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DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean

Section titled “DigitalOcean”

Run a persistent OpenClaw Gateway on a DigitalOcean Droplet.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • DigitalOcean account (signup)
  • SSH key pair (or willingness to use password auth)
  • About 20 minutes

Setup

Section titled “Setup”

  1. Create a Droplet

    1. Log into DigitalOcean.
    2. Click Create > Droplets.
    3. Choose:
      • Region: Closest to you
      • Image: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
      • Size: Basic, Regular, 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM / 25 GB SSD
      • Authentication: SSH key (recommended) or password
    4. Click Create Droplet and note the IP address.

  2. Connect and install

    Terminal window
    ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP
    

    apt update && apt upgrade -y
    

    # Install Node.js 24
    curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_24.x | bash -
    apt install -y nodejs
    

    # Install OpenClaw
    curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash
    openclaw --version

  3. Run onboarding

    Terminal window
    openclaw onboard --install-daemon

    The wizard walks you through model auth, channel setup, gateway token generation, and daemon installation (systemd).

  4. Add swap (recommended for 1 GB Droplets)

    Terminal window
    fallocate -l 2G /swapfile
    chmod 600 /swapfile
    mkswap /swapfile
    swapon /swapfile
    echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' >> /etc/fstab

  5. Verify the gateway

    Terminal window
    openclaw status
    systemctl --user status openclaw-gateway.service
    journalctl --user -u openclaw-gateway.service -f

  6. Access the Control UI

    The gateway binds to loopback by default. Pick one of these options.

    Option A: SSH tunnel (simplest)

    Terminal window
    # From your local machine
    ssh -L 18789:localhost:18789 root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP

    Then open http://localhost:18789.

    Option B: Tailscale Serve

    Terminal window
    curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
    tailscale up
    openclaw config set gateway.tailscale.mode serve
    openclaw gateway restart

    Then open `https://

    /` from any device on your tailnet.

    **Option C: Tailnet bind (no Serve)**
    

    ```bash
    openclaw config set gateway.bind tailnet
    openclaw gateway restart
    ```
    

    Then open `http://

    :18789` (token required).

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”

Gateway will not start — Run openclaw doctor --non-interactive and check logs with journalctl --user -u openclaw-gateway.service -n 50.

Port already in use — Run lsof -i :18789 to find the process, then stop it.

Out of memory — Verify swap is active with free -h. If still hitting OOM, use API-based models (Claude, GPT) rather than local models, or upgrade to a 2 GB Droplet.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”