Installing OpenClaw on Azure with Docker: Complete Walkthrough

🐳 Installing OpenClaw with Docker

With your Azure VM ready and Docker installed (see Setting Up an Azure VM for OpenClaw), it’s time to clone the OpenClaw repository and run the Docker setup.

📥 Step 1: Clone the Repository

SSH into your VM and clone:

ssh azureuser@<VM_PUBLIC_IP>
git clone https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw.git
cd openclaw

The repository is quite large — it includes the full source, documentation, extensions, and Docker configuration:

ls -la
# You'll see:
# docker-compose.yml    — Docker Compose configuration
# docker-setup.sh       — Interactive setup script
# .env.example          — Environment variable template
# Dockerfile            — Container build instructions
# src/                  — Source code
# extensions/           — Channel and plugin extensions
# docs/                 — Documentation

🔧 Step 2: Run the Docker Setup Script

The docker-setup.sh script automates the entire onboarding process:

./docker-setup.sh

This script will:

1. Build the Docker image (openclaw:local) from the Dockerfile
2. Create the .env file with generated secrets (gateway token, etc.)
3. Launch the onboarding wizard — an interactive CLI that configures your agent
4. Start the gateway via Docker Compose

The Onboarding Wizard

The wizard walks you through several screens:

Copilot Auth Method

Copilot auth method
● GitHub Copilot (GitHub device login)
○ Copilot Proxy (local)

Choose GitHub Copilot (GitHub device login) — this uses GitHub’s OAuth device flow. The wizard will display a URL and one-time code. Open the URL in your browser, paste the code, and authorize.

Tip: If you’re on a headless Azure VM, copy the URL from the SSH session and open it in your local browser. The wizard will proceed automatically once you authorize.

Channel Selection

Select channel (QuickStart)
│  Discord (Bot API)

Pick your preferred channel. Discord is the most common starting point.

Channel Configuration

For Discord, you’ll be prompted for a bot token. We’ll cover the full Discord setup in a dedicated post.

📄 Step 3: Understand the Docker Compose Setup

After setup, examine the generated configuration:

cat docker-compose.yml

The key services are:

openclaw-gateway

• The main gateway server
• Exposes ports 18789 (Control UI + API) and 18790 (additional services)
• Mounts ~/.openclaw for persistent config/data
• Reads environment variables from .env

openclaw-cli

• A helper container for running CLI commands
• Same image as the gateway
• Used for config set, config get, devices, etc.

Environment Variables (.env)

cat .env

Key variables you’ll see:

Note: The CLAUDE_* warnings you see in Docker Compose output are harmless — they’re optional variables that default to blank strings.

🔍 Step 4: Verify the Container is Running

docker compose ps

You want to see the gateway with status Up:

NAME                          IMAGE            STATUS         PORTS
openclaw-openclaw-gateway-1   openclaw:local   Up 45 seconds  0.0.0.0:18789-18790->18789-18790/tcp

Check the logs

docker compose logs --tail=50 openclaw-gateway

A healthy startup looks like:

[canvas] host mounted at http://0.0.0.0:18789/__openclaw__/canvas/
[heartbeat] started
[health-monitor] started (interval: 300s, grace: 60s)
[gateway] agent model: github-copilot/claude-opus-4.6
[gateway] listening on ws://0.0.0.0:18789 (PID 7)
[hooks:loader] Registered hook: boot-md -> gateway:startup
[hooks] loaded 4 internal hook handlers

If the container is restarting

If you see Restarting (1) instead of Up, check the logs for the error:

docker compose logs --no-color --tail=200 openclaw-gateway

Common issues and their fixes are covered in Troubleshooting OpenClaw Docker Deployments.

🧪 Step 5: Quick Health Check

From the VM, verify the gateway is responding:

curl -I http://127.0.0.1:18789

Expected response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
Referrer-Policy: no-referrer
X-Frame-Options: DENY
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Cache-Control: no-cache

If you get Connection refused, the gateway isn’t running yet — check the logs.

🛠️ Useful Docker Compose Commands

⏭️ Next Steps

Your OpenClaw container is running! Next, we’ll configure the gateway bind and Control UI settings: Configuring OpenClaw Gateway Bind and Control UI.