Create and Save Files with Your AI Assistant
Your OpenClaw AI assistant can create files and save them directly to your server, and you can hand files to it just as easily. Browse, preview, upload, and download everything from the Files section of your Dashboard, no apps, no email, no file sharing services needed.
Asking your bot to create a file
Just ask naturally. Your bot will create the file and save it to ~/files/ automatically.
Write a summary of our conversation and save it as a markdown file.
Create a CSV of the top 10 highest-grossing films of 2025.
Write a Python script to rename all the JPGs in a folder and save it.
Your bot will confirm when it’s done and tell you the filename. Head to Dashboard → Files to find it, the Recent tab always shows the newest files first.
Handing files to your bot
Go to Dashboard → Files → My Files and drag a file in (or click Upload). Your bot is notified the moment it lands, so you can go straight to Telegram:
Summarize the PDF I just uploaded.
I uploaded a CSV of my expenses, categorise them and flag anything unusual.
Take the resume I uploaded and tailor it for this job listing: [link]
Files up to 50 MB each. You can also send files directly in Telegram chat, those show up under Files → Media in the Dashboard.
If you want saved markdown or text files to be searchable by topic later, use the Documents index or ask your bot to index the folder.
Organising into folders
Ask your bot to use subfolders to keep things tidy.
Save it in
~/files/reports/with today’s date in the filename.
Create a folder called
~/files/projects/clawops/and save the brief there.
Folders appear in the Dashboard and you can navigate into them by tapping.
Accessing a file in a later conversation
Once a file exists on your server, you can refer to it by path in any future conversation.
Read
~/files/reports/2026-03-28-summary.mdand update the figures.
Append today’s tasks to
~/files/journal.md.
Use the copy path button (clipboard icon next to any file or folder name) to grab the exact path and paste it into your message.
Previewing without downloading
Tap any filename in the Dashboard to open a preview, markdown renders beautifully, images display inline, PDFs open in the viewer. No download needed.
For code files (.py, .js, .ts, .sh) you’ll see the raw text, which is usually all you need to check the output looks right.
Practical examples
Save articles to read later
Save this page as a clean readable markdown file: https://example.com/article, strip the navigation and ads, just keep the content.
I’ve got 10 tabs open. Here are the URLs, save a summary of each one to
~/files/reading-list.mdso I can read them later.
Research
Research the best standing desks under $500, compare the top 5 by price, build quality, and adjustability, and save a structured report to
~/files/research/standing-desks.md.
Build a landing page
Build me a full one-page landing page for my new SaaS product. Use Tailwind CSS, make it modern and clean, hero section, features, pricing, and a footer. Save it to
~/files/landing/index.html.
Scripts and automation
Write a bash script that backs up my
~/filesfolder to a dated zip archive and save it to~/files/scripts/backup.sh.
Write a Python script that takes a folder of images and resizes them all to 1200px wide, preserving aspect ratio. Save it to
~/files/scripts/resize-images.py.
Ongoing log
Append a one-line entry to
~/files/log.txtsummarising what we just did.
Seeing what your bot has been up to
The Files section is also a window into your bot’s side of the desk:
- Recent shows the newest files everywhere on the server, so nothing your bot makes goes missing
- Workspace shows its working area, read-only: scripts, drafts, research
- Memory shows what it remembers: long-term memory, daily logs, and lessons learned
If you spot something in its memory that’s wrong or out of date, just tell it: “Your memory says I live in Sydney, I moved to Brisbane, please update it.”