Overview

This guide shows you how to connect Anthropic to Nostr using OpenClaw. You'll configure the messaging channel, set up AI provider authentication, and deploy your assistant.

Nostr Capabilities

  • Direct messages
  • Reactions

Anthropic Features

  • 200K context window
  • Image understanding
  • Tool/function calling
  • Streaming responses

Step 1: Configure Nostr

  1. Generate a Nostr key pair
  2. Choose relay servers
  3. Configure nostr in openclaw.json
  4. Start the gateway
  5. Publish your public key

Step 2: Configure Anthropic

Standard API key authentication

  1. Create an account at console.anthropic.com
  2. Navigate to API Keys section
  3. Generate a new API key
  4. Set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable

Environment variable: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

Step 3: Combined Configuration

Add both configurations to your openclaw.json:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "primary": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514"
      }
    }
  },
  "models": {
    "providers": {
      "anthropic": {
  "models": {
    "providers": {
      "anthropic": {
        "apiKey": "${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}
    }
  },
  "channels": {
    "nostr": {
      "privateKey": "${NOSTR_PRIVATE_KEY}",
      "relays": ["wss://relay.damus.io", "wss://nos.lol"]
    }
  }
}
}

Step 4: Start and Test

# Start the gateway
openclaw gateway start

# Check connection status
openclaw status

# View real-time logs
openclaw logs --follow

Access Control

Nostr supports the following access control policies:

DM Policies

Policy Description
allowlist Only senders in allowFrom list are processed
open All DMs are processed (requires allowFrom: ["*"])

Group Policies

Policy Description
open All groups are processed

Deploy Options

Choose how to deploy your Nostr + Anthropic setup:

Local Deployment

Run on your personal machine with local-only access

View Guide →

VPS Deployment

Always-on deployment on a Linux VPS

View Guide →

Cloud Deployment

Managed container deployment on Fly.io or similar

View Guide →

Docker Deployment

Containerized deployment with Docker

View Guide →