I built a one-click installer for OpenClaw AI agent

#opensource #electron #react #ai

If you've ever tried setting up OpenClaw — the
open-source AI agent that runs on Telegram — you know the drill: install Node.js, run a bunch of
npm commands, configure API keys in JSON files, set up a gateway process, figure out why it
won't start...

I kept seeing people in the community give up halfway through the setup. So I built EasyClaw
— a desktop app that handles the entire installation in three clicks.

## What it does

Download → Run → Enter your API key. That's the whole process.

EasyClaw automatically:

Detects your environment (Node.js version, WSL on Windows, etc.)
Installs missing dependencies
Configures OpenClaw with your AI provider (Anthropic, Google Gemini, OpenAI, MiniMax, or GLM)
Sets up a Telegram bot so you can chat with your AI agent from your phone
Runs the gateway process in the background with a system tray icon

## The interesting technical challenges

### Cross-platform WSL automation (Windows)

On macOS, the setup is fairly straightforward — install Node.js, run npm. But Windows doesn't
have a native Unix environment, so OpenClaw runs inside WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux).

Automating WSL installation from an Electron app turned out to be surprisingly tricky:

WSL state machine: WSL can be in 6 different states. Each state needs different handling.
Reboot persistence: WSL installation requires a system reboot. The app saves wizard state to a JSON file with a 24-hour expiry, so users can pick up right where they left off after rebooting.
IPv6 issues: WSL defaults to IPv6 DNS resolution which breaks some network calls. We force NODE_OPTIONS=--dns-result-order=ipv4first when running the gateway.

### Electron lifecycle quirks

The app lives in the system tray. Closing the window doesn't quit the app — it just hides it.
The gateway keeps running in the background and polls for status every 10 seconds.

### 7-step wizard with conditional flow

The installation wizard has 7 steps, but not all are shown to every user. We built a custom
useWizard hook with history tracking for back navigation and goTo() for skipping steps.

## Stack