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Run a persistent OpenClaw Gateway on Upstash Box, a managed Linux environment with keep-alive lifecycle support. Use an SSH tunnel for dashboard access. Do not expose the Gateway port directly to the public internet.

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Prerequisites

  • Upstash account
  • Keep-alive Upstash Box
  • SSH client on your local machine

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Create a Box

Create a keep-alive Box in the Upstash Console. Note the Box ID (for example right-flamingo-14486) and your Box API key. Upstash maintains its current OpenClaw Box walkthrough at OpenClaw Setup.

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Connect with an SSH tunnel

Forward the OpenClaw dashboard port to your local machine. Use your Box API key as the SSH password when prompted:
The keepalive options reduce idle tunnel drops during onboarding.

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Install OpenClaw

Check the Box’s runtime versions first, because the install command depends on the npm version:
Inside the Box, use the following command on npm 12 or npm 11.16+. On npm 11.15 and earlier, omit --allow-scripts=openclaw.

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Run onboarding

Follow the prompts. Copy the dashboard URL and token when onboarding finishes.

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Start the Gateway

Keep the Gateway on loopback for the SSH tunnel, then start one unsupervised process in the background:
With the SSH tunnel active, open the dashboard URL locally:

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Auto-restart

Set this command as the Box init script so the Gateway restarts when the Box starts:
Onboarding deliberately skips daemon installation in this guide. The Box init script is the single owner of Gateway startup, so two processes do not contend for the same lock and port.

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Troubleshooting

If SSH freezes during onboarding, reconnect with a clean SSH config and keepalives:
This bypasses stale local ~/.ssh/config settings and keeps the tunnel active through idle network periods.

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Next steps