OpenClaw in Docker. Your AI agent, your server.

Architecture at a glance

• OpenClaw gateway serves the Control UI on port 18789. TLS is terminated upstream by a reverse proxy (Traefik on the RemarkableCloud App Platform).
• No external database. State, memory, and credentials live in the /home/node/.openclaw volume.
• LLM provider. OpenClaw calls an external LLM (OpenAI, Anthropic, and many others); you supply your own API key in the Control UI (or via environment).

Docker Compose walkthrough

The standalone stack is defined in the image’s docker-compose.yml:

name: openclaw
services:
  openclaw:
    image: ${OPENCLAW_IMAGE:-ghcr.io/remarkablecloud/openclaw:2026.9.4-r1}
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports: ["${HTTP_PORT:-18789}:18789"]
    environment:
      OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN: ${OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN:-}
      # OPENAI_API_KEY: ${OPENAI_API_KEY:-}
    volumes:
      - openclaw-data:/home/node/.openclaw
volumes:
  openclaw-data:

Step by step:

1. The token is generated if blank. Leave OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN empty and the image creates a strong one on first run, logs it once, and keeps it in the volume.
2. Only the web port is exposed. ${HTTP_PORT:-18789}:18789 is for local use; in production the proxy connects to port 18789 on the internal network.
3. State lives in a volume. openclaw-data (/home/node/.openclaw) persists the token, config, and memory across restarts and upgrades.

To start it locally:

docker compose up -d

Then read the token from docker compose logs openclaw, open http://localhost:18789, paste the token into Settings, and add your LLM API key.

Environment variable reference

Variable	Required	Value / default	Purpose
OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN	no	(generated)	Shared token for the Control UI. Leave empty to auto-generate on first run (printed once); set it to pin your own.
OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_PORT	no	18789	Gateway / Control UI port.
OPENAI_API_KEY (or other provider key)	no	(unset)	LLM provider key. Can be set here or in the Control UI after connecting.

Hardening notes

• Token-gated by default. The Control UI is started with token auth and a generated token; it is never open.
• Treat the token as admin/shell access. OpenClaw is an autonomous agent that can execute tasks and browse the web from its own container. Anyone with the token controls the agent, so keep it private and rotate it if leaked.
• Digest-pinned base. Each build is auditable and reproducible.
• Healthcheck gates traffic. /health must return success before the platform routes requests.
• Isolated per instance. Each deployment is its own container with its own volume and token.

Backups

The single volume holds all state:

docker run --rm -v openclaw_openclaw-data:/data -v "$PWD":/backup alpine \
  tar czf /backup/openclaw-data.tgz -C /data .

The /home/node/.openclaw volume contains the token, configuration, and agent memory. On the RemarkableCloud App Platform, volume backups follow the platform’s backup schedule.

Upgrades

• New builds ship as new -r tags. Pull the new tag and recreate the container; state persists in the volume:

  docker compose pull openclaw && docker compose up -d openclaw

• Read the changelog. Every build is listed in CHANGELOG.md with the base image digest and any behavior changes.