Docker VM Runtime Setup for OpenClaw Gateway Hosts

Use this runtime flow once a VM is provisioned and Docker is installed. Provider guides such as GCP and Hetzner handle VM creation, firewall rules, SSH access, and the tunnel back to your laptop. This page covers the Docker setup shared across those hosts.

Before you begin

Here is what you need:

• A Debian or Ubuntu VM with Docker Engine and Docker Compose v2
• At least 2 GB RAM for a source image build; 4 GB is more reliable
• The OpenClaw source checkout on the VM
• Provider and model credentials for onboarding
• An SSH-only or otherwise restricted provider firewall; do not expose the Gateway port directly to the public Internet

From the VM:

git clone https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.git
cd openclaw
docker --version
docker compose version

Prepare persistent host state

The maintained setup script defaults state to the current VM user's home:

export OPENCLAW_CONFIG_DIR="$HOME/.openclaw"
export OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE_DIR="$HOME/.openclaw/workspace"
export OPENCLAW_AUTH_PROFILE_SECRET_DIR="$HOME/.openclaw-auth-profile-secrets"

Override those paths before setup if your VM uses a dedicated data disk. Keep all three directories in backups. The auth-profile secret directory contains the local encryption key for OAuth-backed auth profile token material, so it must persist but remain separate from OPENCLAW_CONFIG_DIR.

Run the maintained Docker setup

./scripts/docker/setup.sh

The script creates the host directories, builds openclaw:local, runs onboarding, generates a Gateway token, synchronizes .env, and starts the Gateway through the repository's docker-compose.yml. The Compose file pins container-side state to /home/node/.openclaw while using the host paths above as bind-mount sources.

To use an official prebuilt image instead of building from source:

export OPENCLAW_IMAGE="ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:latest"
./scripts/docker/setup.sh

For unattended setup, provider SecretRefs, extra mounts, sandbox setup, and all supported environment variables, use the full Docker guide.

Warning

OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_BIND=lan is the normal container setting: loopback would limit the Gateway to the container's own network namespace. Keep the published host port private with the cloud firewall, then reach it through the SSH tunnel from the provider guide.

Bake required binaries into the image

Installing binaries inside a running container is a trap: anything installed at runtime is lost on restart. Bake every external binary a skill needs into the image at build time.

The examples below cover three binaries only, alphabetically:

• gog (from gogcli) for Gmail access
• goplaces for Google Places
• wacli for WhatsApp

These are examples, not a complete list. Docker Compose builds the repo-root Dockerfile, so extend that file rather than creating a standalone example or replacing its contents. The repository Dockerfile has required workspace-deps, build, runtime-assets, and final runtime stages. Its manifest extraction covers the packages/* and selected plugin workspaces before pnpm install --frozen-lockfile.

For Debian packages, prefer the existing build argument:

export OPENCLAW_IMAGE_APT_PACKAGES="socat"

For downloaded release binaries such as gog, goplaces, or wacli, add the download and install commands to the repo-root Dockerfile final runtime stage, after its package-install blocks and before USER node. Preserve the existing non-root uid 1000 setup, tini entrypoint, health check, and openclaw symlink.

Note

The repository Dockerfile digest-pins its Node and Bun base images. Keep those reviewed pins instead of changing them to floating FROM node:24-bookworm references. For ARM-based VMs, choose arm64 release assets for extra binaries; for reproducible builds, use versioned asset URLs and verify their checksums.

Rebuild the customized image without repeating onboarding:

OPENCLAW_SKIP_ONBOARDING=1 ./scripts/docker/setup.sh

If the build fails with Killed or exit code 137 during dependency installation or bundling, the VM is out of memory. Resize it before retrying.

Verify baked binaries:

docker compose exec openclaw-gateway which gog
docker compose exec openclaw-gateway which goplaces
docker compose exec openclaw-gateway which wacli

Verify and administer the Gateway

docker compose ps
docker compose logs --tail=100 openclaw-gateway
curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:18789/healthz
docker compose run --rm openclaw-cli dashboard --no-open

/healthz returning a 200 response confirms that the Gateway process is listening. The image HEALTHCHECK polls the same endpoint. If the Control UI requires device approval:

docker compose run --rm openclaw-cli devices list
docker compose run --rm openclaw-cli devices approve <requestId>

What persists where

OpenClaw runs in Docker, but the container filesystem is not the source of truth. Long-lived state must survive restarts, rebuilds, and reboots.

Update OpenClaw

For a source-built image:

git pull --ff-only
OPENCLAW_SKIP_ONBOARDING=1 ./scripts/docker/setup.sh
docker compose run --rm openclaw-cli doctor --json

For a pinned or prebuilt image, update OPENCLAW_IMAGE to the intended tag or digest before rerunning the setup script. Routine image upgrades run startup-safe migrations against the mounted state; see Upgrading container images for recovery when a migration cannot complete automatically.

Related

• Docker
• Podman
• ClawDock