. After the installation is successful, view the installed skills in the installed skills list.
      

      

      If the system displays a message indicating that the ClawHub community is busy and the installation fails, see What Should I Do If Skills Failed to Be Installed?

(Optional) Step 4: Configure Security Groups

When you create a FlexusL instance, the system automatically creates a default security group (sg-default-smb) and associates it with the instance. The default security group only allows instances in the security group to communicate with each other but denies all external requests by default. In this example, use the default security group and default security group rules. You can perform the following operations to view and configure the security group rules.

1. Log in to the FlexusL console and click the target resource card or instance name to go to the instance details page.
2. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Cloud Servers and click the target server name to view its details.

   

3. Click the Security Groups tab and check that the default security group rules are used.

   You can also add more rules as needed. For details, see Configuring Security Group Rules for a FlexusL Instance.

   

   If the source of an inbound rule is set to 0.0.0.0/0 or ::/0, then all external IP addresses are either allowed or denied to access your instances, depending on if the action is Allow or Deny. If the access is allowed, exposing high-risk ports, such as port 22, 3389, or 8848, to the public network will leave your instances vulnerable to network intrusions, service interruptions, data leaks, or ransomware attacks. You should only configure trusted IP addresses for the source in security group rules.

   

   Table 3 Security group rules

   Priority	Action	Type	Protocol & Port	Source	Description
   1	Allow	IPv4	TCP: All	sg-default-smb	Allows instances in the security group to communicate with each other over IPv4 protocols.
   1	Allow	IPv6	TCP: All	sg-default-smb	Allows instances in the security group to communicate with each other over IPv6 protocols.

Step 5: Verify the Bot Conversation

1. Return to the Discord platform. In the contact list of the Discord server, click the bot added in step 2.

   Type your message in the direct message chat box to start a conversation.

   

2. Check that the bot can have a conversation with you.

   

(Optional) Step 6: Reset the Password and Log In to the FlexusL Instance

A FlexusL instance does not have an initial password. After creating a FlexusL instance, you need to set a password before logging in to it. For details, see Resetting the Password for a FlexusL Instance.

1. Locate the resource card and choose > Reset Password. Alternatively, in the list view, click Reset Password in the Operation column to reset the password for the FlexusL instance.
   Figure 1 Resetting a password
   
2. Locate the resource card and click Remote Login. Alternatively, in the list view, click Remote Login in the Operation column. In the displayed dialog box, click VNC Login and enter the username and password as prompted to log in to the FlexusL instance. For more login methods, see Login Modes.

   The username is root, and the password is the one you set in the previous step.

   

Helpful Links

• To configure or modify the connected AI models or channels, see Configuring the OpenClaw Application.
• You are advised to select 2 vCPUs | 4 GiB of memory or higher to run the OpenClaw application image. To upgrade specifications, see Modifying the Specifications of a FlexusL Instance.
• For OpenClaw FAQs, see OpenClaw FAQs.