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Your first week with an AI agent: a plan

A suggested path through our guides for your first seven days: from ordering the agent to your first useful task, a backup, and a look at your costs. Go faster or slower as you like.
Time needed A few minutes to about half an hour a day, for 7 days
You need An email address you can read, a payment method, and an account with an AI provider (for example Anthropic for Claude)
Result A working agent that talks to you, does one real task, is backed up, and costs what you expect

The times below are the Time needed from each guide.

Day 1: choose and order

  1. Read Which agent should I choose? (3 minutes). In short: Hermes to chat with an assistant that learns, n8n to automate work between apps, OpenClaw to send tasks by message.
  2. Order an AI agent (about 5 minutes, plus a few minutes while it is installed).
  3. Read the "Your agent is ready" email (2 minutes). Keep it safe: it contains your password.
  4. Take the tour of your agent in the client area (5 minutes).

Done when: your agent shows ACTIVE in Services → My Services.

Day 2: connect the AI

Your agent needs an API key from an AI provider before it can answer.

  1. Connect Hermes to Claude (3 minutes).
  2. Say hello in the dashboard Chat (2 minutes).
  1. Sign in and build your first AI agent with Claude (15 minutes). In n8n the key goes inside n8n, as a credential.
  1. First steps with OpenClaw (10 minutes). Wait one or two minutes after Save and apply before you open the dashboard.

Then read How much will the AI cost me? (5 minutes) and set a spending limit with your AI provider.

Done when: the agent answers a question.

Day 3: connect a chat app

Read WhatsApp, Telegram or Discord: which channel? (5 minutes), then connect one channel:

  • The client area Settings tab has a Telegram bot section. See the Hermes Telegram guide for how to create the bot. Guides for other OpenClaw channels are coming soon.

Done when: Hermes answers your message on your phone, or n8n shows Connection tested successfully for your Telegram credential.

Day 4: your first useful task

  1. Set the home channel: send /sethome in the chat where you want results (Schedule a recurring task).
  2. Try a recipe: Reminders on Telegram (2 minutes) or A morning briefing every weekday (5 minutes).

Try a recipe: An AI helper that turns rough notes into customer emails (15 minutes) or Telegram alert when your website is down (20 minutes).

Take a tour of the OpenClaw dashboard (10 minutes) and see which skills are ready (5 minutes).

More ideas: Recipes.

Done when: your Hermes job or n8n workflow has run once and you saw the result.

Day 5: make it yours

Day 6: back up and lock down

Back up your Hermes agent (3 minutes). The backup contains your keys: keep it somewhere safe, not in email or chats.

Download a workflow and import it back (5 minutes) for each workflow you built.

Download the files you want to keep from the agent's folder (/home/node/.openclaw) with the Files tab (Terminal and files in the browser).

Then go through Keep your agent safe: a checklist.

Done when: you have a backup on your computer and only people you know can talk to the agent.

Day 7: check your costs and know what to do if it breaks

  1. Open your AI provider's console and look at what the week cost. OpenClaw also shows an estimate in Pages → Usage (OpenClaw dashboard tour).
  2. If it is more than you expected, follow How to keep the cost down: a smaller model (Change the AI model Hermes uses, 2 minutes), fewer scheduled runs (Pause in Hermes CRON, Unpublish test workflows in n8n).
  3. Read My agent stopped answering and Restart, Update or Reinstall: which one?, so you know what to do before you need it.
  4. Check when your next invoice is due: See, download and pay your invoices. If you ordered with a free trial code, pay the next invoice before its DUE DATE to keep your agent.

Check that it worked

At the end of the week:

  • The agent answers you in the dashboard and in your chat app.
  • At least one task runs on its own and its result reaches you.
  • You have a backup, and a spending limit with your AI provider.

Common problems

The dashboard does not open

Go back to the client area and click Open dashboard again. More: The dashboard does not open.

The agent stopped answering

Check your AI provider's credit and key first, then Restart. More: My agent stopped answering.

I don't understand a word in a guide

See the Glossary.

Next steps