Open Claw Is Here 🦞

The AI assistant that actually does things — and your Cloud Factory API token is the key to unlocking it.

What Is OpenClaw, and Why Should European MSPs Care?

If you have been anywhere near X (Twitter) or developer communities in the last few weeks, you have probably seen the lobster. OpenClaw is an open-source, self-hosted AI assistant created by Peter Steinberger that has taken the tech world by storm.

With over 145,000 GitHub stars, features in Forbes and WIRED, and its own community conference (ClawCon), this is not just another chatbot. It is a full-blown AI agent that lives on your machine and actually does things.

Think of it as having a tireless digital employee that you can text on WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, or Discord:

- "Hey, check my inbox and summarize the important ones." ✅ Done.
- "Schedule a meeting with the team for Thursday." ✅ Done.
- "Find the latest Microsoft pricing changes and write me a summary." ✅ It opens a browser, researches, and delivers results.

As one user put it: "It's everything Siri was supposed to be. And it goes so much further."

For MSPs managing hundreds of Microsoft 365 subscriptions, Azure environments, and customer relationships across Europe — this is not a toy. This is a tool that can fundamentally change how you work.

What Makes OpenClaw Different from ChatGPT?

The key difference is right there in the tagline: "The AI that actually does things."

ChatGPT and Claude are amazing at generating text and answering questions. But when you close the tab, they forget you exist. OpenClaw is different in three fundamental ways:

1. It Runs on Your Machine

Whether it is a Mac Mini in your server room, an old laptop, or a €5/month cloud VPS, OpenClaw runs where you control it. Your data stays yours.

It connects to an AI model (Claude, GPT, or even open-source models like DeepSeek) for the "brains," but all the context, memory, and execution happens locally.

This is huge for European MSPs who care about data sovereignty and GDPR compliance — which should be all of you.

2. It Remembers You

OpenClaw maintains persistent memory across conversations. It learns your preferences, remembers your customers, knows your workflows.

Tell it once that "we always bill in EUR and our fiscal year starts in July" and it will never forget. Over time it becomes uniquely yours, almost like onboarding a new team member who gets smarter every day.

3. It Takes Action

This is the big one. OpenClaw can:

- Browse the web
- Manage files
- Run scripts
- Send emails
- Interact with APIs
- Automate workflows

It is not just answering questions — it is executing tasks. One developer described it as: "A smart model with eyes and hands at a desk with keyboard and mouse. You message it like a coworker and it does everything a person could do."

Why European MSPs Should Be Paying Attention

Let us get specific. Here are real scenarios where OpenClaw can save you hours every week as a Cloud Factory partner:

📊 Morning Briefings

Imagine starting every day with a Telegram message from your AI assistant:

"Good morning. You have 3 subscription renewals expiring this week, 2 new support tickets, and Microsoft just announced a price change on Business Premium. Here is what you need to know."
People are already doing this with OpenClaw, pulling data from calendars, emails, and APIs to create personalized daily briefings.

🎫 License Management Automation

Connect OpenClaw to the Cloud Factory API and let it monitor your customer subscriptions. It can:

- Alert you when licenses are underutilized
- Flag upcoming renewals
- Prepare customer-facing reports
- Provide always-on license intelligence

📧 Customer Communication

Draft emails to customers about upcoming renewals. Prepare quotes based on your pricing in the Partner Portal. Summarize Microsoft's latest product announcements in language your customers actually understand.

OpenClaw can do all of this through a simple message on WhatsApp.

💰 Billing and ERP Integration

If you are already using the Cloud Factory API for billing integration, OpenClaw can help you:

- Troubleshoot API issues
- Generate billing reports
- Flag discrepancies between what you expect and what the API returns

Think of it as a technical co-pilot that never sleeps.

Getting Started: From Zero to Lobster in 20 Minutes

Setting up OpenClaw is surprisingly simple. Here is the quick version:

1. Install OpenClaw

Open your terminal and run:

bash

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

That's it. The installer detects your OS and sets everything up. Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows (via WSL2).

2. Run the Onboarding Wizard

Type openclaw onboard and follow the prompts. Pick "Quick Start" for the fastest path.

You will choose an AI provider (Anthropic's Claude is recommended for best results, but Google Gemini and OpenAI also work).

3. Connect a Chat Platform

The wizard will ask you to set up a messaging channel. Telegram and Discord are the easiest to start with.

For Telegram, just create a bot via @BotFather and paste the token.

4. Hatch Your Lobster 🦞

Give it a name, tell it about yourself, and watch it come to life. From this point, you can talk to it from your phone, your laptop, anywhere.

Pro tip: You do not need expensive hardware. Despite the viral trend of people buying Mac Minis, OpenClaw runs perfectly on a €5/month VPS or any old laptop you have lying around. Even the creator himself has asked people to stop buying Mac Minis just for this.

Connecting OpenClaw to Cloud Factory: Your API Token

This is where it gets really interesting for Cloud Factory partners across Europe. By connecting OpenClaw to the Cloud Factory Partner Portal API, you can give your AI assistant direct access to:

- Subscription data
- Billing information
- Customer management tools

Step 1: Get Your API Token from Cloud Factory

To integrate with the Cloud Factory platform, you need an API token. Head to the Partner Care Knowledge Base for the full authentication guide:

🔑 Authentication Guide - Cloud Factory Partner Care
→ Integrating with our Platform → Authentication

The article walks you through generating your API credentials, which typically includes a Client ID and Client Secret that you will use to authenticate against the Cloud Factory API.

Make sure to store these credentials securely — treat them like passwords.

Step 2: Create an OpenClaw Skill for Cloud Factory

Here is the beautiful part: you do not need to write complex code. Once OpenClaw is running, you can literally tell it in plain language what you want.

For example, message your OpenClaw on Telegram:

💬 You:

"I need you to create a skill that connects to the Cloud Factory API. Here are my API credentials: [Client ID] and [Client Secret]. The base URL is the Cloud Factory Partner Portal API. I want you to be able to check my customer subscriptions, list upcoming renewals, and pull billing summaries."
🦞 Your Claw:
"On it! I'll create a Cloud Factory integration skill. Let me set up the authentication flow, create the API wrapper, and build commands for subscription queries, renewal tracking, and billing summaries. Give me a few minutes..."
OpenClaw will literally write the integration code, test it, and deploy it as a reusable skill — all from a chat message.

This is what people mean when they say it is "self-hackable." The community is already building and sharing skills on ClawHub, a public registry where you can discover and download skills built by others.

Step 3: Start Automating

Once the skill is set up, you can do things like:

- "Show me all customers with expiring subscriptions in the next 30 days"
- "Draft a renewal email for Acme Corp's Microsoft 365 Business Premium licenses"
- "Pull this month's billing data and compare it with last month"
- "Every Monday morning, send me a summary of all subscription changes from the past week"
- "Check if any customer is paying for licenses they are not using"

That last one is the killer use case. License waste detection is something every MSP struggles with, and having an AI agent that proactively monitors and reports on it? That is real value.

A Word on Security

We would not be responsible if we did not mention this: OpenClaw is powerful precisely because it has broad access to your systems. That means security matters.

A few ground rules:

✅ Run it on a dedicated machine or VPS — not your main work laptop. If something goes wrong, you want the blast radius to be small.

✅ Enable consent mode — this requires explicit approval before OpenClaw executes write operations or shell commands.

✅ Keep API credentials secure — use environment variables or a vault, never hardcode them.

✅ Run the security audit regularly — OpenClaw has a built-in security scanner. Use it.

✅ Restrict DM access — use DM pairing so only you can talk to your bot. Do not add it to public group chats.

The Claw Is in Town. Time to Play.

OpenClaw represents something genuinely new: an AI that does not just talk, but works.

For European MSPs who spend hours every week on repetitive admin, license management, and customer communication, this is a tool worth exploring.

The setup takes 20 minutes. The Cloud Factory API integration takes another 10. And once it is running, you will wonder how you ever managed without a digital lobster on your team.

As one early adopter said:

"Using my bot does not feel like using an app. It feels like onboarding an AI employee that I can train to do whatever I want."

Ready to Get Started?

🦞 OpenClaw: openclaw.ai
🔑 Cloud Factory API Auth: Partner Care Knowledge Base
💻 GitHub: github.com/openclaw/openclaw
📦 Community Skills: clawhub.com

Have questions about connecting OpenClaw to the Cloud Factory API? Reach out to our Partner Care team or call us at +45 5350 2020. We are here to help you get the most out of your cloud business.

Source: Cloud Factory Published: February 2026