Deploy and Host OpenClaw on Railway

OpenClaw is an open-source personal AI agent gateway: one always-on server that connects your chat apps, models and tools, with a web Control UI to manage it. This template runs the official OpenClaw image with a gateway token already generated, so the Control UI is reachable and authenticated the moment the deploy finishes.

About Hosting OpenClaw

This template deploys the official ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw image, pinned by digest, as a single service with a volume at /data. OpenClaw's state directory (/data/.openclaw) lives on that volume, so configuration, sessions and credentials survive redeploys. On first boot the start command seeds the gateway config it needs to work behind Railway's proxy (trusted proxy range and the allowed Control UI origin) and then starts the gateway on Railway's injected port. Without that seed the gateway answers 403 proxy_attribution_required to every request. The OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN variable is generated per deploy; use it to sign in to the Control UI and to call the gateway API.

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.

Works on first boot — proxy trust and allowed origin are pre-seeded; no 403 on the public URL.
Token already set — OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN is auto-generated, not left blank.
Data survives redeploys — state is on a volume at /data.
Nothing to fill in — the deploy form is empty.

Common Use Cases

Personal assistant — one always-on agent reachable from your chat apps.
Tool and automation hub — run agent tools through the authenticated gateway API.
Private AI front door — keep model keys and conversations on infrastructure you control.

Dependencies for OpenClaw Hosting

A volume mounted at /data (included in this template).
An API key for the model provider you want to use, added in the Control UI after sign-in.

Deployment Dependencies

OpenClaw — upstream project
OpenClaw image on GHCR — the image this template deploys

Implementation Details

Open the service's public domain and sign in with the value of OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN (service Variables tab). Call the gateway API with the same token:

curl -X POST https:///tools/invoke \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"tool":"sessions_list","args":{}}'