I run 3 openclaw instances as my side project team, each with its own SOUL file: a CTO agent that works on my public main repo, a CMO agent running a private growth knowledge base i keep in a Karpathy-style LLM KnowledgeBase structure, a CEO agent that coordinates between them. They run as persistent instances so context sticks across weeks, not just one chat.

[screenshot of fleet view showing 3 instances, all Running, MODEL gpt-5.4, characters CEO\/CMO\/CTO](

All 3 run on gpt-5.4 through codex oauth, routing through my chatgpt plus account not anthropic. Thats the detail that made 4/4 a non-event for me. Friends asked what my migration plan was, i realized i didnt have one, which is why im writing this.

Runner is ClawFleet, each instance in its own docker container, openclaw version pinned so upstream changes dont eat setups overnight. Picked it when my only alternatives were managing api keys by hand or wrestling docker compose, nothing to do with anthropic.

Total is $20/mo chatgpt plus. For anyone staring down the 4/17 credit deadline and not sure what to do, this codex oauth path is honestly the cleanest workaround for the anthropic lockout i've actually used.