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RemoteClaw

DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean

Run a persistent RemoteClaw Gateway on a DigitalOcean Droplet.

Prerequisites

  • DigitalOcean account (signup)
  • SSH key pair (or willingness to use password auth)
  • About 20 minutes

Setup

Use a clean base image (Ubuntu 24.04 LTS). Avoid third-party Marketplace 1-click images unless you have reviewed their startup scripts and firewall defaults. 
1. Log into [DigitalOcean](https://cloud.digitalocean.com/).
2. Click **Create > Droplets**.
3. Choose:
   - **Region:** Closest to you
   - **Image:** Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
   - **Size:** Basic, Regular, 1 vCPU / 1 GB RAM / 25 GB SSD
   - **Authentication:** SSH key (recommended) or password
4. Click **Create Droplet** and note the IP address.
 ```bash ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP 
apt update && apt upgrade -y


# Install Node.js 24
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_24.x | bash -
apt install -y nodejs


# Install RemoteClaw
curl -fsSL https://remoteclaw.org/install.sh | bash
remoteclaw --version
```
 ```bash remoteclaw onboard --install-daemon ``` 
The wizard walks you through model auth, channel setup, gateway token generation, and daemon installation (systemd).
 ```bash fallocate -l 2G /swapfile chmod 600 /swapfile mkswap /swapfile swapon /swapfile echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' >> /etc/fstab ``` ```bash remoteclaw status systemctl --user status remoteclaw-gateway.service journalctl --user -u remoteclaw-gateway.service -f ``` The gateway binds to loopback by default. Pick one of these options. 
**Option A: SSH tunnel (simplest)**


```bash
# From your local machine
ssh -L 18789:localhost:18789 root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP
```


Then open `http://localhost:18789`.


**Option B: Tailscale Serve**


```bash
curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
tailscale up
remoteclaw config set gateway.tailscale.mode serve
remoteclaw gateway restart
```


Then open `https://<magicdns>/` from any device on your tailnet.


**Option C: Tailnet bind (no Serve)**


```bash
remoteclaw config set gateway.bind tailnet
remoteclaw gateway restart
```


Then open `http://<tailscale-ip>:18789` (token required).

Troubleshooting

Gateway will not start — Run remoteclaw doctor --non-interactive and check logs with journalctl --user -u remoteclaw-gateway.service -n 50.

Port already in use — Run lsof -i :18789 to find the process, then stop it.

Out of memory — Verify swap is active with free -h. If still hitting OOM, use API-based models (Claude, GPT) rather than local models, or upgrade to a 2 GB Droplet.

Next steps