Web Flash & Get Started

Prerequisites

At this point, you should already have assembled the ESP-Claw breadboard hardware, or prepared other ESP-Claw compatible hardware. You can view the list of ESP-Claw compatible development boards in the GitHub repository. ESP-Claw requires at least 8 MB Flash and 8 MB PSRAM, currently supports ESP32-S3, and is adapting to ESP32-P4.

Before flashing, prepare a computer with Chrome or Edge installed. Web flashing is not available in Firefox for now.

Tip

Advanced: Build from source and flash.

Web flash

1. Connect the board with a data cable

   Connect the board to your PC with a USB data cable. If you are using the breadboard form ESP-Claw, use the USB port labeled UART.

2. Open the web flasher and connect serial

   Web flash Open the web flasher to program ESP-Claw on ESP32

   Open the web flasher, click Connect, and select your board.

3. Configure options

   • Pick the firmware image for your board.

   • Configure Wi-Fi SSID and password (required).

   • Configure LLM: Supports GPT (OpenAI), Qwen (Alibaba Bailian), and Claude (Anthropic). Generate an API Key as prompted and enter it.

     Please select a model with strong reasoning ability

     ESP-Claw’s self-programming, complex tool combination, and other advanced features rely on the ability of strong reasoning models. We recommend using GPT-5.4, Qwen3.6-plus, Claude3.5-sonnet, or similar performance models to get the best experience.

   • Configure chat apps to connect: currently supports Telegram, QQ Bot (OpenClaw), Feishu, and WeChat ClawBot. You can fill several at once.

     Chat app	Setting	Help
     Telegram	Bot token	Telegram Bot docs
     QQ Bot	ID and secret	QQ Bot site
     Feishu	App ID and secret	Feishu doc
     WeChat ClawBot	Automatic configuration via WeChat QR scan	N/A

   • Configure search engine:

     Tip

     After a search engine is configured, ESP-Claw can retrieve up-to-date information from the web. Weather queries also depend on search engine support.

     Tavily is recommended and provides a free quota.

     Open Tavily Dashboard, sign up and sign in, copy an API Key, then paste it into the Tavily field in the web flasher.

   • Configure advanced settings (optional). See Configuration.

4. Flash

   Click Flash and wait for programming to finish.

5. Start using it

   After flashing, the device restarts automatically and is ready to use.

   Note

   If the Wi-Fi SSID or password is incorrect, ESP-Claw may fail to connect. In this case, connect to the SoftAP provided by ESP-Claw and update the config there. ➡️Web config

First interactions

Tip

Boards with a display can show Wi-Fi status on screen. Headless boards can check Wi-Fi status through serial Console or the status display on the Web config page.

Telegram / QQ Bot / WeChat ClawBot are recommended for interacting with ESP-Claw.

• Send a message on a configured IM channel and ESP-Claw replies automatically.
• No reply? ➡️FAQ
• Prefer serial Console? ➡️Console usage

Everyday Q&A

• Hi, what capabilities do you currently have?
• Any AI news lately?
• At 12% annual interest, what will 10,000 become after 3 years?

Hardware control (requires supported hardware)

• Turn the light on / set the light to red
• Draw Hello, ESP-Claw! on the display
• Take a photo and send it to me
• Play a 1s 440Hz beep
• Draw a smiley face on the display

Scheduled reminders

• Remind me to drink water every day at 7am
• Remind me to sleep at 9pm every day
• Remind me to clean every Saturday at 8am

Memory

• Remember that I prefer concise answers
• Do you still remember my name?

Next steps

Console usage Configuration