Run OpenClaw locally on Mac.

Step 1 · Launch via Ollama

One command to start.

$ ollama launch openclaw

Step 2 · Pre-flight memory check

Will your Mac fit it?

OpenClaw pairs best with Qwen 3 32B at Q4_K_M (~19.0 GB). Add ~4–8 GB on top for the agent's working set, plus headroom for the rest of your dev stack. Recommended: 32 GB Mac (minimum 16 GB).

$ devpulse ai --before-load 19456 --auto-clean
before: Won't fit — 6.4 GB short
  - unloaded idle ollama model: qwen2.5:7b (4.2 GB)
  - killed 4 zombie procs (612 MB reclaimed)
after:  Fits comfortably — 3.1 GB headroom

# safe to launch
$ ollama launch openclaw

Why this matters: Watch your stack. Chrome with 50 tabs + Docker can push you over the edge.

Step 3 · Babysit long sessions

Don't lose progress to OOM mid-task.

Agent runs that span hours hit memory pressure as context grows. devpulse babysit watches and auto-cleans without crashing the session.

# in another tmux pane
$ devpulse babysit --target-free-mb 8192 --json > openclaw.log &

# emits NDJSON tick / cleanup events you can checkpoint on:
{"event":"tick","tickNum":47,"availableForAIMB":7200,"pressure":"free<8192MB",...}
{"event":"cleanup","reasons":"free<8192MB","reclaimedMB":5400,...}

Tips for OpenClaw

What we've learned running it.

• Skills auto-install on demand from ClawdHub — context budget grows quickly when many are active. Pre-flight before invoking long-chain workflows
• Mix-and-match: use a frontier API for reasoning, a local 8B for routine messaging — DevPulse's AI memory budget shows headroom for the local side
• Connecting it to many messaging platforms can keep multiple model contexts warm. `devpulse babysit --target-free-mb 4096` keeps idle ones from squeezing a foreground agentic run

Recommended models

Best local pairings for OpenClaw.

Related agents