OpenClaw

OpenClaw is an open-source agent runtime with gateway, browser, and memory tooling. The Docker Compose profile starts OpenClaw alongside the LiteLLM Agent Platform and registers local-openclaw automatically.

Prerequisites

Docker Desktop installed and running
LiteLLM Agent Platform repo cloned

1. Start the stack

docker compose --profile openclaw up

This starts:

The LiteLLM Agent Platform web/API service
A Postgres database
The OpenClaw runtime bridge
An OpenClaw Gateway configured to call the LAP gateway for model inference
Registers local-openclaw in the UI automatically

Open http://localhost:4000 and sign in with your master key (sk-local by default).

2. Add model provider credentials

In Settings → Credentials, add a model provider API key. OpenClaw routes model calls through your LiteLLM gateway, so provider keys stay in LAP.

3. Create an agent

In the UI, click New Agent, choose local-openclaw as the runtime, select a model, and optionally set a system prompt. Or via the API:

curl -X POST http://localhost:4000/api/agents \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-local" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "my-openclaw-agent",
    "owner_id": "local-user",
    "runtime": "local-openclaw",
    "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "system": "You are concise. Reply plainly."
  }'

4. Run your agent

Select your agent in the UI and start a session. The bridge exposes OpenClaw through the same Anthropic Managed Agents-compatible event stream as the other template runtimes. Or via the API:

# Start and run a session
SESSION=$(curl -s -X POST http://localhost:4000/session \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-local" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "runtime": "local-openclaw",
    "agent_id": "<agent-id>",
    "prompt": "Check browser and memory readiness, then reply in one sentence."
  }' | jq -r .id)

# Stream the response
curl -N "http://localhost:4000/v1/sessions/$SESSION/events/stream" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk-local"

Stop the stack

docker compose --profile openclaw down

Hosted or custom bridge

Use the same OpenClaw bridge when OpenClaw runs outside the local Compose stack, for example on Render or another container host. Deploy templates/openclaw as a web service and point it at your LiteLLM Agent Platform gateway:

LITELLM_BASE_URL=https://lap.example.com/v1
LITELLM_API_KEY=sk-lap-api-key
RUNTIME_API_KEY=sk-openclaw-runtime-key
OPENCLAW_GATEWAY_TOKEN=sk-openclaw-gateway-token
OPENCLAW_AGENT_MODEL=litellm/claude-sonnet-4-6

Attach persistent storage for /data if you want bridge agent and session state to survive restarts. Then register the bridge as a custom runtime harness. Use the bridge root URL as api_base, not its /v1 OpenClaw Gateway URL:

curl -X POST "$LAP_URL/api/runtime-harnesses" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LAP_MASTER_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "alias": "render-openclaw",
    "api_spec": "claude_managed_agents",
    "api_base": "https://<your-openclaw-bridge>.onrender.com",
    "api_key": "<shared-runtime-key>"
  }'

The alias becomes the runtime ID for agents and sessions. Create agents with "runtime": "render-openclaw" and LAP will drive OpenClaw through the existing Claude Managed Agents-compatible event stream.

Configuration

OpenClaw runtime configuration lives in the compose.yaml openclaw service block and templates/openclaw. By default, the template:

Installs Chromium and starts OpenClaw browser tooling during container boot
Uses FTS-only memory search so no embedding API key is required
Seeds a small runtime memory file and indexes it on boot
Sends OpenClaw model calls to the LAP gateway through the generated litellm provider config

Override the default backend model with OPENCLAW_AGENT_MODEL, and override the registered model list with OPENCLAW_MODELS.

Get started

Runtimes

Channels

Learn

Engineering

Prerequisites

1. Start the stack

2. Add model provider credentials

3. Create an agent

4. Run your agent

Stop the stack

Hosted or custom bridge

Configuration

​Prerequisites

​1. Start the stack

​2. Add model provider credentials

​3. Create an agent

​4. Run your agent

​Stop the stack

​Hosted or custom bridge

​Configuration

Prerequisites

1. Start the stack

2. Add model provider credentials

3. Create an agent

4. Run your agent

Stop the stack

Hosted or custom bridge

Configuration