Tips and tricks

I’ve been running AI agents 24/7 for 3 months. Here are the mistakes that will bite you.

Been running OpenClaw and a few other agent frameworks on my homelab for about 3 months now. Here’s what I wish someone told me before I started.

**1. Not setting explicit boundaries in your config**

Your agent will interpret vague instructions creatively. “Check my email” turned into my agent replying to spam. “Monitor social media” turned into liking random posts.

Fix: Be super specific. “Scan inbox for emails from [list of people]. Flag anything urgent. Do NOT reply without asking first.”

**2. Exposing ports to the internet without auth**

Saw multiple people get compromised because they opened their agent’s API port to 0.0.0.0 without setting up authentication. If you’re running on a VPS, bind to 127.0.0.1 only and use SSH tunneling or a reverse proxy with auth.

**3. Running on your main machine without isolation**

Your agent has access to files, can run shell commands, and talks to APIs. If something goes wrong (prompt injection, buggy code, whatever), you want it contained.

Use Docker, a VM, or a dedicated machine. Not worth the risk on your daily driver.

**4. Not logging everything**

When your agent does something weird at 3am, you need to know what happened. Log all tool calls, all API requests, everything. Disk space is cheap. Debugging blind is expensive.

**5. Underestimating token costs**

Even with subscriptions like Claude Pro, you can burn through your allocation fast if your agent is chatty. Monitor usage weekly. Optimize prompts. Use cheaper models for simple tasks.

**6. No backup strategy**

Your config files are your entire agent setup. If you lose them, you’re rebuilding from scratch. Git repo + daily backups to at least one offsite location.

**7. Trusting the agent too much, too fast**

Start with read only access. Let it prove it won’t do something stupid before you give it write access to important stuff. Gradually increase permissions as you build trust.

**8. Not having a kill switch**

You should be able to instantly stop your agent from anywhere. I use a simple Telegram command that shuts down the gateway. Saved me twice when the agent started doing something I didn’t expect.

**9. Ignoring resource limits**

Set memory limits, CPU limits, disk quotas. An agent that goes into an infinite loop can take down your whole server if you don’t have guardrails.

**10. Forgetting it’s always learning from context**

Your agent sees everything in its workspace. Don’t put API keys in plain text files. Don’t leave sensitive data sitting around. Use environment variables and proper secrets management.

Bonus: Keep a changelog of what you change in your config. Future you will thank past you when something breaks and you need to figure out what changed.

Running agents 24/7 is genuinely useful once you get past the initial setup pain. But treat it like you’re giving someone access to your computer, because that’s basically what you’re doing.