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OpenClaw on DigitalOcean

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Goal

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Cost Comparison (2026)

• DigitalOcean: simplest UX + predictable setup (this guide)
• Hetzner: good price/perf (see Hetzner guide)
• Oracle Cloud: can be $0/month, but is more finicky and ARM-only (see Oracle guide)

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Prerequisites

• DigitalOcean account (signup with $200 free credit)
• SSH key pair (or willingness to use password auth)
• ~20 minutes

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1) Create a Droplet

1. Log into DigitalOcean
2. Click Create → Droplets
3. Choose:
   • Region: Closest to you (or your users)
   • Image: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
   • Size: Basic → Regular → $6/mo (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 25GB SSD)
   • Authentication: SSH key (recommended) or password
4. Click Create Droplet
5. Note the IP address

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2) Connect via SSH

ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP

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3) Install OpenClaw

# Update system
apt update && apt upgrade -y

# Install Node.js 22
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_22.x | bash -
apt install -y nodejs

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

# Verify
openclaw --version

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4) Run Onboarding

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

• Model auth (API keys or OAuth)
• Channel setup (Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord, etc.)
• Gateway token (auto-generated)
• Daemon installation (systemd)

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5) Verify the Gateway

# Check status
openclaw status

# Check service
systemctl --user status openclaw-gateway.service

# View logs
journalctl --user -u openclaw-gateway.service -f

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6) Access the Dashboard

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

# Then open: http://localhost:18789

# On the droplet
curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
tailscale up

# Configure Gateway to use Tailscale Serve
openclaw config set gateway.tailscale.mode serve
openclaw gateway restart

• Serve keeps the Gateway loopback-only and authenticates Control UI/WebSocket traffic via Tailscale identity headers (tokenless auth assumes trusted gateway host; HTTP APIs still require token/password).
• To require token/password instead, set gateway.auth.allowTailscale: false or use gateway.auth.mode: "password".

openclaw config set gateway.bind tailnet
openclaw gateway restart

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7) Connect Your Channels

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Telegram

openclaw pairing list telegram
openclaw pairing approve telegram <CODE>

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WhatsApp

openclaw channels login whatsapp
# Scan QR code

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Optimizations for 1GB RAM

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Add swap (recommended)

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

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Use a lighter model

• Using API-based models (Claude, GPT) instead of local models
• Setting agents.defaults.model.primary to a smaller model

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Monitor memory

free -h
htop

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Persistence

• ~/.openclaw/ — config, credentials, session data
• ~/.openclaw/workspace/ — workspace (SOUL.md, memory, etc.)

tar -czvf openclaw-backup.tar.gz ~/.openclaw ~/.openclaw/workspace

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Oracle Cloud Free Alternative

• Signup can be finicky (retry if it fails)
• ARM architecture — most things work, but some binaries need ARM builds

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Troubleshooting

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Gateway won’t start

openclaw gateway status
openclaw doctor --non-interactive
journalctl -u openclaw --no-pager -n 50

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Port already in use

lsof -i :18789
kill <PID>

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Out of memory

# Check memory
free -h

# Add more swap
# Or upgrade to $12/mo droplet (2GB RAM)

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See Also

• Hetzner guide — cheaper, more powerful
• Docker install — containerized setup
• Tailscale — secure remote access
• Configuration — full config reference