How to install Clawdbot on DigitalOcean

How to Install ClawdBot on DigitalOcean (Step-by-Step Guide)

Welcome to another tutorial on the highly popular ClawdBot. In this tutorial I am going to install Clawdbot on the Digital Ocean hosting services. Installation process is easy and it will take around 20-30 minutes to complete. So, Lets get started with the installation of Clawdbot on DigitalOcean hosting server vps account.

ClawdBot is quickly becoming one of the most powerful self-hosted AI personal assistants in 2026. While many users run it locally, installing ClawdBot on DigitalOcean gives you a huge advantage - 24/7 availability, better performance, and full control over your data. This installation is on the public cloud and it will run 24*7 for you and perform work.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to install ClawdBot on a DigitalOcean Droplet, configure it properly, and access it securely from anywhere.

Why Install ClawdBot on DigitalOcean?

Before jumping into installation, let’s understand why DigitalOcean is a great choice:

• ☁️ Always-on AI assistant (no need to keep your PC running)
   
  
• 🔐 Full data ownership (self-hosted, privacy-first)
   
  
• 🚀 Scalable performance (upgrade CPU/RAM anytime)
   
  
• 🌍 Access from anywhere
   
• 💸 Affordable pricing compared to managed AI platforms
  
  

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

• A DigitalOcean account
   
• Basic knowledge of Linux commands
   
• An SSH client (Terminal, PowerShell, or PuTTY)
   
  
• A GitHub account (for ClawdBot source code)
   
  
• An OpenAI / local LLM API key (optional, depending on setup)
  
  

Step 1: Create a DigitalOcean Droplet

1. Log in to DigitalOcean Dashboard
    
2. Click Create → Droplets
    
3. Choose the following configuration:
   
   

Recommended Droplet Settings

Click Create Droplet and wait for provisioning.

Step 2: Connect to Your Droplet via SSH

Once the droplet is ready, connect using SSH:

ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP

If you're on Windows (PowerShell):

ssh root@YOUR_DROPLET_IP

Step 3: Update System Packages

Always start with updating your server:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Install essential tools:

apt install -y git curl unzip build-essential

4. Create sudo user

Next you have to add a sudo user to run the services.

adduser clawd && usermod -aG sudo clawd && su - clawd

5. Install Clawdbot

Now we can proceed with the installation of Clawdbot. Run the following command:

curl -fsSL https://clawd.bot/install.sh | bash

Then run exec bash

6. Configure API keys

clawdbot setup --wizard

7. Start gateway

Next step is to start the gateway. To start gateway run following command:

clawdbot gateway --bind lan --port 18789

8. SSH tunnel to access UI

Now you can setup ssh tunnel on your desktop to access the UI.

ssh -L 18789:127.0.0.1:18789 clawd@YOUR_IP

Open http://127.0.0.1:18789

Now you should be able to access ui of ClawdBot.

Here is the screenshot of the UI:

In this tutorial we have learned to install ClawdBot on the Digital Ocean hosting vps server.

Related Tutorials:

• How to Set Up Clawdbot: A Step-by-Step Guide to Your Own Personal AI Assistant (2026 Edition)