Getting Started with PinchKit

Welcome to PinchKit! You're about to deploy your own AI assistant that can help you with everything from coding to managing your infrastructure. Let's get you up to speed.

What is PinchKit?

PinchKit is like having a really smart friend who lives in the cloud and never sleeps. It's managed hosting for OpenClaw AI assistants — simple as that.

You can totally run OpenClaw yourself for free if you want, PinchKit just makes it stupid easy by handling all the hosting for you. We take care of the servers, updates, and all that boring stuff so you can focus on what your AI does.

Think of it as your personal AI sidekick that can:

How it works

Here's the deal — PinchKit runs OpenClaw (an open-source AI assistant) on cloud servers, so you don't have to worry about setting up your own infrastructure. OpenClaw is totally free and open-source, we just handle the hosting.

Your AI assistant gets its smarts from your own LLM API key (we recommend Anthropic's Claude, but you can use others). You bring your own key, so you control your AI costs and conversations directly.

The Magic Behind the Scenes

1. Your Agent: A personalized AI assistant running OpenClaw

2. Plugins: Pre-built tools that give your agent superpowers

3. Cloud Infrastructure: We handle the boring server stuff

4. Secure: Your API keys are encrypted and your data stays private

Your First Steps

Ready to get started? Here's what you'll do:

1. Choose Your Plan

We've got two tiers:

- Light ($8/mo): Perfect for personal projects and light usage

- Pro ($49.99/mo): For power users who want all the plugins and SSH access

You can totally run OpenClaw yourself for free if you want — PinchKit just makes it stupid easy by handling all the hosting for you. No free trial needed, just pick a plan and you're live in 60 seconds.

2. Pick Your Plugins

Choose from the plugin ecosystem on Lobstash (lobstash.ai):

- GitHub: Repository management and code operations

- Vercel: Deploy web applications and static sites

- Render: Cloud service management and monitoring

- EVM Wallet: Ethereum blockchain interactions

- Namecheap: Domain registration and DNS management

- Polymarket: Prediction market trading

Plugins come from Lobstash, the open plugin directory. You can browse and install them independently, or even build and publish your own. The ecosystem is community-driven, not corporate.

3. Get Your Anthropic API Key

Head over to [console.anthropic.com](https://console.anthropic.com) and grab an API key. It should start with sk-ant-. This is what powers your agent's brain.

4. Connect Messaging (Optional)

Want to chat with your agent on Telegram? We'll help you set that up too.

What You'll Need

Cool Things You Can Do

Once your agent is running, you can:

For Developers:

For Crypto Users:

For Everyone:

Next Steps

Ready to create your agent? Hit that "Create Agent" button and we'll walk you through the setup step by step.

Need help with something specific? Check out our other guides:

- Connecting Telegram — Set up messaging with your agent

- Plugins 101 — Learn about all available plugins

- Custom Personality — Make your agent uniquely yours

Questions? Something not working? Check out Troubleshooting or reach out to our community.

Let's build something awesome! 🎉