How to Deploy OpenClaw to a Remote VM (Step-by-Step for Beginners)

MyClaw handles all of this for you in 60 seconds. But if you're the kind of person who wants to understand how things work under the hood — or if you just want to self-host — this guide walks you through deploying OpenClaw manually on a remote VM, from zero to a working Telegram AI agent.

Here's the overall deployment flow:

Prerequisites — what you'll need

Before we start, make sure you have these ready:

• A Hetzner Cloud account — sign up at hetzner.com/cloud. You can use any cloud provider (DigitalOcean, Vultr, etc.), but we'll use Hetzner in this guide since that's what MyClaw uses.
• An Anthropic API key — get one at console.anthropic.com. This powers the AI brain of your agent.
• A Telegram Bot Token — we'll create this together in the guide using @BotFather.
• A terminal — Terminal on macOS, PowerShell on Windows, or any SSH client.

Step 1: Create a cloud server

Log in to the Hetzner Cloud Console and create a new project (e.g., "My AI Agent"). Then click "Add Server" and configure:

• Location: Falkenstein or Helsinki (EU)
• Image: Ubuntu 22.04
• Type: CX22 (2 vCPUs, 4GB RAM) — this is plenty for a single agent
• SSH Key: Add your public key (or use a password, but SSH keys are more secure)

Click "Create & Buy Now". Your server will be ready in about 30 seconds. Copy the IP address — you'll need it next.

Step 2: Connect via SSH

Open your terminal and connect to your server:

ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP

Replace YOUR_SERVER_IP with the IP address from Hetzner. Type "yes" when it asks about the fingerprint. You're now inside your server.

Step 3: Install Docker

OpenClaw runs inside Docker containers, so we need to install Docker first. Run these commands one by one:

# Update the system
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y

# Install Docker
apt-get install -y docker.io docker-compose-v2

# Verify Docker is running
docker --version

You should see something like Docker version 24.x.x. Docker is ready.

Step 4: Get your API keys

Anthropic API key

Go to console.anthropic.com/settings/keys, click "Create Key", give it a name like "openclaw-agent", and copy the key. It starts with sk-ant-.

Telegram Bot Token

Open Telegram and search for @BotFather. Send /newbot, follow the prompts to name your bot, and copy the token it gives you. It looks like 7123456789:AAH....

Here's how the components connect:

Step 5: Configure OpenClaw

Create the directory structure and config files:

# Create the OpenClaw directories
mkdir -p /opt/openclaw/data/{workspace,credentials,agents/main/sessions,identity,canvas,cron}

# Create the config file
nano /opt/openclaw/data/openclaw.json

Paste this configuration (replace the placeholder values with your actual keys):

{
  "models": {
    "default": "anthropic:claude-sonnet-4-20250514",
    "providers": {
      "anthropic": {
        "apiKey": "sk-ant-YOUR_KEY_HERE"
      }
    }
  },
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "enabled": true,
      "token": "YOUR_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN"
    }
  }
}

Save the file (Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X in nano).

Step 6: Start the containers

Create the Docker Compose file:

nano /opt/openclaw/docker-compose.yml

Paste:

services:
  openclaw:
    image: ghcr.io/openclaw/openclaw:latest
    container_name: openclaw
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - ./data:/app/data
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"

Now start it:

cd /opt/openclaw
docker compose up -d

# Check if it's running
docker compose logs -f

You should see logs showing OpenClaw starting up and connecting to Telegram. Press Ctrl+C to exit the logs (the container keeps running).

Step 7: Chat with your agent on Telegram

Open Telegram, find your bot by the name you gave it in BotFather, and send it a message. It should respond using Claude. Congratulations — you've deployed your own AI agent on a remote server.

What's next?

You now have a basic OpenClaw agent running. Here are some things you might want to do next:

• Add skills — OpenClaw supports installable skills like web scraping, email drafting, YouTube summaries, and more. Check the OpenClaw docs for the full list.
• Set up security — configure a firewall (ufw), enable automatic security updates, and restrict Telegram access to your user ID only.
• Enable HTTPS — if you want a web interface, set up Nginx with Let's Encrypt.
• Monitor uptime — use a free service like UptimeRobot to get alerts if your agent goes down.
• Back up your data — the /opt/openclaw/data directory contains everything. Set up a cron job to back it up regularly.

Or, if all of this sounds like a lot of work — MyClaw does all of it for you. One click, 60 seconds, and your agent is live with security, monitoring, backups, and updates handled automatically.