After spending several hours on setup, I now have a working local AI coding assistant powered by Claude Sonnet 4.6 running on my Debian machine using OpenClaw.
What I Achieved:
- Installed and configured OpenClaw successfully
- Connected it to Claude Sonnet 4.6 using my Anthropic API key
- Completed the full onboarding and pairing process
- Created a clean test project with proper file structure (main.py, config, memory handling, and basic tools)
- The agent (which I named Rook) can now chat, read files, run commands, and maintain conversation memory
The setup runs locally via the web interface at http://localhost:18789. Everything stays on my own hardware with full privacy and control.
Why This Is Cool:
Having a powerful AI coding assistant that runs locally removes reliance on cloud services and gives me better control over cost, privacy, and customization.
Next steps will include testing its coding capabilities, improving the agent skeleton, and possibly adding mobile access later.
Current Status: Fully operational on Debian Linux.