This is a comprehensive guide to setting up Nanobot securely on a Linux VPS with Whatsapp. We’ll use a dedicated unprivileged user,

Prerequisites

• A VPS or home server.
• API Keys ready (e.g. OpenAI, Anthropic, or OpenRouter).

1. User Creation

We will create a specific user

# 1. Create the user with a home directory
sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash nanobot

# 2. Lock the password (prevents direct SSH login)
sudo passwd -l nanobot

2. Environment Setup

We need to install

Install Node.js with nvm

# Download and install nvm:
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.3/install.sh | bash

# in lieu of restarting the shell
\. "$HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh"

# Download and install Node.js:
nvm install 24

# Verify the Node.js version:
node -v # Should print "v24.13.1".

# Verify npm version:
npm -v # Should print "11.8.0".

Install uv

# Switch to nanobot user
sudo -u nanobot -i

# Install uv 
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

3. Install & Configure Nanobot

Install Nanobot via uv

This installs nanobot into an isolated virtual environment automatically.

uv tool install nanobot-ai

Run the Onboarding Wizard This creates the necessary folder structure

nanobot onboard

Configure API Keys You need to edit the config file to add your LLM provider keys.

vim ~/.nanobot/config.json

• Find the
  "providers"
  section.
• Add your key (e.g., for OpenRouter or Anthropic).

You can now start using Nanobot with

4. Whatsapp

Whatsapp is one of the options available to chat with the agent. There are other alternatives such as Discord or Telegram that have an even easier setup. Refer to https://github.com/HKUDS/nanobot for official documentation.

The WhatsApp bridge is a separate Node.js application that lives inside the

As

nanobot channels login

Go through the setup and link your Whatsapp account by scanning the QR code with the desired account. The setup is finished after getting

Enable Whatsapp

Open

vim ~/.nanobot/config.json

In the channels section make the following changes to the Whatsapp section:

• Set attribute
  “
  enabled
  ”
  to
  true
• Add your Whatsapp number in the
  "allowFrom"
  list (whitelisting)

...
"channels": {
	"whatsapp": {
		"enabled": true,
		"bridgeUrl": "ws://localhost:3001",
		"allowFrom": ["12345678"]
		},
...

5. Persistance and Run Service via Systemd

Now we exit the

Bridge Service

Create the file:

[Unit]
Description=Nanobot WhatsApp Bridge
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=nanobot
Group=nanobot
WorkingDirectory=/home/nanobot
Environment="HOME=/home/nanobot"
ExecStart=/home/nanobot/.local/bin/nanobot channels login
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Gateway Service

Create the file:

[Unit]
Description=Nanobot Gateway
After=network.target nanobot-bridge.service

# Ensure bridge starts if we start the agent
Wants=nanobot-bridge.service

[Service]
Type=simple
User=nanobot
Group=nanobot
WorkingDirectory=/home/nanobot
Environment="HOME=/home/nanobot"
# Add uv's bin directory to PATH so it finds 'nanobot'
Environment="PATH=/home/nanobot/.local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"

# Start the gateway
ExecStart=/home/nanobot/.local/bin/nanobot gateway

Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and Start

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable nanobot-bridge
sudo systemctl enable nanobot

# Starting the main service will auto-start the bridge due to 'Wants='
sudo systemctl start nanobot

6. Hello World

If everything is setup correctly you’ll now be able to chat with your own personal Nanobot on the Whatsapp number used. Nanobot will store relevant information in the

Bonus: Maintenance

For easier maintenance here’s a

Running

.PHONY: nanobot-update nanobot-logs nanobot-restart

nanobot-update:
        sudo systemctl stop nanobot
        sudo -u nanobot -i uv tool upgrade nanobot-ai
        sudo systemctl start nanobot
        sudo systemctl status nanobot --no-pager

nanobot-logs:
        sudo journalctl -u nanobot -u nanobot-channel -f

nanobot-restart:
        sudo systemctl restart nanobot nanobot-channel