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OpenClaw Operations

Deployment, configuration, CLI commands, and troubleshooting for OpenClaw.

Installation

Quick Install (macOS/Linux)

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

docker run -d \
  --name openclaw \
  -p 18789:18789 \
  -v ~/.openclaw:/app/data \
  -e ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-... \
  openclaw/openclaw:latest

NemoClaw (Secure Deployment)

# Requires NVIDIA GPU + Docker
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NVIDIA/NemoClaw/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

NemoClaw runs the full stack (OpenClaw + OpenShell + K3s) inside a single Docker container.

Configuration

Core Config File

Location: ~/.openclaw/config.yaml (or $OPENCLAW_HOME/config.yaml)

Key settings:

# LLM provider
model:
  provider: anthropic   # anthropic | openai | deepseek | ollama | nemotron
  model: claude-sonnet-4-20250514
  api_key: ${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}

# Gateway
gateway:
  host: 127.0.0.1
  port: 18789

# Channels
channels:
  telegram:
    enabled: true
    token: ${TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN}
  slack:
    enabled: true
    app_token: ${SLACK_APP_TOKEN}
  discord:
    enabled: true
    bot_token: ${DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN}

# Memory
memory:
  path: ~/.openclaw/memory
  daily_notes: true

Environment Variables

Variable Purpose
OPENCLAW_HOME Base directory (default: ~/.openclaw)
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY Anthropic API key
OPENAI_API_KEY OpenAI API key
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN Telegram bot token
SLACK_APP_TOKEN Slack app-level token
DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN Discord bot token

Commands & Recipes

Core CLI Commands

# Start the agent
openclaw start

# Start with specific channel
openclaw start --channel telegram

# Check status
openclaw status

# View logs
openclaw logs --follow

# Stop the agent
openclaw stop

# Interactive CLI chat
openclaw chat

Skill Management

# List installed skills
openclaw skills list

# Search ClawHub marketplace
openclaw skills search "code review"

# Install a skill from ClawHub
openclaw skills install @author/skill-name

# Remove a skill
openclaw skills remove @author/skill-name

# Create a new skill scaffold
openclaw skills create my-skill

Memory Management

# View current MEMORY.md
openclaw memory show

# Search across all sessions (FTS5)
openclaw memory search "deployment procedure"

# Export session history
openclaw sessions export --format json

# List recent sessions
openclaw sessions list --limit 20

Multi-Agent (claworc)

# Install claworc
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gluk-w/claworc/main/install.sh | bash

# Start the orchestrator dashboard
claworc start

# Add an OpenClaw instance
claworc instance add --name "dev-agent" --config ~/.openclaw/config-dev.yaml

# List managed instances
claworc instance list

# Access web dashboard
# Default: http://localhost:8080

Lobster Workflows

# Run a Lobster pipeline
openclaw lobster run dev-pipeline.lobster

# Resume a paused pipeline
openclaw lobster resume <resumeToken>

# List available pipelines
openclaw lobster list

# Validate a pipeline file
openclaw lobster validate my-pipeline.lobster

Deployment Best Practices

Security First

Always follow these practices given OpenClaw's CVE history.

Network Security

  1. Never expose port 18789 directly to the public internet
  2. Use a reverse proxy (nginx/Caddy) with TLS for remote access
  3. Enable authentication on the Gateway
  4. Use NemoClaw for any confidential workloads

Reverse Proxy (Caddy)

openclaw.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:18789
    basicauth {
        admin $2a$14$...  # bcrypt hash
    }
}

Resource Requirements

Component Minimum Recommended
RAM 512 MB 2 GB
CPU 1 core 2+ cores
Disk 1 GB 10 GB (for session history)
GPU None (cloud inference) NVIDIA GPU (for NemoClaw local inference)

Monitoring

# Check Gateway health
curl http://localhost:18789/health

# View active sessions
openclaw sessions active

# Check API usage
openclaw usage --period month

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Gateway won't start

# Check if port is in use
lsof -i :18789

# Check logs for errors
openclaw logs --level error

# Reset Gateway state
openclaw reset --gateway-only

Channel disconnections

# Test channel connectivity
openclaw channel test telegram

# Reconnect a specific channel
openclaw channel reconnect slack

# View channel status
openclaw channel status

Memory search not working

# Rebuild FTS5 index
openclaw memory reindex

# Verify SQLite database
openclaw memory check

Session crashes (3–4/day average reported)

  • Update to latest version — stability patches are frequent
  • Reduce context window size if running on limited hardware
  • Check for conflicting skills that may cause infinite loops
  • Monitor with openclaw logs --follow during failures

NemoClaw-Specific

# Check OpenShell sandbox status
nemoclaw sandbox status

# View policy enforcement logs
nemoclaw policy logs

# Verify inference routing
nemoclaw inference test --prompt "hello"

# Check K3s cluster health (inside container)
nemoclaw k3s status

Upgrade Procedures

# Self-update
openclaw update

# Update to specific version
openclaw update --version 0.x.x

# Docker upgrade
docker pull openclaw/openclaw:latest
docker stop openclaw && docker rm openclaw
# Re-run docker run command with same volume mounts

Sources