OpenClaw on DigitalOcean

About

A complete setup for OpenClaw on a DigitalOcean droplet. Includes remote installation, swap optimization, and guided setup for WhatsApp (with dedicated number), Telegram bot, and Gmail Pub/Sub integration.

What It Does

Deploys OpenClaw on a DigitalOcean droplet ($6/month) from a Windows PowerShell terminal. The installer SSHs into the droplet, installs OpenClaw with systemd persistence, and walks you through setting up Gmail (via Pub/Sub webhooks) and Google Drive/Docs (read and write access via OAuth). After setup, your AI assistant can send and receive email and read/write Google Docs.

Use Cases

• Personal AI assistant with Gmail and Google Drive access, deployed from Windows
• Always-on AI that runs 24/7 on a cheap VPS
• Private alternative to cloud AI assistants with full Google Workspace integration

What the Installer Does

For transparency, here is exactly what the installer does:

1. 1

   Create or select droplet

   Optionally create a new droplet via doctl, or enter existing droplet IP

2. 2

   Connect to droplet via SSH

   Tests SSH connection and uploads setup script

3. 3

   Update system and add swap

   Runs apt upgrade and creates 2GB swap for 1GB droplets

4. 4

   Install Node.js 22 and dependencies

   NodeSource, gcloud CLI, Tailscale

5. 5

   Run OpenClaw installer

   Downloads and runs the official OpenClaw installer

6. 6

   Run onboarding wizard

   Interactive setup for daemon, API keys, and initial config

7. 7

   Guide Gmail Pub/Sub setup

   Walk through GCP project, topic, and webhook configuration for sending and receiving email

8. 8

   Authorize Google Docs and Drive

   Enables Docs and Drive APIs and expands OAuth scopes so the assistant can read/write Google Docs

Verifying It Works

After installation, follow these steps to confirm everything is working:

1. 1

   Check OpenClaw is running

   Expected: openclaw status shows gateway running with systemd

2. 2

   Access Control UI via SSH tunnel

   Expected: ssh -L 18789:localhost:18789 root@DROPLET_IP then open http://localhost:18789

3. 3

   Send an email to your assistant's Gmail

   Expected: Email triggers Pub/Sub webhook, assistant processes and can respond

4. 4

   Ask the assistant to read a Google Doc

   Expected: Assistant can access and summarize Google Docs the authenticated account has access to

5. 5

   Ask the assistant to list files in Google Drive

   Expected: Assistant can list and search files in Google Drive