Setting Up the Family Bot

Time to create your family's new favorite group member. In this lesson, you'll configure an OpenClaw bot that lives in your family group chat and responds to coordination commands.

Prerequisites

How It Works

  Your Group Chat          OpenClaw Gateway          Family Agent
  ┌──────────────┐        ┌──────────────────┐      ┌──────────────┐
  │ Messages     │───────>│ Routes family     │─────>│ Chore DB     │
  │ from family  │        │ commands to the   │      │ Allowance DB │
  │ members      │<───────│ right handler     │<─────│ Schedule DB  │
  └──────────────┘        └──────────────────┘      └──────────────┘

Create the Family Agent

Open your OpenClaw dashboard and create a new agent. Give it a personality your family will enjoy interacting with.

family-bot-config.yaml

name: "FamilyBot"
description: "Family coordination assistant"
personality: |
You are a friendly family assistant. Keep responses short
and clear. Use emojis sparingly. When assigning chores,
be encouraging. When tracking allowances, be precise.
Address family members by their first name.
channels:
type: whatsapp
group_id: "your-family-group-id"
tools:
chore_manager
allowance_tracker
schedule_coordinator
reminder_sender

Personality Matters

Kids engage more with a bot that has personality. Try adding a catchphrase or giving it a name the family picks together — "Jarvis," "Friday," or even "Mom 2.0" (use at your own risk).

Connect Your Group Chat

Link the bot to your family's existing group chat.

Open OpenClaw Dashboard > Channels > WhatsApp
Scan the QR code with the phone that will host the bot
Select your family group from the list
Set the bot trigger prefix (default: / or just mention the bot name)

CLI alternative

openclaw channels add whatsapp --group 'Johnson Family'

Register Family Members

Tell the bot who's in the family so it can assign chores and track allowances per person.

family-members.yaml

family:
name: "Mom"
role: admin
chat_handle: "+1234567890"
name: "Dad"
role: admin
chat_handle: "+1234567891"
name: "Emma"
role: child
chat_handle: "+1234567892"
age: 14
allowance_weekly: 15.00
name: "Jake"
role: child
chat_handle: "+1234567893"
age: 11
allowance_weekly: 10.00

Privacy Note

Family member data stays on your OpenClaw instance. Phone numbers are only used to match chat messages to the right person — they're never shared externally.

Test the Bot

Send a few test messages in your group chat to make sure everything is connected.

Test messages to try

You:       Hey FamilyBot, who's in the family?
FamilyBot: The family has 4 members: Mom, Dad, Emma, and JakeYou:       What can you do?
FamilyBot: I can help with:
Chore assignments and tracking
Allowance tracking and savings goals
Schedule coordination and pickups
Homework and activity reminders
Type "help chores" for chore commands!

By default, the bot listens for / commands (like /chores) or direct mentions. You can change this in the agent config:

Custom triggers

triggers:
prefix: "!"           # Use !chores instead of /chores
mention: true          # Also respond when mentioned by name
direct_message: true   # Respond to DMs without prefix

For families with younger kids, removing the prefix entirely and using natural language ("who has chores today?") works well.

Some families have a "parents only" chat for sensitive topics (like allowance adjustments or schedule conflicts). You can connect the bot to multiple groups with different permissions:

Multi-group setup

channels:
type: whatsapp
group_id: "family-main"
permissions: [chores, schedule, reminders]
type: whatsapp
group_id: "parents-only"
permissions: [allowance, admin, schedule_edit]

Knowledge Check

Why should you register family members with their chat handles in the bot configuration?

Setting Up the Family Bot

Setting Up the Family Bot

Prerequisites

How It Works

Create the Family Agent

Connect Your Group Chat

Register Family Members

Test the Bot

Advanced Message Routing Across Channels