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A template is a prebuilt agent. Instead of describing what you want an assistant to do and shaping it over days, you pick one that already knows a job — outbound sales, competitor research, data analysis — and it arrives configured: standing instructions, tools, skills, and recurring routines. This page is the whole path, from a machine with nothing installed to an agent messaging you. About 15 minutes, most of it waiting on a download.
Want to build an agent from scratch instead? The quickstart covers the same install without a template, and your first agent builds one by hand.

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Pick what you want first

Choose the agent before you install anything — the installer asks you for it.
  • sales/sdr — researches prospects, enriches contacts, drafts outbound sequences, and keeps the CRM clean. Uses HubSpot and Exa.
  • product/competitor-analysis — tracks competitors into structured docs, a news log, and a spreadsheet you can read.
  • data/analyst — checks pipelines, writes queries, and verifies recurring reports still hold up.
  • media/journalist — monitors a beat, evaluates pitches, finds sources, drafts stories, and preps interviews.
Each template’s own README.md says exactly what it does and which accounts it expects. Skim the one you picked — it’s the best two minutes you can spend before installing.

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Before you start

  • macOS or Linux (WSL works) with 4 GB+ RAM — the installer warns below ~3.7 GB
  • git, to clone the repository
  • A credential for your AI provider — by default Claude (a Pro/Max subscription, an OAuth token, or an Anthropic API key); pick Codex instead and it’s a ChatGPT subscription or an OpenAI API key
  • A NanoClaw account sign-in, if you take the recommended prebuilt sandbox image — a quick browser step during setup. Building the image locally instead needs no account
Everything else — Homebrew on macOS, Node 22, pnpm, Docker, the credential vault — the installer handles. Two caveats from its pre-flight checks: don’t run as root on Linux, and Google Cloud VMs are known not to work. You do not need API keys for the template’s tools yet. Those get connected later, on demand, and never live inside the template.

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The full flow

1

Clone and run the installer

Pre-flight checks run, the basics install under one spinner, then the interactive wizard takes over. If a step fails it offers help inline and resumes from the break rather than starting over.
2

Choose your template

The wizard asks “How should we create your first agent?” early on — before the long download. Pick:
From the NanoClaw template library
It clones the public catalog and lists what’s in it by name, with the ref as a hint beside each row. Pick the one you decided on above, and setup copies it into your install.The other two options are Fresh agent (no template — shape it by chatting) and From local templates (anything already in your templates/ folder).
3

Let the rest of the wizard run

Nothing here is template-specific, and the defaults are good:
  1. Sandbox image — the recommended default downloads a prebuilt hardened image. This is the slow step: a few minutes, or 3–10 if you choose to build locally instead.
  2. Credential vault — installs the vault that holds your API keys. Your agent never sees them directly.
  3. Provider sign-in — press Enter for Claude and sign in, or pick Codex.
  4. Access rules — starts empty. The sandbox only sees what you share later.
  5. Background service — NanoClaw starts under launchd or systemd.
  6. Your name, a first contact check, then timezone.
  7. Channel — connect Telegram (recommended), Discord, WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, Slack, or Teams. Or skip and use the terminal.
Your template is stamped into a working agent, and if you connected a channel it gets wired to it.
4

Say hi

If you connected a channel, your agent messages you first — check your phone. Some templates introduce themselves and ask a few onboarding questions; answer them, they tune how the agent works for you.No channel? Chat from the terminal:
To watch what’s happening under the hood:
5

Connect accounts when the agent asks

Templates ship no API keys. The first time your agent calls a service it isn’t connected to, it replies with a ready-to-open link for that service. Paste your key there and ask it to retry.That’s the whole flow — no setup up front, and the key lands in your vault rather than in the agent’s reach. Details in Credentials.
Some templates rely on paid services. The template’s README.md says which, and which plan you need. You always use your own account.
6

Turn on its routines

Many templates ship recurring work — a morning digest, a weekly review. These arrive paused, so nothing runs in the background until you say so:
See Scheduled tasks for how they behave once live.

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You’re set. What now?

Ask it to do its job

Give it a real task from the template’s README — a prospect to research, a competitor to track. That’s what it was built for.

Make it yours

Tell it to change how it works, in chat. It edits its own standing instructions and remembers.

Add a second agent

Stamp another template anytime with ncl groups create --template <ref>. Each gets its own sandbox and memory.

Keep it current

When a template improves, pull the new version into your running agent without rebuilding it.

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If something went wrong

More in Troubleshooting, or ask in Discord.

Templates

What a template is, what it carries, and what it deliberately leaves out.

Using a template

The full CLI path, ref resolution, and everything stamping creates.

Building a template

Make your own for your team, or for the catalog.

Quickstart

The same install without a template.
Last modified on August 13, 2026