Your OpenClaw bot on ClawCloud is a self-modifying agent. You can reshape its personality and behavior without touching any config files or redeploying — just tell it what you want in plain language.
This guide covers the four things you're most likely to want to change: name, emoji, system prompt, and response prefix.
Bot Name and Emoji
The name and emoji your bot uses to identify itself are set under identity in its config. Both show up in the ClawCloud dashboard config tab (read-only) so you can always check what's currently set.
To change them, just tell your bot:
"Change your name to Aria and use the emoji 🌿."
It will update both simultaneously and confirm. Changes take effect immediately — no restart needed because OpenClaw hot-reloads config changes.
To check the current values, ask your bot to summarize its current identity settings, then verify in the ClawCloud dashboard Config view.
Keep the name short (under 32 characters). Emojis are optional but make it easier to spot the bot in group chats.
System Prompt
The system prompt is the background instruction that shapes everything your bot says and does. It sets personality, tone, expertise area, and any hard rules you want enforced.
To set or replace the system prompt, use the /prompt command:
/prompt You are a concise research assistant. Always cite sources. Never speculate without labeling it as speculation.
Or just describe what you want in natural language:
"From now on, be a friendly cooking assistant that only talks about food and recipes."
The bot will rewrite its own instructions accordingly.
To clear the system prompt back to the OpenClaw default:
/prompt clear
To view the current system prompt, send /prompt with no arguments.
The ClawCloud dashboard shows the current system prompt in the Config tab as a read-only view pulled directly from the running server.
Response Prefix
The response prefix is a short piece of text automatically added to the start of every message your bot sends. Useful for group chats where you want responses to be clearly identified, or if you need a visual separator between the bot's reply and whatever came before.
To set a response prefix:
/prefix 🤖 |
Every response will then start with 🤖 |.
To clear the prefix:
/prefix clear
Keep prefixes short — 1 to 5 characters works best. Long prefixes eat into the message and look cluttered.
Tips
- All four settings are visible in your ClawCloud dashboard under the Config tab. The dashboard is read-only and always shows the live values pulled from your running server.
- If you change the bot's name through a provider-level config panel (e.g. the Telegram BotFather), that only changes how Telegram labels the bot account — it doesn't change what OpenClaw uses internally. Use the commands above for OpenClaw-side changes.
- Changes are applied instantly through OpenClaw's hot-reload system. You don't need to restart or redeploy. See the OpenClaw docs for more on config hot reload.
Troubleshooting
Bot didn't respond to identity change request — Make sure you're messaging the bot directly (DM), not in a group where it might require a mention. See How to Unlock DM Access if the bot isn't responding to DMs.
Name change didn't show up in the dashboard — The dashboard Config tab polls live config from your server. Refresh the page after a few seconds. If it still shows old values, the bot may not have processed the change.
System prompt reverted after reboot — If you set the prompt via natural language rather than the /prompt command, there's a chance the bot interpreted the instruction differently. Use /prompt with the exact text for reliable results.
Bot personality is inconsistent — Long conversations can drift from the system prompt. Keep your prompt concise and specific. The OpenClaw documentation on agents covers how agent instructions work in detail.
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