OpenClaw Setup, Configuration, and Key Takeaways

I set up OpenClaw on macOS with Telegram as my primary channel. The initial setup was quick, but I hit pairing and health-check failures that caused the first message to hang. This post captures what worked, what broke, and the operating policy I now use by default. Environment macOS desktop app + CLI Node v22.14.0 OpenClaw 2026.2.19-2 Telegram bot channel enabled 1. Baseline setup I started with the gateway and channel checks: openclaw gateway probe openclaw status --deep That verified: Gateway reachable on ws://127.0.0.1:18789 Telegram configured and healthy Agent session available 2. Pairing the macOS app My first blocker was: gateway closed (1008): pairing required I inspected pending and paired devices and approved the app request: openclaw devices list --json openclaw devices approve <request-id> --json This ensured the macOS app had the expected auth state and roles. 3. Debugging "health check failed" and hanging sends After pairing, the app still showed a failed health check an