How to Deploy OpenClaw on Railway — Zero-Config Cloud Deployment

Railway is one of the easiest platforms to deploy OpenClaw on — minimal config, good free tier, and excellent developer experience. Here's the full setup from zero to live agent.

Prerequisites

• Railway account (railway.app — free to sign up)
• Railway CLI: npm install -g @railway/cli
• Your OpenClaw workspace ready with SOUL.md configured

Project Structure

Create a repo with this structure:

my-openclaw-agent/
├── railway.toml
├── package.json
└── workspace/
    ├── SOUL.md
    └── AGENTS.md

Your railway.toml:

[build]
builder = "nixpacks"

[deploy]
startCommand = "openclaw gateway start"
restartPolicyType = "always"

Your package.json:

{
  "name": "openclaw-agent",
  "scripts": { "start": "openclaw gateway start" },
  "dependencies": { "openclaw": "latest" }
}

Configure Environment Variables

In Railway dashboard, add:

OPENCLAW_LLM_PROVIDER=anthropic
OPENCLAW_LLM_API_KEY=sk-ant-YOUR_KEY
OPENCLAW_SLACK_TOKEN=xoxb-YOUR_SLACK_TOKEN
OPENCLAW_SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET=YOUR_SIGNING_SECRET
OPENCLAW_WORKSPACE_PATH=/app/workspace

Add Persistent Storage

Critical step — without this, your agent's memory resets on every deploy:

1. Go to your Railway service → Volumes
2. Add volume mounted at /root/.openclaw
3. This persists your workspace across deploys and restarts

Deploy with CLI

railway login
cd my-openclaw-agent
railway init
railway up

# Set environment variables via CLI
railway variables set OPENCLAW_LLM_PROVIDER=anthropic
railway variables set OPENCLAW_LLM_API_KEY=sk-ant-YOUR_KEY

Verify Deployment

railway logs --follow
# Look for: "Gateway running | Connected channels: 1"

Once live, send your agent a test message in Slack. You should get a response within a few seconds.

Auto-Deploy Setup

Connect your Railway project to your GitHub repo. Railway automatically redeploys when you push changes — perfect for keeping your agent's workspace updated from version control.

Monitoring

railway logs           # Recent logs
railway logs --follow  # Stream logs in real time
railway status         # Service health check

Want the full setup guide? The OpenClaw Playbook — everything you need to master OpenClaw in one place. Just $9.99.