Hosting

Upstash Box

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.

Prerequisites

Create a keep-alive Box in the Upstash Console. Note the Box ID, such as right-flamingo-14486, and your Box API key.

Upstash maintains its current OpenClaw Box walkthrough at OpenClaw Setup.

Forward the OpenClaw dashboard port to your local machine. Use your Box API key as the SSH password when prompted:

bash

ssh -o ServerAliveInterval=15 -o ServerAliveCountMax=3 -L 18789:127.0.0.1:18789 <box-id>@us-east-1.box.upstash.com

The keepalive options reduce idle tunnel drops during onboarding.

Inside the Box:

bash

sudo npm install -g openclaw

bash

openclaw onboard --install-daemon

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

Configure the Gateway for the Box network and start it in the background:

bash

openclaw config set gateway.bind lannohup openclaw gateway > gateway.log 2>&1 &

With the SSH tunnel active, open the dashboard URL locally:

text

http://127.0.0.1:18789/#token=<your-token>

Set this command as the Box init script so the Gateway restarts when the Box starts:

bash

nohup openclaw gateway > gateway.log 2>&1 &

If SSH freezes during onboarding, reconnect with a clean SSH config and keepalives:

bash

ssh -F /dev/null -o ControlMaster=no -o ServerAliveInterval=15 -o ServerAliveCountMax=3 -L 18789:127.0.0.1:18789 <box-id>@us-east-1.box.upstash.com

This bypasses stale local ~/.ssh/config settings and keeps the tunnel active through idle network periods.

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