Node runtime

Node.js

OpenClaw requires Node 22 or newer. The installer script will detect and install Node automatically — this page is for when you want to set up Node yourself and make sure everything is wired up correctly (versions, PATH, global installs).

Check your version

node -v

If this prints v22.x.x or higher, you’re good. If Node isn’t installed or the version is too old, pick an install method below.

Install Node

brew install node

Using a version manager (nvm, fnm, mise, asdf)

Troubleshooting

openclaw: command not found

This almost always means npm’s global bin directory isn’t on your PATH.

Step 1: Find your global npm prefix

npm prefix -g

Step 2: Check if it's on your PATH

echo "$PATH"

Look for <npm-prefix>/bin (macOS/Linux) or <npm-prefix> (Windows) in the output.

Step 3: Add it to your shell startup file

export PATH="$(npm prefix -g)/bin:$PATH"

Permission errors on npm install -g (Linux)

If you see EACCES errors, switch npm’s global prefix to a user-writable directory:

mkdir -p "$HOME/.npm-global"
npm config set prefix "$HOME/.npm-global"
export PATH="$HOME/.npm-global/bin:$PATH"

Add the export PATH=... line to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc to make it permanent.

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