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A minimal starting point for running OpenClaw on Kubernetes, not a production-ready deployment. It covers the core resources and is meant to be adapted to your environment.

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Why not Helm

OpenClaw is a single container with some config files. The interesting customization is in agent content (Markdown files, skills, config overrides), not infrastructure templating. Kustomize handles overlays without the overhead of a Helm chart. Layer a Helm chart on top of these manifests if your deployment grows more complex.

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What you need

  • A running Kubernetes cluster (AKS, EKS, GKE, k3s, kind, OpenShift, etc.)
  • kubectl connected to your cluster
  • An API key for at least one model provider

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Quick start

deploy.sh creates token auth by default. Retrieve the generated gateway token for the Control UI:
For local debugging, ./scripts/k8s/deploy.sh --show-token prints the token after deploy.

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Local testing with Kind

If you do not have a cluster, create one locally with Kind:
Then deploy as usual with ./scripts/k8s/deploy.sh.

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Step by step

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1) Deploy

Option A: API key in environment (one step)
The script creates a Kubernetes Secret with the API key and an auto-generated gateway token, then deploys. If the Secret already exists, it preserves the current gateway token and any provider keys not being changed. Option B: create the secret separately
Add --show-token to either command to print the token to stdout for local testing.

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2) Access the gateway

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What gets deployed

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Customization

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Agent instructions

Edit the AGENTS.md in scripts/k8s/manifests/configmap.yaml and redeploy:

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Gateway config

Edit openclaw.json in scripts/k8s/manifests/configmap.yaml. See Gateway configuration for the full reference.

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Add providers

Re-run with additional keys exported:
Existing provider keys stay in the Secret unless you overwrite them. Or patch the Secret directly:

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Custom namespace

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Custom image

Edit the image field in scripts/k8s/manifests/deployment.yaml:

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Expose beyond port-forward

The default manifests bind the gateway to loopback inside the pod. That works with kubectl port-forward, but not with a Kubernetes Service or Ingress path that needs to reach the pod IP directly. To expose the gateway through an Ingress or load balancer:
  • Change the gateway bind in scripts/k8s/manifests/configmap.yaml from loopback to a non-loopback bind that matches your deployment model.
  • Keep gateway auth enabled and use a proper TLS-terminated entrypoint.
  • Configure the Control UI for remote access using the supported web security model (for example HTTPS/Tailscale Serve and explicit allowed origins when needed).

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Re-deploy

This applies all manifests and restarts the pod to pick up any config or secret changes.

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Teardown

This deletes the namespace and all resources in it, including the PVC.

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Architecture notes

  • The gateway binds to loopback inside the pod by default, so the included setup is for kubectl port-forward.
  • No cluster-scoped resources; everything lives in a single namespace.
  • Security hardening: readOnlyRootFilesystem, drop: ALL capabilities, non-root user (UID 1000).
  • The default config keeps the Control UI on the safer local-access path: loopback bind plus kubectl port-forward to http://127.0.0.1:18789.
  • If you move beyond localhost access, use the supported remote model: HTTPS/Tailscale plus the appropriate gateway bind and Control UI origin settings.
  • Secrets are generated in a temp directory and applied directly to the cluster; no secret material is written to the repo checkout.

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File structure