Advanced Use Cases and Integrations
Server monitoring, email pipelines, GitHub automation, Nextcloud integration, Tailscale networking, and multi-agent team configurations.
Use Case 1: VPS Server Monitoring via Telegram
Turn your OpenClaw into a monitoring agent that interrupts you in Telegram when something goes wrong.
openclaw skills install system-health
openclaw skills install docker-control# Disk space alert: every 2 hours, alert if any partition over 85%
openclaw cron add \
--name "disk-alert" \
--schedule "0 */2 * * *" \
--agent personal-agent \
--channel telegram \
--prompt "Check disk usage. If any partition is above 85%, alert with partition name, usage, and top 5 directories. Otherwise stay silent."
# Memory alert: every 30 minutes
openclaw cron add \
--name "memory-alert" \
--schedule "*/30 * * * *" \
--agent personal-agent \
--channel telegram \
--prompt "Check memory. If available is below 512 MB, alert with totals and top 5 processes. Otherwise stay silent."
# Failed services: every 15 minutes
openclaw cron add \
--name "service-check" \
--schedule "*/15 * * * *" \
--agent personal-agent \
--channel telegram \
--prompt "Check for failed systemd services. If any have failed, list them with last 5 log lines each. Only alert on failures."Interactive Commands from Telegram
- "What's the current load average?" — runs
uptime - "Show me the top CPU processes" — runs
top -bn1 | head -20 - "How much space is left on /var?" — runs
df -h /var - "Restart the Nginx container" — runs
docker restart nginx
Use Case 2: Email Management Pipeline
openclaw skills install gmail
openclaw skills gmail auth
# Scope permissions carefully:
# gmail.readonly, gmail.compose, gmail.modify
# Only add gmail.send if you want autonomous sendingopenclaw cron add \
--name "email-briefing" \
--schedule "0 7 * * *" \
--agent personal-agent \
--channel telegram \
--prompt "Review emails since yesterday 7 AM. Categorize: (1) Requires response today, (2) Read-only, (3) Archive. Draft replies for category 1, under 100 words each."openclaw cron add \
--name "followup-check" \
--schedule "0 16 * * 1-5" \
--agent personal-agent \
--channel telegram \
--prompt "Search Sent folder for emails from the past 5 days without replies. List subject, recipient, and date. Exclude newsletters and CCs."Use Case 3: GitHub Workflow Automation
openclaw skills install github
openclaw skills github auth
# Generate a PAT with scopes: repo, notifications, read:org# Daily GitHub digest
openclaw cron add \
--name "github-digest" \
--schedule "0 9 * * 1-5" \
--agent work-agent \
--channel slack \
--prompt "Check GitHub notifications from 24h. Group by repo, summarize PRs needing review, assigned issues, mentions. Include links."
# Stale PR check
openclaw cron add \
--name "pr-stale-check" \
--schedule "0 10 * * 1,3,5" \
--agent work-agent \
--channel slack \
--prompt "Check all open PRs. Flag any open >7 days with no activity, merge conflicts, or failing CI."Interactive queries: "Create an issue titled 'Fix pagination bug'", "List open issues tagged 'help wanted'", "Summarize the last 10 commits to main".
Use Case 4: Nextcloud Integration
openclaw skills install webdav
openclaw skills install ical-calendar
openclaw skills webdav configure \
--base-url "https://nextcloud.yourdomain.com/remote.php/dav/files/username/" \
--username "your-nextcloud-username" \
--password "your-app-password"Use cases: meeting notes capture to Markdown files, document search across WebDAV, file-based activity reports ("What files in Projects/ClientName were modified this week?").
Use Case 5: Tailscale Private Networking
The highest-security deployment: no public ports except SSH, everything runs on the Tailscale network.
# Install Tailscale
curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
sudo tailscale up --authkey tskey-auth-your-key-here
# Expose Control UI on Tailnet only
tailscale serve https:443 / proxy http://127.0.0.1:18789Your Control UI is now at https://your-machine-name.your-tailnet.ts.net — accessible only from Tailnet devices, with no public exposure.
server {
listen 443 ssl;
server_name agent.yourdomain.com;
# Only allow Tailscale IP range
allow 100.64.0.0/10;
deny all;
# ... rest of proxy config
}Use Case 6: Multi-Agent Team Configuration
# Developer agent
openclaw agents create \
--name "dev-agent" \
--system-prompt "Technical assistant for development. Access to GitHub, shell, Docker." \
--model anthropic/claude-opus-4-5 \
--skills "github,shell,docker-control,web-search"
# Operations agent
openclaw agents create \
--name "ops-agent" \
--system-prompt "Operations assistant. Focus on system health and incident response." \
--model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5 \
--skills "system-health,docker-control,shell"
# Content agent (no infrastructure access)
openclaw agents create \
--name "content-agent" \
--system-prompt "Content and marketing assistant. Writing, research, planning." \
--model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5 \
--skills "web-search,browser,notion,gmail"# Route Slack channels to specific agents
openclaw channels slack set-channel-agent --channel-id DEV_CHANNEL_ID --agent dev-agent
openclaw channels slack set-channel-agent --channel-id OPS_CHANNEL_ID --agent ops-agentKeeping OpenClaw Updated
# Check current version
openclaw --version
# Update
npm update -g openclaw
# Restart after updating
openclaw gateway restartCheck the CHANGELOG before updating — skill API changes occasionally require configuration updates. Test on staging first if running critical automations.
Production Maintenance Checklist
# Weekly
openclaw doctor
openclaw skills log --outbound --since "7 days ago" | grep -v known-domains
npm outdated -g openclaw
# Monthly
openclaw agents memory --prune --older-than 30d
ls -la ~/.openclaw/credentials/
sudo fail2ban-client status sshd
certbot renew --dry-run🎉 Series Complete
You now have a VPS running OpenClaw with a hardened Ubuntu server, persistent Gateway, multiple messaging channels, a configured LLM, curated skills, scheduled automations, webhook integrations, and optional Tailscale networking. Total ongoing cost: your VPS plan plus LLM API usage — typically $10-25/month for personal use.
