Deploy OpenClaw on Render

Deploy OpenClaw on Render with the repository's render.yaml Blueprint. This single file declares the service, disk, and environment variables together.

Prerequisites

A Render account (free tier is available)
An API key from your chosen model provider

Deploy

Deploy to Render

This action spins up a Render service from render.yaml, compiles the Docker image, and launches it. Your service URL follows the format https://<service-name>.onrender.com.

The Blueprint

services:
  - type: web
    name: openclaw
    runtime: docker
    plan: starter
    dockerCommand: node openclaw.mjs gateway --allow-unconfigured
    healthCheckPath: /startupz
    envVars:
      - key: OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_PORT
        value: "8080"
      - key: OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR
        value: /data/.openclaw
      - key: OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE_DIR
        value: /data/workspace
      - key: OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN
        generateValue: true # auto-generates a secure token
    disk:
      name: openclaw-data
      mountPath: /data
      sizeGB: 1

Feature	Purpose
`runtime: docker`	Builds from the repo's Dockerfile
`healthCheckPath`	Render admits traffic after `/startupz` reports startup complete
`generateValue: true`	Auto-generates a cryptographically secure value
`disk`	Persistent storage that survives redeploys

Choosing a plan

Plan	Spin-down	Disk	Best for
Free	After 15 min idle	Not available	Testing, demos
Starter	Never	1GB+	Personal use, small teams
Standard+	Never	1GB+	Production, multiple channels

The Blueprint's default is starter. To switch to the free tier, set plan: free and remove the disk: block from your fork's render.yaml; Render will reject a Blueprint that links a persistent disk to a free instance. Without that disk, OpenClaw's state is wiped on each deploy.

After deployment

Access the Control UI

The web dashboard can be reached at https://<your-service>.onrender.com/. Authenticate with the shared secret: the auto-generated OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN (located in Dashboard → your service → Environment), or your password if you've enabled password auth.

Logs

Dashboard → your service → Logs displays build logs (Docker image creation), deploy logs (service startup), and runtime logs (application output).

Shell access

Dashboard → your service → Shell launches a shell session. The persistent disk is mounted at /data.

Environment variables

Modify variables in Dashboard → your service → Environment. Any change triggers an automatic redeploy.

Auto-deploy

Render redeploys automatically whenever the connected repo's branch receives a new commit. If you deployed directly from openclaw/openclaw rather than your own fork, you lack push access to trigger that, so update by running a manual Blueprint sync from the Dashboard, or point the service at your own fork.

Custom domain

Dashboard → your service → Settings → Custom Domains
Add your domain
Configure DNS as instructed (CNAME to *.onrender.com)
Render provisions a TLS certificate automatically

Scaling

Vertical: upgrade the plan for more CPU/RAM. Usually sufficient for OpenClaw.
Horizontal: raise the instance count (Standard plan and above). Requires sticky sessions or external state management since OpenClaw keeps runtime state on the local disk.

Backups and migration

From the Render Dashboard shell, export state, config, auth profiles, and workspace at any time:

openclaw backup create
openclaw backup restore <archive.tar.gz> --target <fresh-directory>

Restore verifies and extracts into a fresh staging directory; activation is a separate offline step. See Restore a full archive for the rollback warnings and activation sequence.

Troubleshooting

Service will not start

Review the deploy logs in the Render Dashboard. Frequent problems:

Missing OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN, confirm it is set in Dashboard → Environment
Port mismatch, ensure OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_PORT=8080 so the gateway binds to the port Render expects

Slow cold starts (free tier)

Free tier services spin down after 15 minutes of inactivity; the first request after spin-down takes a few seconds while the container starts. Upgrade to Starter for always-on.

Data loss after redeploy

Happens on the free tier (no persistent disk). Upgrade to a paid plan, or regularly export a backup with openclaw backup create from the Render shell.

Health check failures

If builds succeed but deploys fail, the service may be taking too long to start or /startupz may not be reachable. Check:

Build logs for errors
Whether the container runs locally with docker build && docker run

Next steps

Set up messaging channels: Channels
Configure the Gateway: Gateway configuration
Keep OpenClaw up to date: Updating