⚠️ This project is still under development, use at your own risk ⚠️

AlphaClaw Render Template

Deploy OpenClaw to Render in one click. Get a 24/7 AI agent connected to Telegram or Discord, with your entire config and workspace backed up to GitHub. No CLI required.

The AlphaClaw Advantage

• OpenClaw Gateway running 24/7
• Everything version controlled — config, cron jobs, workspace, and memory backed up to GitHub automatically
• Telegram or Discord configured out of the box (add/remove channels anytime via the UI)
• Google Workspace integration — connect Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Contacts, and Sheets with a few clicks via built-in OAuth flow
• Secrets never committed — raw API keys are replaced with ${ENV_VAR} references before pushing to GitHub
• Prompt hardening — improve change visibility and reduce silent/partial edits so your OpenClaw project stays stable over time
• Setup UI — web-based onboarding, env var management, channel pairing, and gateway control
• Webhook proxy — single exposed port handles both the setup UI and gateway webhooks

Convenient Setup UI

Pricing note

Render uses fixed-price instance tiers, so you pay for reserved capacity regardless of utilization. An instance with enough RAM for OpenClaw (8 GB) runs ~$85/mo on Render's Standard plan. For comparison, the same workload on Railway's usage-based pricing typically costs $5–10/mo because an AI agent mostly idles between messages.

If cost matters more than platform preference, consider the Railway template instead — same one-click deploy, significantly cheaper for bursty workloads.

Deploy

Only one variable is needed at deploy time:

Variable	Required	Description
SETUP_PASSWORD	✅ Required	Password for the setup UI
OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN	🔒 Auto	Auto-generated by Render
PORT	🔒 Auto	Set by Render
WEBHOOK_TOKEN	🔒 Auto	Auto-generated by Render

Click the button to deploy:

Everything else — AI keys, GitHub credentials, channel tokens — is configured through the setup UI after your first login.

First-time setup

After deploying, visit your Render app URL (e.g. https://your-app.onrender.com).

1. Log in with your setup password

2. Complete the welcome screen

The welcome screen walks you through selecting your default model and entering the minimum required variables:

• Model (required): Pulled dynamically from your installed OpenClaw model catalog
• AI Provider auth (required for selected model): Anthropic API Key/Setup Token, OpenAI API Key, Gemini API Key, or OpenAI Codex OAuth
• GitHub: Personal access token + a repo (owner/repo) for backing up your agent's state
• Channel (at least one): Telegram Bot Token or Discord Bot Token

Each field includes instructions and links for how to get the value. Optional fields (like Brave Search API Key) can be filled in later from the Envars tab.

Model catalog note: Models are discovered at runtime via openclaw models list --all --json. This keeps the setup UI aligned with the OpenClaw version installed in your deployment.

Versioning note: Template builds intentionally install openclaw@latest during Docker build, so new Render deploys pick up the newest OpenClaw release automatically.

Codex OAuth note: OpenClaw onboarding runs in non-interactive mode here. For OAuth-only Codex setups, the wrapper uses --auth-choice skip and then applies your selected openai-codex/* model after onboarding.

Click Complete Setup — the server runs onboarding, configures channels, and pushes an initial commit to your GitHub repo. This takes 10–15 seconds.

3. Approve channel pairing

DM your bot on Telegram (or Discord). The setup UI shows "Send a message to your bot on Telegram or Discord" with pending pairings polling every second. Click Approve to connect.

4. Connect Google Workspace (optional)

Once at least one channel is paired, the Google Workspace section appears:

1. Click Set up Google and enter your OAuth client credentials (from Google Cloud Console)
2. Select which permissions to grant
3. Click Sign in with Google to complete the OAuth flow
4. The UI shows API status for each service — click Enable API links for any that need enabling

5. Start chatting

DM your bot again — you're live!

Check your GitHub repo — you should see the initial commit with your agent's full config and workspace.

Memory search: For your agent to semantically search its own memory, you need either OPENAI_API_KEY or GEMINI_API_KEY set. OpenClaw uses these to generate embeddings. Without one, memory recall won't work.

Managing environment variables

The Envars tab lets you:

• View and edit all configured environment variables
• See which vars are set (values masked by default, click Show to reveal)
• Add custom variables — supports pasting multiple KEY=VALUE lines at once
• Delete custom variables with the ✕ button
• Save changes to the persistent /data/.env file
• Apply saved changes to bot runtime by clicking Restart Gateway after saving changes

The Models tab lets you:

• Set your primary model after onboarding
• Manage AI provider keys and Codex OAuth connection

Adding or removing a channel token (e.g. DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN) automatically enables/disables that channel in the OpenClaw config using openclaw channels add/remove.

The server watches /data/.env for changes — including ones written by the OpenClaw agent itself. When the agent needs an API key for a tool, it adds a placeholder to /data/.env and tells you to visit the Envars tab to fill it in.

All configurable variables

Variable	Group	Description
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	AI Provider	From console.anthropic.com (recommended)
ANTHROPIC_TOKEN	AI Provider	From claude setup-token
OPENAI_API_KEY	AI Provider	From platform.openai.com
(no env var) Codex OAuth	AI Provider	Connected via setup UI OAuth flow (ChatGPT subscription/Codex); stored in OpenClaw auth profiles
GEMINI_API_KEY	AI Provider	From aistudio.google.com
GITHUB_TOKEN	GitHub	Personal access token with repo scope from github.com/settings/tokens
GITHUB_WORKSPACE_REPO	GitHub	owner/repo (or https://github.com/owner/repo)
TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN	Channels	From @BotFather · full guide
DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN	Channels	From Developer Portal · full guide
BRAVE_API_KEY	Tools	From brave.com/search/api — free tier available

Architecture

Internet → Render :3000 (Express)
├── /                          → Setup UI (auth required)
├── /setup                     → Setup UI (auth required)
├── /api/status, /api/env ...  → Express handles (setup endpoints)
├── /api/* (everything else)   → proxy → gateway :18789
├── /webhook/*                 → proxy → gateway :18789 (token → Bearer header)
├── /openclaw                  → proxy → gateway :18789 (gateway control UI)
├── /assets/*                  → proxy → gateway :18789 (gateway UI assets)
└── WebSocket upgrade          → proxy → gateway :18789

File layout

/data/.openclaw/           ← Render persistent disk + git repo
├── openclaw.json          ← Config (secrets → ${ENV_VAR} references)
├── skills/                ← Agent skills (control-ui installed on onboard)
├── cron/jobs.json         ← Scheduled tasks
├── .gitignore             ← Excludes keys, logs, caches
├── agents/                ← Session state
└── workspace/             ← Agent workspace
    ├── hooks/bootstrap/   ← Deploy-synced prompt templates
    │   ├── AGENTS.md      ← Injected by bootstrap-extra-files
    │   └── TOOLS.md       ← Injected by bootstrap-extra-files
    ├── HEARTBEAT.md       ← Periodic check instructions
    └── memory/            ← Agent memory

/data/.env                 ← Persistent env vars (managed via Setup UI)

First boot

1. Container starts, installs dependencies
2. Server starts and serves the setup UI at /
3. User completes the welcome screen with required variables
4. Server runs openclaw onboard, configures channels, sanitizes secrets, and enables bootstrap-extra-files with hooks/bootstrap/*
5. Everything committed and pushed to your GitHub repo
6. Gateway starts

Subsequent boots

1. /data/.env is loaded, bootstrap prompt templates are synced into workspace/hooks/bootstrap, and channel config is synced to match available tokens
2. Gateway starts
3. Setup UI available at / for managing env vars, channels, and pairings

Gateway management

• Status: The setup UI checks if the gateway is listening on its port in real-time
• Restart: Click "Restart" in the General tab — runs openclaw gateway install --force then openclaw gateway restart
• Channel sync: Adding/removing channel tokens in the Envars tab automatically runs openclaw channels add/remove

Troubleshooting

Pairing

First time you DM the bot, it sends a pairing request. Approve it in the setup UI. Pairings poll every second when pending — if nothing appears, check that the channel token is correct in the Envars tab.

Bot doesn't respond

• Check deploy logs for errors
• Verify your channel token is correct (Envars tab)
• Try clicking Restart in the General tab
• Check gateway status — should show green "running"

Gateway won't start

• Ensure the Render persistent disk is mounted at /data
• Check that AI provider credentials are valid
• Check deploy logs for the specific error — common cause is a missing env var referenced in openclaw.json

Channel shows "Add token"

The channel's env var is empty or missing. Go to the Envars tab, add the token, and save. The channel will be automatically enabled in the config.

Links

• OpenClaw docs
• OpenClaw GitHub
• Community Discord