Deploy and Host OpenClaw on Railway

OpenClaw is a self-hosted AI agent that you chat with through Discord, Telegram or Slack. It can run commands, manage files and automate tasks using the model provider of your choice (Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter and others). This template deploys it with a browser-based setup wizard, so no terminal is needed.

About Hosting OpenClaw

The template runs a small wrapper service on Railway's public port. The wrapper serves the setup wizard at /setup and starts the OpenClaw gateway internally. All configuration, credentials and workspace files are stored on a Railway volume at /data, so they survive redeploys.

After deploying:

Open https:///setup
Log in with the SETUP_PASSWORD from the service's Variables tab (username can be anything)
Pick your model provider, paste your API key and your Discord (or Telegram/Slack) bot token
Click Run Setup, then DM your bot and approve the pairing code in /setup

What's included:

OpenClaw pinned to a tested release, so it won't break with upstream changes
Persistent volume at /data for config, credentials and workspace
Auto-generated setup password and gateway token per deployment
Fixed Discord channel setup (uses the current dmPolicy config key)

Common Use Cases

A personal AI assistant you can message from Discord, Telegram or Slack
Hands-on workshops and trainings where every participant deploys their own agent
Experimenting with autonomous agents, skills and tool use in an isolated environment

Dependencies for OpenClaw Hosting

An API key from a supported model provider (e.g. Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter)
A bot token for at least one chat platform (Discord, Telegram or Slack)

Deployment Dependencies

OpenClaw docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai
Discord bot setup: https://docs.openclaw.ai/channels/discord
Original template: https://github.com/arjunkomath/openclaw-railway-template

Implementation Details

For Discord, enable Message Content Intent for your bot in the Discord Developer Portal, otherwise the bot connects but can't read messages.

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.