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Docker is optional. Use it for an isolated, throwaway gateway environment or a host without local installs. If you already develop on your own machine, use the normal install flow instead. The default sandbox backend uses Docker when agents.defaults.sandbox is enabled, but sandboxing is off by default and does not require the gateway itself to run in Docker. SSH and OpenShell sandbox backends are also available; see Sandboxing. Hosting multiple users? See Multi-tenant hosting for the one-cell-per-tenant model.

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Prerequisites

  • Docker Desktop (or Docker Engine) + Docker Compose v2
  • At least 2 GB RAM for image build (pnpm install may be OOM-killed on 1 GB hosts with exit 137)
  • Enough disk for images and logs
  • On a VPS/public host, review Security hardening for network exposure, especially the Docker DOCKER-USER firewall chain

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Containerized gateway

1

Build the image

From the repo root:
This builds the gateway image locally as openclaw:local. To use a pre-built image instead:
Pre-built images are published first to the GitHub Container Registry. GHCR is the primary registry for release automation, pinned deployments, and provenance checks. The same release publishes a Docker Hub mirror at openclaw/openclaw:
Use ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw or openclaw/openclaw and avoid unofficial mirrors, which don’t share OpenClaw’s release timing or retention policy. Official tags: main, latest, <version> (e.g. 2026.2.26), and beta tags such as 2026.2.26-beta.1 (betas never move latest/main). The default main/latest/<version> image bundles the codex and diagnostics-otel plugins. A -browser variant (e.g. latest-browser) also ships with Chromium baked in, useful for the sandboxed browser tool without a first-run Playwright install.
2

Airgapped rerun

On offline hosts, transfer and load the image first:
--offline verifies OPENCLAW_IMAGE already exists locally, disables implicit Compose pulls/builds, then runs the normal flow: .env sync, permission fixes, onboarding, gateway config sync, Compose startup.If OPENCLAW_SANDBOX=1, offline setup also checks the configured default and per-agent sandbox images on the daemon behind OPENCLAW_DOCKER_SOCKET, including the browser-contract label on Docker-backed browser images. If a required image is missing or stale, setup exits without changing sandbox config rather than reporting a broken success.
3

Complete onboarding

The setup script runs onboarding automatically:
  • prompts for provider API keys
  • generates a gateway token and writes it to .env
  • creates the auth-profile secret key directory
  • starts the gateway via Docker Compose
Pre-start onboarding and config writes run through openclaw-gateway directly (with --no-deps --entrypoint node), since openclaw-cli shares the gateway’s network namespace and only works once the gateway container exists.
4

Open the Control UI

Open http://127.0.0.1:18789/ and paste the token written to .env into Settings. If you switched the container to password auth, use that password instead.Need the URL again?
5

Configure channels (optional)

Docs: WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord

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Manual flow

The Docker context excludes .git. Pass the source identity as build arguments as shown above so the image’s About screen reports the checked-out commit and one build timestamp. scripts/docker/setup.sh resolves and passes both values automatically.
Run docker compose from the repo root. If you enabled OPENCLAW_EXTRA_MOUNTS or OPENCLAW_HOME_VOLUME, the setup script writes docker-compose.extra.yml; include it after any docker-compose.override.yml you maintain yourself, e.g. -f docker-compose.yml -f docker-compose.override.yml -f docker-compose.extra.yml.

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Upgrading container images

When you replace the OpenClaw image but keep the same mounted state/config, the new gateway runs startup-safe upgrade migrations and plugin convergence before readiness. Routine image upgrades should not require a separate openclaw doctor --fix pass. If startup cannot complete those repairs safely, the gateway exits instead of reporting healthy. With a restart policy, Docker, Podman, or Kubernetes may show the gateway container restarting. Keep the mounted state volume, then run the same image once with openclaw doctor --fix as the container command, using the same state/config mounts the gateway uses:
After doctor finishes, restart the gateway container with its default command. In Kubernetes, run the same command in a one-off Job or debug pod mounted to the same PVC, then restart the Deployment or StatefulSet.

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Environment variables

Optional variables accepted by scripts/docker/setup.sh (and, for the gateway container, by docker-compose.yml directly): The official image ships no Homebrew. During onboarding, OpenClaw hides brew-only skill dependency installers in a Linux container without brew; provide those dependencies through a custom image or install manually. Use OPENCLAW_IMAGE_APT_PACKAGES for Debian-packaged dependencies and OPENCLAW_IMAGE_PIP_PACKAGES for Python dependencies (runs python3 -m pip install --break-system-packages at build time, so pin versions and use only indexes you trust). If Docker reports ResourceExhausted, cannot allocate memory, or aborts during tsdown, increase the Docker builder memory limit or retry with smaller explicit heaps:

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Source-built images with selected plugins

OPENCLAW_EXTENSIONS selects plugin manifest ids from the source checkout; existing source-directory names are also accepted when they differ. The Docker build resolves the selection to source directories once, installs production dependencies, and, when a selected plugin is published separately with openclaw.build.bundledDist: false, compiles its runtime into the root bundled dist. This Docker-only packaging does not change the plugin’s npm or ClawHub artifact contract. Unknown, invalid, or ambiguous ids fail the image build. Known dependency/source-only ids keep their existing source and dependency staging without gaining a compiled root dist entry. A selected plugin with unified build entries must compile successfully; unselected external plugin source and runtime output are pruned. For example, these commands build separate, multi-architecture standalone FakeCo gateway images for ClickClack, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. ClawRouter is already part of the root OpenClaw runtime, so the ClickClack image selects only clickclack. The explicit empty browser argument keeps the default image free of Chromium:
Use --platform linux/arm64 --load or --platform linux/amd64 --load for a single native local build. Multi-platform output and attached SBOM/provenance require a registry or another Buildx output that preserves attestations. After pushing, inspect the manifest and deploy the immutable digest rather than the mutable source-SHA tag:
These images are for standalone OCI-based gateways and generic Docker users. Crabhelm-managed gateways do not consume them: that delivery path builds a separate x86_64 appliance archive containing an OpenClaw npm tarball and pins the Node, archive, and manifest digests. Build that appliance independently from the same landed OpenClaw source. To test bundled plugin source against a packaged image, mount one plugin source directory over its packaged source path, e.g. OPENCLAW_EXTRA_MOUNTS=/path/to/fork/extensions/synology-chat:/app/extensions/synology-chat:ro. That overrides the matching compiled /app/dist/extensions/synology-chat bundle for the same plugin id.

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Observability

OpenTelemetry export is outbound from the Gateway container to your OTLP collector; it needs no published Docker port. To include the bundled exporter in a locally built image:
Official prebuilt images already bundle diagnostics-otel; install clawhub:@openclaw/diagnostics-otel yourself only if you removed it. To enable export, allow and enable the diagnostics-otel plugin in config, then set diagnostics.otel.enabled=true (see the full example in OpenTelemetry export). Collector auth headers go through diagnostics.otel.headers, not Docker environment variables. Prometheus metrics reuse the already-published Gateway port. Install clawhub:@openclaw/diagnostics-prometheus, enable the diagnostics-prometheus plugin, then scrape:
The route is protected by Gateway authentication; don’t expose a separate public /metrics port or unauthenticated reverse-proxy path. See Prometheus metrics.

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Health checks

Container probe endpoints (no auth required):
The image’s built-in HEALTHCHECK pings /healthz; repeated failures mark the container unhealthy so orchestrators can restart or replace it. Authenticated deep health snapshot:

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LAN vs loopback

scripts/docker/setup.sh defaults OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_BIND=lan so http://127.0.0.1:18789 on the host works with Docker port publishing.
  • lan (default): host browser and host CLI can reach the published gateway port.
  • loopback: only processes inside the container network namespace can reach the gateway directly.
Use bind mode values in gateway.bind (lan / loopback / custom / tailnet / auto), not host aliases like 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1.

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Host local providers

Inside the container, 127.0.0.1 is the container itself, not the host. Use host.docker.internal for providers running on the host: The bundled setup uses those URLs as LM Studio/Ollama onboarding defaults, and docker-compose.yml maps host.docker.internal to the host gateway on Linux Docker Engine (Docker Desktop provides the same alias on macOS/Windows). Host services must listen on an address Docker can reach:
Using your own Compose file or docker run? Add the same mapping yourself, e.g. --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway.

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Claude CLI backend in Docker

The official image does not pre-install Claude Code. Install and log in inside the container’s node user, then persist that container home so image upgrades don’t erase the binary or auth state. For a new install, enable a persistent /home/node volume before running setup:
For an existing install, stop the stack and reload the current .env values first — the setup script always rewrites .env from the current shell and defaults, it doesn’t read the file on its own:
If .env contains values your shell can’t source, re-export what you rely on manually first (OPENCLAW_IMAGE, ports, bind mode, custom paths, OPENCLAW_EXTRA_MOUNTS, sandbox, skip-onboarding). The generated overlay mounts the home volume for both openclaw-gateway and openclaw-cli; run the remaining commands with that overlay (and docker-compose.override.yml first, if you use one):
The native installer writes claude to /home/node/.local/bin/claude. Point OpenClaw at that path:
Log in and verify from the same persisted home:
Then use the bundled claude-cli backend:
OPENCLAW_HOME_VOLUME persists the native install under /home/node/.local/bin and /home/node/.local/share/claude, plus Claude Code settings/auth under /home/node/.claude and /home/node/.claude.json. Persisting only /home/node/.openclaw is not enough; if you use OPENCLAW_EXTRA_MOUNTS instead of a home volume, mount all of those Claude paths into both services.
For shared production automation or predictable Anthropic billing, prefer the Anthropic API-key path. Claude CLI reuse follows Claude Code’s installed version, account login, billing, and update behavior.

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Bonjour / mDNS

Docker bridge networking usually doesn’t forward Bonjour/mDNS multicast (224.0.0.251:5353) reliably. When OPENCLAW_DISABLE_BONJOUR is unset, the bundled Bonjour plugin auto-disables LAN advertising once it detects it’s running in a container, so it won’t crash-loop retrying multicast the bridge drops. Set OPENCLAW_DISABLE_BONJOUR=1 to force it off regardless of detection, or 0 to force it on (only on host networking, macvlan, or another network where mDNS multicast is known to work). Use the published Gateway URL, Tailscale, or wide-area DNS-SD for Docker hosts otherwise. See Bonjour discovery for gotchas and troubleshooting.

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Storage and persistence

Docker Compose bind-mounts OPENCLAW_CONFIG_DIR to /home/node/.openclaw, OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE_DIR to /home/node/.openclaw/workspace, and OPENCLAW_AUTH_PROFILE_SECRET_DIR to /home/node/.config/openclaw, so those paths survive container replacement. When a variable is unset, docker-compose.yml falls back under ${HOME}, or /tmp if HOME itself is missing, so docker compose up never emits an empty-source volume spec on bare environments. That mounted config directory holds:
  • openclaw.json for behavior config
  • agents/<agentId>/agent/auth-profiles.json for stored provider OAuth/API-key auth
  • .env for env-backed runtime secrets such as OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN
The auth-profile secret directory stores the local encryption key for OAuth-backed auth profile token material. Keep it with your Docker host state, but separate from OPENCLAW_CONFIG_DIR. Installed downloadable plugins store package state under the mounted OpenClaw home, so install records and package roots survive container replacement; gateway startup does not regenerate bundled-plugin dependency trees. For full VM persistence details, see Docker VM Runtime - What persists where. Disk growth hotspots: media/, per-agent SQLite databases, legacy session JSONL transcripts, the shared SQLite state database, installed plugin package roots, and rolling file logs under /tmp/openclaw/.

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Shell helpers (optional)

For shorter day-to-day commands, install ClawDock:
If you installed from the older scripts/shell-helpers/clawdock-helpers.sh path, rerun the command above so your local helper tracks the current location. Then use clawdock-start, clawdock-stop, clawdock-dashboard, etc. (run clawdock-help for the full list).
Custom socket path (e.g. rootless Docker):
The script mounts docker.sock only after sandbox prerequisites pass. If sandbox setup can’t complete, it resets agents.defaults.sandbox.mode to off. Codex code mode is disabled for turns where the OpenClaw sandbox is active (see Sandboxing § Docker backend); never mount the host Docker socket into agent sandbox containers.
Disable Compose pseudo-TTY allocation with -T:
openclaw-cli uses network_mode: "service:openclaw-gateway" so CLI commands can reach the gateway over 127.0.0.1. Treat this as a shared trust boundary. The compose config drops NET_RAW/NET_ADMIN and enables no-new-privileges on both openclaw-gateway and openclaw-cli.
Some Docker Desktop setups fail DNS lookups from the shared-network openclaw-cli sidecar after NET_RAW is dropped, showing up as EAI_AGAIN during npm-backed commands like openclaw plugins install. Keep the default hardened compose file for normal operation. The override below restores default capabilities for the openclaw-cli container only — use it for the one-off command that needs registry access, not as your default invocation:
If you already created a long-running openclaw-cli container, recreate it with the same override — docker compose exec/docker exec can’t change Linux capabilities on an already-created container.
The image runs as node (uid 1000). If you see permission errors on /home/node/.openclaw, make sure your host bind mounts are owned by uid 1000:
The same mismatch can show up as blocked plugin candidate: suspicious ownership (... uid=1000, expected uid=0 or root) followed by plugin present but blocked — the process uid and the mounted plugin directory owner disagree. Prefer running as the default uid 1000 and fixing the bind mount ownership. Only chown /path/to/openclaw-config/npm to root:root if you intentionally run OpenClaw as root long term.
Order your Dockerfile so dependency layers are cached, avoiding a pnpm install rerun unless lockfiles change:
The default image is security-first and runs as non-root node. For a more full-featured container:
  1. Persist /home/node: export OPENCLAW_HOME_VOLUME="openclaw_home"
  2. Bake system deps: export OPENCLAW_IMAGE_APT_PACKAGES="git curl jq"
  3. Bake Python deps: export OPENCLAW_IMAGE_PIP_PACKAGES="requests==2.32.5 humanize==4.14.0"
  4. Bake Playwright Chromium: export OPENCLAW_INSTALL_BROWSER=1, or use the official -browser image tag
  5. Or install Playwright browsers into a persisted volume:
  6. Persist browser downloads: use OPENCLAW_HOME_VOLUME or OPENCLAW_EXTRA_MOUNTS. OpenClaw auto-detects the image’s Playwright-managed Chromium on Linux.
If you pick OpenAI Codex OAuth in the wizard, it opens a browser URL. In Docker or headless setups, copy the full redirect URL you land on and paste it back into the wizard to finish auth.
The runtime image uses node:24-bookworm-slim and runs tini as PID 1 so zombie processes are reaped and signals handled correctly in long-running containers. It publishes OCI base-image annotations including org.opencontainers.image.base.name and org.opencontainers.image.source. Dependabot refreshes the pinned Node base digest; release builds don’t run a separate distro upgrade layer. See OCI image annotations.

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Running on a VPS?

See Hetzner (Docker VPS) and Docker VM Runtime for shared VM deployment steps including binary baking, persistence, and updates.

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Agent sandbox

When agents.defaults.sandbox is enabled with the Docker backend, the gateway runs agent tool execution (shell, file read/write, etc.) inside isolated Docker containers while the gateway itself stays on the host — a hard wall around untrusted or multi-tenant agent sessions without containerizing the whole gateway. Sandbox scope can be per-agent (default), per-session, or shared; each scope gets its own workspace mounted at /workspace. You can also configure allow/deny tool policies, network isolation, resource limits, and browser containers. For full configuration, images, security notes, and multi-agent profiles:

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Quick enable

Build the default sandbox image (from a source checkout):
For npm installs without a source checkout, see Sandboxing § Images and setup for inline docker build commands.

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Troubleshooting

Build the sandbox image with scripts/sandbox-setup.sh (source checkout) or the inline docker build command from Sandboxing § Images and setup (npm install), or set agents.defaults.sandbox.docker.image to your custom image. Containers are auto-created per session on demand.
Set docker.user to a UID:GID that matches your mounted workspace ownership, or chown the workspace folder.
OpenClaw runs commands with sh -lc (login shell), which sources /etc/profile and may reset PATH. Set docker.env.PATH to prepend your custom tool paths, or add a script under /etc/profile.d/ in your Dockerfile.
The VM needs at least 2 GB RAM. Use a larger machine class and retry.
Fetch a fresh dashboard link and approve the browser device:
More detail: Dashboard, Devices.
Reset gateway mode and bind: