Getting started with PicoClaw in a Raspberry pi

This is how I started my first AI assistant using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (link here) and PicoClaw (link here), a lightweight version made in Go lang of Moltbot. I can chat to Pico via Telegram bot.

PicoClaw is an ultra-lightweight personal AI Assistant inspired by nanobot, refactored from the ground up in Go through a self-bootstrapping process, where the AI agent itself drove the entire architectural migration and code optimization.

Initially I used this Raspberry PI as a DNS proxy with Pi Hole (link here) but now allocates PicoPauly assistant.

Getting started.

1. Prepare your Raspberry

Setup your Raspberry Pi. Must be connected to internet. You can follow this simple tutorial on how to install a Linux distribution in your RBP.

Once you can connect to your RBP via SSH this step is done.

2. Install PicoClaw in your Raspberry

- Log in into your RBP.

- Based in the arch of your RBP you can download the correct binary. I would recommend to download a binary instead doing the build by yourself, the RBP will not have enough resources to make the build.

- In my case, I downloaded the arm64 version 0.2.2. This one the latest at this moment.

Run this to fetch, and setup your pico bin ready to be used as a new service.

mkdir ~/picoclaw && cd ~/picoclaw # Create directory
wget https://github.com/sipeed/picoclaw/releases/download/v0.2.2/picoclaw_Linux_arm64.tar.gz # Get Pico bin
tar -xzf picoclaw_Linux_arm64.tar.gz # Unpack bin
sudo mv ~/picoclaw/picoclaw /usr/local/bin/ # Move bin to be executed for the current user in any directory
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/picoclaw # This will add permissions to run the executable by this user

# Now you can run this
picoclaw onboard # This script will create a new json file with the config to communicate with you and any model 

3. Setup your channels and your model

We must specify the channels and the model provider we want to use for our agent. In my case I used Telegram and OpenAI.

Let's edit the PicoClaw file to specify this:

# Edit the config file
nano /home/pi/.picoclaw/config.json 

Updated 2 things:

• channel.telegram
• agents.defaults

To use Telegram as channel we need to have 2 things:

•  Bot token - our bot ID token
• Chat Id - our user ID to be accepted by the bot.

To get this we need to:

1. Create a telegram bot:

• Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
• Send /newbot, follow the prompts
• Copy the bot token

2. Get Your User ID

• Message @userinfobot on Telegram
• Copy your User ID

3. Update the file

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "enabled": true, // update it to true
      "token": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN", // put the bot token
      "allow_from": ["YOUR_USER_ID"] // add your chat ID as string
    }
  }
}

Then, we need to get our OpenAI API token:

Edit ~/.picoclaw/config.json:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "workspace": "~/.picoclaw/workspace",
      "model_name": "gpt-5.4", // The model name should match with 
      "max_tokens": 32768,
      "max_tool_iterations": 50
    }
  },
  "model_list": [
    {
      "model_name": "gpt-5.4", // The model name should match with the one in agents prop
      "model": "openai/gpt-5.4",
      "api_key": "your-api-key" // Put here your api key
    },
    {
      "model_name": "claude-sonnet-4.6", // Example using Claude
      "model": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
      "api_key": "your-anthropic-key"
    }
  ]
}

Save the file and test the configuration:

# One-shot chat
picoclaw agent -m "What is 2+2?"

At this point our PicoClaw can be used with Telegram. Let's do it! Run this:

# Interactive mode
picoclaw agent

In your Telegram app:

1. Search for your bot you've created before with the name you've set.

2. Send the /start text.

3. If you receive a response this has been completed and plugged in.

Now you can Start the PicoClaw as a service that will start on boot. To do this we must:

# Create a boot file
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/picoclaw.service

Put this inside the file:

[Unit]
Description=Picoclaw Gateway
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=pi
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/picoclaw gateway
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload the services list

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Start the service

sudo systemctl start picoclaw

Check the PicoClaw service

sudo systemctl status picoclaw
# or
systemctl is-enabled picoclaw

Check the live logs

journalctl -u picoclaw -f

Now, your service is live and you will be able to use it remotely.

Happy hacking!