What Is OpenClaw · Live Workshop · April 26

What Is OpenClaw — and Why Everyone Is Building With It in 2026

OpenClaw is the open-source personal AI assistant that went viral in 2026 with 200K+ GitHub stars. It runs entirely on your own machine, connects to WhatsApp and Telegram, and costs nothing to run. This live workshop shows you exactly how to build with it.

Sunday, April 26 9am to 1pm EDT

4 Hours Hands-on coding

Live Online Interactive

Workshop Details

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Date and Time

Sunday, April 26, 2026

9:00am to 1:00pm EDT

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Duration

4 Hours · Hands-on

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Format

Live Online · Interactive

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Includes

Certificate of Completion

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Privacy

100% Local · No Cloud Required

By Packt Publishing · Refunds up to 10 days before

What Is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw Explained — What It Is and How It Works

OpenClaw is an open-source framework for running a personal AI assistant locally on your own machine. Unlike ChatGPT or Claude, OpenClaw sends no data to any cloud provider — your conversations stay entirely on your hardware.

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What is OpenClaw?

OpenClaw is the open-source personal AI assistant that went viral in early 2026 with 200K+ GitHub stars. It runs on your own devices and connects to WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack and more. No subscription. No data leaving your machine.

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What is Docker Model Runner?

Docker Model Runner is Docker's native feature for running large language models locally on your machine. It gives you an OpenAI-compatible API that OpenClaw uses as its AI brain — complete data privacy, no cloud costs.

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Why Combine OpenClaw and Docker?

OpenClaw gives you the assistant interface and messaging integrations. Docker Model Runner gives you the AI brain running privately on your machine. Together they create a production grade private AI assistant you fully own.

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Why Attend as a Live Workshop?

Setting this up from scattered documentation takes days of debugging. This live workshop gives you a complete guided build in 4 hours with a live instructor answering your questions. Packt has delivered 108 workshops worldwide.

Workshop Curriculum

What You Will Build With OpenClaw in This Live Workshop

Six modules. From understanding what OpenClaw is to a fully deployed private AI assistant.

How OpenClaw Works

Understand the Gateway, channels, and skills architecture. Set up and configure OpenClaw locally from scratch.

Docker Model Runner Setup

Run and manage local LLMs using Docker Model Runner. Pull models, configure memory, and understand the OpenAI-compatible API.

Security and Privacy

Configure DM pairing, allowlists, sandbox mode, and proper access controls for your local AI deployment.

Connect to WhatsApp or Telegram

Deploy your AI assistant to real messaging platforms without sending data to any third party cloud service.

Scalable Architecture

Design an extensible assistant architecture. Add skills, configure personality, and set up proactive automation.

Production Deployment

Deploy your OpenClaw and Docker setup to a VPS for always-on availability running 24 hours a day.

What You Walk Away With

By the End of This Workshop You Will Have

Not just an understanding of OpenClaw — a fully working private AI assistant.

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A fully functional local AI assistant running on your machine

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Docker Model Runner configured with your chosen LLM model

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OpenClaw connected to WhatsApp or Telegram

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Security and privacy configuration you can trust

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A reusable architecture for future AI assistant projects

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Certificate of completion from Packt Publishing

Your Instructor

Learn OpenClaw From Someone Who Has Built With It in Production

A practitioner who has deployed OpenClaw in real production environments.

Rami Krispin

Workshop Instructor · April 26, 2026

Rami is a Senior Manager of Data Science and Engineering, Docker Captain, and LinkedIn Learning Instructor with deep expertise in building and deploying production AI systems. He guides you step by step from a blank terminal to a fully deployed private AI assistant — answering your questions live throughout the 4-hour session.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Questions About OpenClaw

The most common questions developers have about OpenClaw before getting started.

What is OpenClaw exactly? +

OpenClaw is an open-source personal AI assistant framework that runs entirely on your own machine. It connects to messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack and others and uses a locally running large language model as its AI brain — meaning no data is sent to any cloud AI provider. OpenClaw gained 200K+ GitHub stars in early 2026 making it one of the fastest growing open-source AI projects.

How is OpenClaw different from ChatGPT? +

ChatGPT is a cloud-based service that sends your conversations to OpenAI's servers and charges a monthly subscription. OpenClaw runs entirely on your own hardware, uses free open weight models via Docker Model Runner, costs nothing ongoing, and keeps all your data completely private on your own machine.

Is OpenClaw free to use? +

Yes. OpenClaw is fully open source and free to use. The open weight LLMs it runs through Docker Model Runner are also free. The only cost is the hardware you already own. There are no subscriptions, no API keys required, and no usage limits.

What can OpenClaw actually do? +

OpenClaw can answer questions, hold contextual conversations, schedule tasks, set reminders, automate workflows, and connect to the apps you already use like WhatsApp and Telegram. It supports skills that extend its capabilities — making it a genuinely useful daily assistant rather than just a chatbot.

Why did OpenClaw go viral in 2026? +

OpenClaw went viral because it solved a real frustration — developers were tired of paying for AI subscriptions and sending their private data to cloud providers. OpenClaw offered a genuine alternative: a production-grade personal AI assistant that runs privately on your own hardware at zero ongoing cost.

How long does it take to get OpenClaw running? +

Following this live 4-hour workshop, you will have OpenClaw fully installed, configured, connected to a messaging platform, and deployed by the end of the session. On your own without guidance, the same setup typically takes several days of working through documentation and debugging.