How do I deploy OpenClaw on Railway?

You can deploy OpenClaw on Railway by clicking the "Deploy Now" button on this page. Railway will automatically set up all the necessary services and configurations for you.

What are the system requirements?

Railway handles all the infrastructure requirements. You only need a web browser to deploy and manage your application.

Is this template free to use?

Yes, this template is free to use within your existing Railway account.

Can I customize this template?

Yes, you can fully customize this template. After deployment, you will have full control of what you've deployed in your Railway project.

How do I get support for this template?

You can get support through our community forum: open-claw-6965f084, or click "Get template help" for this template for more assistance.

Deploy and Host OpenClaw on Railway

OpenClaw is an open-source Personal AI Agent designed to go beyond simple chat. It is an "agentic" assistant capable of executing real-world tasks like managing files, running terminal commands, and connecting to third-party APIs (Telegram/WhatsApp), giving you complete control over your data and digital automation in a private environment.

About Hosting OpenClaw

Hosting OpenClaw on Railway involves deploying a lightweight yet powerful Docker container that manages the gateway and a web-based dashboard. This process requires configuring persistent storage (Railway Volumes) to ensure that your agent's long-term memory, custom "skills," and configuration settings are preserved across deployments. By hosting on Railway, your AI agent gains 24/7 server-side stability, allowing it to monitor tasks or respond to messages in real-time without needing your local machine to stay online, all within a secure and scalable infrastructure.

Common Use Cases

Automated Social Media Assistant: Integrate with Telegram, Discord, or WhatsApp to handle messages and community interactions automatically.
Personal DevOps & Monitoring: Execute Python or JavaScript scripts to monitor middleware logs, check server status, or automate routine backups.
Workflow Automation: Connect to external APIs like Google Calendar or Notion to schedule tasks and organize personal notes via natural language.

Dependencies for OpenClaw Hosting

LLM API Key: Requires an API key from Anthropic (Claude) or OpenAI (GPT) to serve as the agent's brain.
Persistent Volume: A mounted storage path (e.g., /data) to save the agent's state, memory, and installed skills.

Deployment Dependencies

Railway Volumes (persistent storage): https://docs.railway.com/guides/volumes
Public Networking (HTTP proxy): https://docs.railway.com/guides/public-networking
Railway Variables (secrets/config): https://docs.railway.com/guides/variables
OpenClaw (Clawdbot) docs (providers/channels): https://docs.molt.bot/providers

Implementation Details

The template runs a wrapper service on Railway’s $PORT and spawns an internal OpenClaw (Clawdbot) gateway on 127.0.0.1:18789, proxying HTTP + WebSockets to it.

Configuration is handled through an in-browser Setup Wizard at /setup, which executes the same onboarding commands used in the terminal. The service writes state data to /data/.openclaw and workspace files to /data/workspace for portability and easy backups. You can monitor connectivity via /healthz, and the interface allows for direct backup downloads or importing existing .tar.gz backups to restore your environment into /data.

Why Deploy OpenClaw on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying OpenClaw on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.