OpenClaw Railway Template (1‑click deploy)

This repo packages OpenClaw for Railway with a small /setup web wizard so users can deploy and onboard without running any commands.

What you get

• OpenClaw Gateway + Control UI (served at / and /openclaw)
• A friendly Setup Wizard at /setup (protected by a password)
• Persistent state via Railway Volume (so config/credentials/memory survive redeploys)
• One-click Export backup (so users can migrate off Railway later)
• Import backup from /setup (advanced recovery)

How it works (high level)

• The container runs a wrapper web server.
• The wrapper protects /setup with SETUP_PASSWORD.
• During setup, the wrapper runs openclaw onboard --non-interactive ... inside the container, writes state to the volume, and then starts the gateway.
• After setup, / is OpenClaw. The wrapper reverse-proxies all traffic (including WebSockets) to the local gateway process.

Railway deploy instructions (what you’ll publish as a Template)

In Railway Template Composer:

1. Create a new template from this GitHub repo.
2. Add a Volume mounted at /data.
3. Set the following variables:

Required:

• SETUP_PASSWORD — user-provided password to access /setup

Recommended:

• OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR=/data/.openclaw
• OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE_DIR=/data/workspace

Optional:

• OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN — if not set, the wrapper generates one (not ideal). In a template, set it using a generated secret.

Notes:

• This template pins OpenClaw to a known-good version by default via Docker build arg OPENCLAW_GIT_REF.
• Backward compatibility: The wrapper includes a shim for CLAWDBOT_* environment variables (logs a deprecation warning when used). MOLTBOT_* variables are not shimmed — this repo never shipped with MOLTBOT prefixes, so no existing deployments rely on them.

4. Enable Public Networking (HTTP). Railway will assign a domain.
   • This service is configured to listen on port 8080 (including custom domains).
5. Deploy.

Then:

• Visit https://<your-app>.up.railway.app/setup
• Complete setup
• Visit https://<your-app>.up.railway.app/ and /openclaw

Getting chat tokens (so you don’t have to scramble)

Telegram bot token

1. Open Telegram and message @BotFather
2. Run /newbot and follow the prompts
3. BotFather will give you a token that looks like: 123456789:AA...
4. Paste that token into /setup

Discord bot token

1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal: https://discord.com/developers/applications
2. New Application → pick a name
3. Open the Bot tab → Add Bot
4. Copy the Bot Token and paste it into /setup
5. Invite the bot to your server (OAuth2 URL Generator → scopes: bot, applications.commands; then choose permissions)

Local smoke test

docker build -t openclaw-railway-template .

docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 \
  -e PORT=8080 \
  -e SETUP_PASSWORD=test \
  -e OPENCLAW_STATE_DIR=/data/.openclaw \
  -e OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE_DIR=/data/workspace \
  -v $(pwd)/.tmpdata:/data \
  openclaw-railway-template

# open http://localhost:8080/setup (password: test)

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Official template / endorsements

• Officially recommended by OpenClaw: https://docs.openclaw.ai/railway

• Railway announcement (official): Railway tweet announcing 1‑click OpenClaw deploy

  

• Endorsement from Railway CEO: Jake Cooper tweet endorsing the OpenClaw Railway template

  

• Created and maintained by Vignesh N (@vignesh07)

• 1800+ deploys on Railway and counting Link to template on Railway