How to plan a private Telegram AI assistant with OpenClaw

A lot of AI assistant demos look simple: connect a bot, add a model, write a prompt, done. In practice, the first working setup usually gets slowed down by less exciting decisions: Should it run locally or on a VPS? Which model path should I start with: hosted API or local LLM? How should Telegram be connected? What permissions should the assistant have? Should memory be enabled from day one? How do I avoid giving the agent too much access too early? What should be automated with cron/heartbeats