Deploy OpenClaw

OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent platform that runs locally and executes tasks through a persistent Gateway service. The Gateway connects communication channels, tools, and AI models, allowing the agent to receive messages, perform actions, and automate workflows. Administrators configure and manage the system through a CLI onboarding wizard and a local web dashboard. Our Quick Deploy App allows you to connect to the OpenClaw dashboard via a secure HTTPS endpoint protected by HTPASSWD.

This Quick Deploy App creates an OpenClaw limited user on the system called openclaw.

Deploying a Quick Deploy App

Akamai Quick Deploy Apps let you easily deploy software on a Compute Instance using Cloud Manager. See Get Started with Quick Deploy Apps for complete steps.

1. Log in to Cloud Manager and select the Quick Deploy Apps link from the left navigation menu. This displays the Linode Create page with the Marketplace tab pre-selected.

2. Under the Select App section, select the app you would like to deploy.

3. Complete the form by following the steps and advice within the Creating a Compute Instance guide. Depending on the Quick Deploy App you selected, there may be additional configuration options available. See the Configuration Options section below for compatible distributions, recommended plans, and any additional configuration options available for this Quick Deploy App.

4. Click the Create Linode button. Once the Compute Instance has been provisioned and has fully powered on, wait for the software installation to complete. If the instance is powered off or restarted before this time, the software installation will likely fail.

To verify that the app has been fully installed, see Get Started with Akamai Quick Deploy Apps > Verify Installation. Once installed, follow the instructions within the Getting Started After Deployment section to access the application and start using it.

Configuration Options

• Supported distributions: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
• Recommended plan: All plan types and sizes can be used.

OpenClaw Options

• Email address (required): Enter the email address you want to use for generating the SSL certificates via Let’s Encrypt.

Limited Sudo User

You need to fill out the following fields to automatically create a limited sudo user, with a strong generated password for your new Compute Instance. This account will be assigned to the sudo group, which provides elevated permissions when running commands with the sudo prefix.

• Limited sudo user: Enter your preferred username for the limited user. No Capital Letters, Spaces, or Special Characters.

  Locating The Generated Sudo Password

  A password is generated for the limited user and stored in a .credentials file in their home directory, along with application specific passwords. This can be viewed by running: cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials

  For best results, add an account SSH key for the Cloud Manager user that is deploying the instance, and select that user as an authorized_user in the API or by selecting that option in Cloud Manager. Their SSH pubkey will be assigned to both root and the limited user.

• Disable root access over SSH: To block the root user from logging in over SSH, select Yes. You can still switch to the root user once logged in, and you can also log in as root through Lish.

  Accessing The Instance Without SSH

  If you disable root access for your deployment and do not provide a valid Account SSH Key assigned to the authorized_user, you will need to login as the root user via the Lish console and run cat /home/$USERNAME/.credentials to view the generated password for the limited user.

Custom Domain (Optional)

If you wish to automatically configure a custom domain, you first need to configure your domain to use Linode’s name servers. This is typically accomplished directly through your registrar. See Use Linode’s Name Servers with Your Domain. Once that is finished, you can fill out the following fields for the Quick Deploy App:

• Linode API Token: If you wish to use the Linode’s DNS Manager to manage DNS records for your custom domain, create a Linode API Personal Access Token on your account with Read/Write access to Domains. If this is provided along with the subdomain and domain fields (outlined below), the installation attempts to create DNS records via the Linode API. See Get an API Access Token. If you do not provide this field, you need to manually configure your DNS records through your DNS provider and point them to the IP address of the new instance.
• Subdomain: The subdomain you wish to use, such as www for www.example.com.
• Domain: The domain name you wish to use, such as example.com.

Getting Started after Deployment

Performing OpenClaw Onboard

Once the deployment is complete, openclaw will be installed on the instance but will not be running. Before you can start using OpenClaw, you need to go through the onboarding wizard. This Quick Deploy App triggers the onboarding for you when you log in as root.

1. Log into the instance.

   If you disabled root login to the server during the setup of the OpenClaw app, you need to log into the server as the sudo user.

   ssh admin@YOUR_INSTANCE_IP

   Replace YOUR_INSTANCE_IP with the IP address of your Linode instance and admin with the sudo user you created.

2. Escalate privileges to root.

   Once you’ve logged in, note the motd:

   *********************************************************
   Akamai Connected Cloud OpenClaw Quick Deploy App
   Dashboard URL: https://172-235-150-14.ip.linodeusercontent.com
   Credentials File: /home/admin/.credentials
   Documentation: https://www.linode.com/docs/marketplace-docs/guides/openclaw/
   *********************************************************

   Copy the sudo password from ~/.credentials.txt and enter the following command from the terminal:

   sudo su -

   When prompted for the password, paste the sudo password you got from the ~/.credentials.txt file. When you log in as root, note the following message about the onboarding wizard:

   If you are ready to perform the onboarding, enter y and it will take you to OpenClaw’s onboarding wizard where you can complete the setup.

   Once onboarding is complete, the onboarding script is removed.

Confirm Gateway Status

At this time, you’ve configured OpenClaw on the server. To verify the gateway is running, you need to become the openclaw user. Enter the following from the terminal as the root user:

su - openclaw

To view the gateway status, enter the following as the openclaw user:

openclaw gateway status

That should yield the following output:

Dashboard Access

Once the onboarding is complete and the gateway is running, you can access the Dashboard from the domain you’ve configured in the initial deployment of the app. If you did not enter a domain name in from the start, the dashboard is accessible using the instance’s rDNS value. You can view the rDNS value from the Linode’s Network tab. This example uses the domain 172-233-177-79.ip.linodeusercontent.com.

To authenticate to the dashboard you need to provide two methods of authentication:

1. Dashboard token: If you didn’t get a dashboard token during the onboarding steps, follow these steps.

   1. Become the openclaw user: su - openclaw.

   2. Run the following: openclaw dashboard --no-open

   3. Get the entire token value #token=a0764fb from the Dashboard URL: link.

2. Nginx basic auth: Get the Htpassword password and Htpasswd username user from /home/admin.credentials.

Now you have everything you need to access the dashboard. For example:

https://172-233-177-79.ip.linodeusercontent.com/#token=a0764fb

When you access the web page, you will be prompted for the HTPASSWD details.

Enter the Username as openclaw and the Password from the /home/admin.credentials file.

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• OpenClaw
• OpenClaw Documentation