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Mac Mini Personal Agent Setup

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Short setup notes for turning a fresh Mac Mini into a personal agent machine: reset macOS, install the development basics, set up Codex, create a private knowledge repo, connect a Telegram bot, and let OpenClaw send daily task reminders.

Reset macOS

On the Mac Mini:

  1. Apple menu -> System Settings
  2. General -> Transfer or Reset
  3. Erase All Content and Settings
  4. Follow the assistant and confirm the erase.

After reboot:

  1. Choose language, country, and Wi-Fi.
  2. Migration Assistant: Not Now.
  3. Sign in with Apple ID if desired.
  4. Create the main admin user.
  5. Enable FileVault.
  6. Disable analytics sharing.
  7. Open System Settings -> General -> Sharing.
  8. Turn on Remote Login.
  9. Optional: turn on Screen Sharing.
  10. Set the computer name, for example agent-mini.

Development Setup

Follow the macOS dev setup flow, but skip the OS upgrade step.

Install Homebrew:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install baseline tools:

brew install nvm git gh
mkdir -p ~/.nvm

Add nvm to ~/.zshrc:

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "/opt/homebrew/opt/nvm/nvm.sh" ] && . "/opt/homebrew/opt/nvm/nvm.sh"

Install Node:

source ~/.zshrc
nvm install --lts
nvm use --lts

Install editor and terminal tools:

brew install --cask visual-studio-code ghostty font-jetbrains-mono-nerd-font
brew install starship
echo 'eval "$(starship init zsh)"' >> ~/.zshrc

Set up GitHub SSH:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Add the public key in GitHub:

Settings -> SSH and GPG keys -> New SSH key

Authenticate GitHub CLI:

gh auth login

Codex and Optional Agent Tools

This setup focuses on Codex because OpenClaw needs it. Claude Code and OpenCode are optional extra agent CLIs.

Install Codex:

curl -fsSL https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.sh | sh

Optional:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
curl -fsSL https://opencode.ai/install | bash

Authenticate Codex:

codex

For Codex, choose Sign in with ChatGPT unless the machine is intended for API-key-based automation.

If you installed the optional tools, authenticate those too:

claude
opencode

Private Knowledge Repository

Create a private GitHub repository for personal knowledge:

mkdir -p ~/src/personal-knowledge
cd ~/src/personal-knowledge
git init
gh repo create personal-knowledge --private --source=. --remote=origin

A simple OKF-style layout works well:

personal-knowledge/
  index.md
  tasks/
    inbox.md
  people/
  projects/
  references/

Example index.md:

---
type: Index
title: Personal Knowledge
description: Private knowledge base for local agents.
---

# Personal Knowledge

- [[tasks/inbox]]
- [[projects]]
- [[people]]

Example tasks/inbox.md:

---
type: Task List
title: Task Inbox
---

# Task Inbox

- [ ] 2026-06-13: Set up Mac Mini personal agent
- [ ] Renew passport (recurring: yearly, next: 2027-01-01) - see [[passport-renewal]]

Use one checkbox per task, dates as YYYY-MM-DD, and next: for recurring tasks.

Telegram Bot

In Telegram:

  1. Open @BotFather.
  2. Run /newbot.
  3. Pick a display name.
  4. Pick a username ending in bot.
  5. Save the bot token.
  6. Optional settings:
    • /setdescription
    • /setuserpic
    • /setprivacy

Keep privacy enabled unless the bot must read all group messages.

OpenClaw

Install and onboard OpenClaw:

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash
openclaw onboard --install-daemon
openclaw gateway status

During onboarding:

  1. Choose OpenAI or Codex auth if offered.
  2. Use the Codex or ChatGPT login already created above.
  3. Configure Telegram with the BotFather token.
  4. Keep the direct-message policy as pairing or allowlist, not public open access.

If configuring manually, use ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

{
  channels: {
    telegram: {
      enabled: true,
      botToken: "PASTE_BOTFATHER_TOKEN",
      dmPolicy: "pairing"
    }
  }
}

Start and pair:

openclaw gateway restart
openclaw logs --follow

Message the Telegram bot, then approve the pairing code:

openclaw pairing list telegram
openclaw pairing approve telegram <CODE>

Daily Task Reminder

Create a daily OpenClaw reminder:

openclaw cron create "0 8 * * *" \
  "Read ~/src/personal-knowledge/tasks/inbox.md. Send me a short reminder of overdue and due-today tasks." \
  --name "Daily personal task reminder" \
  --tz "America/Los_Angeles" \
  --session isolated \
  --announce \
  --channel telegram \
  --to "<YOUR_TELEGRAM_USER_ID>"

If you do not know your Telegram user ID, ask the bot directly. It can walk through sending a message to the bot and reading the Telegram chat ID from the bot updates.

Check it:

openclaw cron list
openclaw cron run <job-id> --wait
openclaw doctor
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