OpenClaw Multiple Agents: Run 13 AI Agents on One Mac Mini

Most people install OpenClaw and get one agent doing one thing. That's fine for personal use. But what if you want an entire team? A COO, a social media manager, a video editor, a newsletter writer, an analytics scraper, an intelligence crawler, and a community manager. All running on one Mac Mini. All coordinated. All working while you sleep.

The 13-Agent Team: Every AI Agent and Its Role

Every agent has a single job. No overlap. No confusion.

How OpenClaw Multi-Agent Coordination Works

You don't run 13 separate OpenClaw instances. You run one gateway with one main agent. (Need to set up the hardware first? See our Mac Mini setup guide or VPS setup guide.) (Marc). Marc spawns sub-agents when work needs to happen.

Florian (human)
  |
  Marc (main agent, COO)
  |
  +-- Bob (dispatcher)
  |     +-- monitors all other agents
  |     +-- health checks every 2 hours
  |
  +-- Content Pipeline
  |     +-- Jimmy (YouTube / clips)
  |     +-- Claude (copy editor)
  |     +-- Adrien (video editing)
  |     +-- Dan (X posting)
  |     +-- Tyler (newsletter)
  |
  +-- Growth & Revenue
  |     +-- Mona Lisa (sponsorship)
  |     +-- Loop (analytics)
  |     +-- Billy (Skool community)
  |
  +-- Operations
        +-- Crawly (intelligence)
        +-- Ariane (Notion)
        +-- Alfred (personal)

How to Spawn OpenClaw Sub-Agents

When Marc needs Jimmy to check for new episodes, he spawns a sub-agent session:

sessions_spawn({
  task: "Check YouTube for new podcast episodes...",
  model: "anthropic/claude-opus-4-6",
  runTimeoutSeconds: 600
})

The sub-agent runs in isolation, does its job, and reports back. Marc gets the result and decides what to do next.

OpenClaw Agent SOPs: How to Write Standard Operating Procedures

Every agent has a file in sops/[agent-name].md. Without SOPs, agents drift, forget rules, and overlap with each other.

Every SOP contains:

• Role: One sentence. What this agent does.
• Responsibilities: Specific tasks. No ambiguity.
• Access/Logins: Exactly which tools and credentials this agent can use.
• Hard Rules: Things this agent must never do.

Example:

# SOP: Adrien - Video Editor Agent

## Role
Processes raw clips into polished, subtitled videos.

## Responsibilities
- Whisper transcription of raw clips
- Smart cuts (filler word removal)
- Silence removal
- Clean subtitle burn-in
- Compress for Telegram delivery

## Hard Rules
- Source clips MUST be h264
- Subtitles: 4-5 words per line max
- Never clip from the intro

OpenClaw Agent Permission System: Who Can Access What

The Full 24-Hour OpenClaw Cron Schedule

Plus recurring: Git auto-backup every 30 min. Billy member count every 4h. Bob health check every 6h.

OpenClaw Shared Memory Architecture for Multiple Agents

13 agents need to share context without stepping on each other.

Master Rules: The Constitution for All OpenClaw Agents

On top of individual SOPs, master-rules.md applies to ALL agents:

• Every deliverable goes to Notion. Non-negotiable.
• No fake data. No sample content. Make it real.
• Write it down immediately. Rules go to memory that same turn.
• 80/20 only. If it doesn't move the goals, skip it.
• Model strategy: Opus 4.6 everywhere. No exceptions.
• All outreach on X DMs only. No cold emails. No bulk.

What Running 13 AI Agents Actually Costs

Compare that to hiring even one freelancer.

Lessons After Running 13 OpenClaw Agents for 2 Months

1. Start with one agent. Add slowly. I started with Marc, added Bob, then specialists as I understood the workflows.
2. SOPs prevent chaos. Write the SOP before spawning the agent.
3. Permissions matter. Build the access matrix before something gets accidentally deleted.
4. The dispatcher pattern is key. Marc → Bob → everyone else. Without this layer, the main agent gets overwhelmed.
5. Memory files are your continuity. If it's not written down, it doesn't exist.
6. Crons are the real power. Having agents work on a schedule without you asking is transformative.

Get the Complete Multi-Agent Template Pack

Inside OpenClaw Lab, members get the complete template pack: every SOP, the access matrix, the cron schedule, the memory architecture, and the coordination playbook. Copy-paste it, swap in your business context, and you have a 13-agent team running in an afternoon.

New to OpenClaw? Start with installopenclawnow.com to get your first agent running.